Football

Argentina vs Croatia Predicted lineups: Argentina ace set to miss out due to suspension

Argentina vs Croatia Predicted lineups: Argentina ace set to miss out due to suspension

Argentina face Croatia this evening for a place in the 2022 World Cup final on Sunday. The match will see Lionel Messi, who has been on a one-man mission to collect the final piece of his trophy cabinet, go up against fellow Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric. 

Both sides had to come through nervy penalty shootouts in the quarter-finals with Argentina having to gather themselves after squandering a two-goal lead in their clash with the Netherlands. Croatia, on the other hand, scored a late equaliser in extra time against Brazil to force a shootout which they won with a penalty to spare. 

Zlatko Dalić’s side must be well accustomed to the pressures of a penalty shootout by now. Two of their games in the 2018 World Cup, where they reached the final, were decided by spot kicks and their last two games in this year’s edition have also been won via a shootout. 

Team news

Argentina

With yellow cards carrying all the way through to this stage of the tournament, it was inevitable that some players were going to miss out on the semi-finals due to suspension. For Argentina, they are set to be without Sevilla pair Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuna. 

Acuna has started every game for Argentina since the shock defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening game while Montiel has featured three times off the bench. Acuna is set to be replaced in the starting eleven by Nicolas Tagliafico who started their game against Saudi Arabia. Considering the number of bookings they picked up in the game against the Netherlands, Lionel Scaloni will be quite relieved that it’s just the two players who miss this one. 

Aside from that, there are no injury concerns in the Argentinian squad. The key decision for Scaloni relates to whether he sticks with the back five he played against the Netherlands or revert back to a back four. Regardless of the formation, they will be relying on Lionel Messi, again, to provide a moment of magic to send them through to the final. 

acuna

Croatia

Croatia’s quarter-final clash with Brazil was nowhere near as heated as Argentina’s quarter-final. As such, Zlatko Dalićs side only picked up two bookings in 120 minutes of action and neither player were at risk of suspension. 

As well as having no suspended players, Dalic is also working with a fully fit squad after Borna Sosa and Mislav Orsic both recovered from illness. The goalkeeper, back four and midfield three are all expected to remain unchanged with the only question marks relating to the front three. 

Goals have been a problem so Dalic may consider giving a starting birth to Bruno Petkovic after his last gasp equaliser against Brazil. This would mean either Kramaric or Pasalic dropping down to the bench with Perisic likely to play. 

Predicted lineups

Argentina

Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Fernandez, De Paul, Mac Allister, Di Maria, Messi, Alvarez

Croatia

Livakovic, Juranovic, Gvardiol, Lovren, Sosa, Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic, Petkovic, Kramaric, Perisic


Subscribe to Punditfeed on Google News for all the latest updates from the world of sports!