Argentina vs Croatia, December 13: Head-to-Head Statistics, Line-ups, Prediction for the 2022 World Cup Match

As Argentina and Croatia square off in the 2022 World Cup semifinal, both teams are aware that a spot in the championship game is on the line.

Only CONMEBOL rivals Brazil were favored to win the World Cup when Argentina entered the competition. The two South American rivals were seemingly destined to face off in this semifinal, but Croatia ruined the surprise by beating Brazil on spot kicks in the quarters. After narrowly losing to France four years ago,Croatia National Team is seeking to advance to their second consecutive title match. Messi, in his last tournament, will be determined to lead Argentina to the next World Cup Finals in Qatar this year.

• Date-13 December 2022;
• Time- 7pm GMT;
• Venue- Lusail Iconic Stadium;
• Stage- World Cup 2022 semi finals;

Viewers in the Uk can watch the game live on TV via ITVX ,ITV1, STV, and STV Player. In the United States, fans can watch the semis live on Telemundo, Fox Sports,Fubotv, Peacock Premium and Vidgo.

Canadian viewers can catch the match live on tv via RDS and TSN.

A Lionel Messi Masterclass was on the way to leading Argentina to the semis of the World Cup 2022 semifinals but they fell back to penalties

Although Lionel Scaloni's crop will not have an all-South American semis between Argentina and Brazil, the Copa America winners' history in World Cup semi finals provides for some pretty interesting reading.

Argentina has never lost in the World Cup's final four and has advanced to the championship game each time they have reached this stage. Their most recent appearance in this stage came in the 2014 tournament, just before their heartbreaking loss to Germany.

Argentina will be favorites heading to this crunch match vs the Croatians since they have the legend Leo Messi and a talented squad behind which will be favorites heading to the game against the Croatians.

A memorable 3-0 victory over Argentina was achieved by Croatia in Russia, and some players in that team are still present to try to make lightning strike twice in Lusail. Argentina and Croatia have previously faced each other twice in the World Cup group stage, with La Albiceleste winning both times by a score of 1-0 in 1998.

Acunha and Gonzalo Montielz are already suspended for the semis and they will be unavailable. But Argentina have the firepower needed to beat Croatia and get one more chance to win the World Cup Championship at the expense of the Croatians.

Argentina World Cup Form(All Competitions)- (W,L,W,W,W,W)

Croatia Shot stopper Dominic Livakovic has been the hero all through this tournament as they beat favorites Brazil to qualify for the world cup semis. They are now unbeaten in 11 games heading into their encounter against Argentina, and are on the verge of repeating history after Dalic's team miraculously advanced to the 2018 World Cup semis having not won any of their knockout matches in regular time.

Only Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany have ever made back-to-back final appearances, so Croatia would be in very select company if they can advance to the championship game. Dalic's team have scored in all 10 of their World Cup knockout games.

A memorable 3-0 victory over Argentina was achieved by the Checkered Ones in the last world cup, and there are players in that team still present to try to make lightning strike twice in Lusail.

With regard to Croatia, Dalic was fortunate to have a totally healthy team for the quarterfinal victory against Brazil, and now that Borna Sosa and Mislav Orsic are okay, he should be able to train with all of his players prior to the semis.

Croatia National Team Form( All Competitions)- (L,D,W,D,W,W)

Expected Argentina National Team Starting XI vs Croatia( 4-3-3): E. Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico; Fernandez, De Paul, Mac Allister; Di Maria, Messi, Alvarez.

Expected Croatia National Team XI vs Argentina(4-3-3) : Livakovic; Juranovic, Gvardiol, Lovren, Sosa; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Pasalic, Kramaric, Perisic.

Argentina are favorites to proceed to the finals with odds of 1.90 since they have a heavily stacked squad and they can complete the job within the regular time. Croatia are outsiders to win the match at odds of 4.75 at Bet365 if they manage to take it further with their solid defense. Odds on a draw are very much favorable at 3.36 at Coinplay sportsbook since Croatia takes the match all the way to the end. We predict both teams to score a game with odds of 2.10 since both teams will be looking for a win.

Croatia will be looking to get the match to extra time due to their wealth of experience but we believe that Argentina will win the match 2-1 since in their prime form they cannot be beaten, having one of the best players in the world,Leo Messi.