JAKARTA The Argentine national team will meet Croatia in the semifinals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup in the morning. Here are five interesting facts about the match.
The duel between the two countries will take place at the Lusail Stadium, Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 02.00. Argentina is favored to win, but Croatia can make it difficult for them.
Albicelestes repatriated the Netherlands in the last eight. After the game ended 2-2 in extra time, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez thwarted the executions of Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis to help Argentina win 4-3 on penalties.
Croatia also beat five-time Brazilian champions in the quarter-finals on penalties. They drew 1-1 after extra time before Russia's 2018 World Cup finalists won 4-2 on penalties.
Here are the facts of the Argentine vs Croatia duel:
First: Argentina has never been eliminated from the World Cup in the last four. In total they have been to the final match five times, the last time it happened was in the 2014 tournament in Brazil before a painful defeat to Germany.
From five occasions to the final, Argentina came out as champion twice and was runner-up three times. Apart from Brazil, they were also runners up in 1930 and 1990 (loss from Uruguay and West Germany).
Second: Croatia has reached the 2018 World Cup final without winning their knockout system game in normal time. That history almost happened again for The Checkered Ones, who are now unbeaten in 11 matches ahead of their fight with Argentina.
When in Russia Croatia eliminated Denmark (the last 16) and Russia (quarter-finals) on penalties before locking up England's victory in the semifinals with an extra time of 2 x 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in Qatar they repatriated Japan (the last 16) and Brazil (the last eight) all on penalties. This is what happened four years ago.
Third: Croatia never failed to score in 10 games in the knockout round of the World Cup.
Fourth: Croatia will automatically be on the list of elite teams if they can advance to the final. In World Cup history, only Italy, the Netherlands and Germany have reached the final back-to-back.
Fifth: Argentina and Croatia have met two previous times in the World Cup group stage, with La Albiceleste winning 1-0 in 1998, but The Checkered Ones sealed an impressive 3-0 win over Argentina in the group stage in Russia four years ago.
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