FIFA WORLD CUP 2018
An experience against the youth. This is going to be the final world cup, and maybe even a major tournament for some of the Croatian golden generation players like Modric, Rakitic, Perisic and they are going to try and go out on a high. Meanwhile Nigeria are a young team full of pace, excitement and great future. Two teams who should be able to put on a show for us with their attacking talent and a game that could very well decide who goes through to the next round because these nations are considered as 2nd and 3rd best in the group.
CROATIA
Croatia are coming into this tournament as a dark horse for sure. An incredibly talented nation whose golden generation are starting to age a little bit with Modric, Rakitic, Corluka, Mandzukic already in their 30s and Perisic Vida starting to enter their 30s and know their time is finally coming to an end, especially at the world cup as its unlikely that they will be able to play in it again. Croatia do have a mix of younger players too with the likes of Kovacic, Kramaric, Pjaca, Brozovic emerging as good players still in about their early/mid 20s. Croatia’s midfielder is probably their biggest strength as they have a couple world class midfielders, including the mentioned Modric whos arguably the best midfielder in the world, but we can also look at Perisic, Rakitic who are top notch midfielders and love to create. Kovacic is another top midfielder who is still very young and already plays for Real Madrid. Croatia’s midfield will be creating chances and their striker Mandzukic is also a very reliable option. Croatia’s attack is definitely not a problem for them. However Croatian defence does look a little suspect especially with their Centre Backs because Corluka is getting on now and doesn’t play at the highest leagues and could get done for pace by Nigerian quick players, also Lovren is a little suspect although he can be world class on his day, he can also make mistakes out of nowhere. Shaky CB partnership is the only worry I’d have with Croatia, otherwise they really are an exciting attacking side who will dominate most midfields and score goals and will be a dark horse at the world cup.
Croatia had a tough road to the world cup. They were put in a group with 3 other really good teams in a group of death with Iceland, Ukraine and Turkey. For most of the time Croatia were switching up 1st and 2nd place with Iceland during the qualifying campaign with Ukraine being close behind, but never really got threatened to drop below 2nd until the end of the qualifying campaign. Croatia were at the top and with 2 games to go they managed to blow the 1st game against Finland at home drawing 1-1 which dropped them to 2nd below Iceland, but not only that, they were actually tied up with Ukraine and they had to face each other in Ukraine in the last fixture. However Croatia showed great resilience and held Ukraine off winning 0-2 allowing them to secure the 2nd place and a playoff spot. Croatia done the job in the 1st leg beating Greece 4-1 and all they had to do was just hold them off in the 2nd leg and they did drawing 0-0, winning 4-1 on aggregate to advance to the world cup. It was tough but Croatia overcame adversity.
Croatia played two friendlies before the world cup against some good opposition. Their first was actually against the world cup favorites Brazil which they lost 2-0, but Croatia did play decent football and kept holding Brazil off until Neymar provided some magic and then conceded another one late. In the other game Croatia beat a good Senegal side 2-1 in a game where they were down 0-1, but they showed great resilience again, came back and won the game. I’m not too sure whether those friendlies to tell us anything, but Croatia will be on a high after that good come back win against Senegal. I think they’ll be coming into this game against Nigeria fired up and I’d expect the experience of Croatia to prevail.
NIGERIA
A youthful Nigerian side this year. A team full of interesting talent alongside a couple of veterans. Nigeria’s main stars will be Alex Iwobi and Victor Moses, the two players who play at the highest level in the premier league for Chelsea and Arsenal. Two players who have struggled for their club during the season, but have always seemed to show up for Nigeria. Iwobi is only a 22 year old and has shown some great flashes of brilliance in his young career and will be looking to set the world cup on fire. Another key player for Nigeria will be John Obi Mikel, an experienced veteran who has played many big games in his career including a MOTM performance in a Champions League final in 2012. He’s a defensive midfielder, but when he plays for Nigeria he somehow always find a way to create for others or score goals himself. Mikel is definitely past his prime, but is still going to be a very important player, a veteran that will help out the youngsters when they start to fall apart. Mikel will be an important leader on the pitch. Nigeria’s weakness is going to be consistency. Because they’re a young team they do lack consistency and they’re also quite shaky at the back with a below average keeper which is something Croatia could expose with their talented midfield. Nigeria will need their attack to flow well for them to succeed because it’s highly unlikely their defence will be able to hold off the likes of Croatia or argentina. Nigeria’s inexperience could cost them dearly, but it can also be an advantage when they come up against older and slower sides like they will against Croatia. It’s going to be very interesting to see what Nigeria do because they are an exciting side that plays attacking football.
In the qualifiers, just like every other African side Nigeria had to go through two stages. They first had to face Swaziland over two legs to advance to the final stage and won 2-0 on aggregate after a shocking away draw 0-0, but they’ve done the job at home winning 2-0. Nigeria were put in a group with some really good nations, well known nations that were Cameroon and Algeria were in Nigeria’s group, also Zambia were there. Nigeria didn’t have much trouble advancing from the group finishing at the top by 6 points over 2nd placed Zambia, actually Cameroon and Algeria didn’t threaten Nigeria at all. Nigeria’s most impressive wins would have to be beating Cameroon 4-0 and Algeria 3-1 which shows that Nigeria’s attack really clicked and could be very fun at the tournament too.
Nigeria played four friendlies coming into the tournament. Actually their first two aren’t really relevant because most of their first team didn’t even play against Atletico or Congo so lets get into the other two. Nigeria played England and Czech Republic. Nigeria lost 2-1 to England, but they actually played really well. In the 1st half they were dominated, but in the 2nd half Nigeria responded getting themselves a goal and actually dominating England for the whole half, nearly stealing a draw. That just proves that they’re inconsistent but when they click they can be very dangerous. In the 2nd game they had a shocking 1-0 to Czech Republic who aren’t the same nation they once were, but by following that game I’m not going to put that against Nigeria because the weather conditions were simply shocking and the game had to get stopped for a while. To show how talented Nigeria is, I think we should go back to when they beat Argentina 2-4 after being 2-0 with the same team. They have the potential to steal the show in this game, but the inexperience could trip them over during the opening game and the world cup in general.
What to Expect From The Game
We definitely have to expect a hotly contested match between these nations. They both know overcoming Argentina could be insanely tough and losing this game probably kills the R16 hopes. Can expect Croatia to be on the front foot and dominate the midfield, but we’ve got to expect Nigeria to hit them on the break with their pace and punish the slower Croatian players. Croatia are expected to win this game due to their experienced and having an overall better team, but we can never count out Nigeria because they have the capabilities to expose the lack of pace in Croatia. We can definitely expect goals in this game from both teams so from a neutral point of view, this should be a very entertaining games. Neither team likes to defend which is a great thing. Chances will be made, Goals will be scored. Expect a close game which Croatia should edge because cooler heads should prevail.
ODDS – Decimal (WilliamHill)
Croatia Win – 1.67
Draw – 3.60
Nigeria Win – 5.50
KICK OFF – 16th June 2018 – 8pm UK Time
.png?v=1.014689135)
