CROATIA - NIGERIA

CROATIA - NIGERIA
Group D, World Cup
Saturday, June 16, 2018, 22:00


An extremely important match for Croatia and Nigeria, as a mistake here may mean an end to the ambitions to exit the group stage. The duel is the last one on Saturday and will be played at the stadium in Kaliningrad.

Croatia should win this match, which will probably lead to a battle for the first place in the group, after the next round of the teams are against Argentina. "The Chess players" have everything they need, especially in the center of the field, to easily "dull" even a team like Nigeria.


Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic are two World Class midfielders and both are in excellent shape, enjoying a good season with their teams - Real Madrid and Barcelona. At the same time, Ivan Perisic and Andrey Kramaric will provide many possibilities for attacking the solitary striker in the face of Mario Manjukic. With formation 4-2-3-1 Zlatko Dalych will easily win this game.

Nigeria has always been an uncomfortable rival, but they have failed to achieve anything memorable. Nowadays, however, the team is completely transformed, especially since the German Gernot Ror has been involved in the game. Nemesa managed to bring the team first in the qualifiers, winning 14 points for six matches against Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia. We can not fail to mention their victory over Argentina in a friendly control of 4-2 last year.

Croatia and Nigeria meet for the first time between themselves. Croatia finished second in their qualifying group, but after Zlatko Dalych's appointment, things seem to come in their place. Dalih, however, does not hide his anxiety before confronting the "super-eagles" who are a regular participant in the World Finals. Gernott Ror quickly managed to discipline the team, and it would be very interesting to see what they would do on Saturday night.

Most analysts do not expect goals in this match, resulting from the fact that the meeting is of great importance to both teams and their performance in the next round. However, we will look for over 2.5 goals because Nigeria has no way of failing to bother Subasic's door.