Argentina – Croatia: Messi – Modric clash in the semi-final

ARGENTINA – CROATIA: THE MESSI – MODRIC CLASH IN THE SEMIFINALS

The first two quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup were full of goals, commitment and spectacle last Friday. And these first two games were pushed to the limit, including 2 penalty sessions in each game. First Croatia, winner of Brazil and a few hours later Argentina against the Netherlands of Virgil van Dijk.

A FORMIDABLE EFFICIENCY IN THE PENALTY SHOOT-OUT…

And for good reason, it must be said that we are dealing here with 2 nations specialists in the exercise. Indeed, it was on Friday the 5th penalty shootout won on 6 for Argentina in the World Cup since 1990. On the Croatian side, everything has been in place for 4 years. In fact, since the World Cup in Russia, the Vatreni have gone to the penalty shootout a total of 4 times, with the same amount of success.

A frightening statistic: the Argentinians and Croats are the only ones to succeed in 78% of their attempts in the competition. Only Germany, eliminated from the competition in the group stages, did better with a ratio of 94%. If we look more closely at the Croatian statistics, we can also realize that their opponents have missed 10 penalties out of 18 hit since 2018. In other words, the ball has only a 45% chance of going into the Croatian goal. Be less than one in two! Enough to scare the adversity…

THE MESSI – MODRIC CLASH IN THE SEMI-FINAL

The two nations are now two games away from the end of the 2022 World Cup. For this first semi-final which will be live at 20H on TF1 this Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the Argentinians of Lionel Messi will face the Croatians, vice-champions of the world, of captain Luka Modric. The magnitude of the challenge is great for the 30-year-old Real Madrid midfielder and his teammates. He will have the heavy task of holding a Messi infernal and in excellent form since the beginning of this competition. But the Vatreni can count on their iron defense and why not bring the Albiceleste to the famous penalty shootout … That’s what we will see tonight!