Croatia take on the visitors Brazil in the ¼-finals of FIFA World Cup 2022. The match will be played on Friday, December 9th at Education City Stadium (Al Rayyan).
Croatia were able to achieve the main thing – the result. Although it cannot be said that a convincing football was demonstrated, but they are at the level of the top-8 in the world. After the last World Cup, a lot of veterans left, and not for everyone was found an adequate replacement, although some young players, primarily Guardiol. Gradually, the results improved, and if at the Euro everything ended already in the 1/8 finals, then this year the Croats won a difficult group in the League of, where Denmark and France were also, not to mention about Austria. In Qatar, the Croats won only once, and then against Canada, which lost to everyone. In general, this team plays pragmatically, from defense. There were goalless draws against Morocco and Belgium in the group (moreover, they were lucky with the Red Devils, only Lukaku “ruined” a lot of chances), they scored against Japan only in response to a conceded one. And then, as in the last tournament, the team won in a penalty shootout. Livakovic played the series perfectly, reflecting 3 out of 4 penalties.
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Brazil no longer have anyone in the team that would be involved in the previous triumph. An interesting coincidence, but 20 years ago, in 2002, “gold” was taken just in Asia, only not in the Middle East, but in the Far East - in Japan and Korea. After that, there was horror in the form of home 1-7 with the Germans, and besides that, they flew out all the time already in the quarterfinals. In Russia, 4 years ago, Tite was already in a role of a loser - but this mentor kept the job. So far, it looks like this decision was correct. The team in Qatar looks confident. The injury of Neymar did not become a problem, who really returned only to 1/8, and scored the only goal from the penalty spot. There is Richarlison and Vinicius Junior, there is Casemiro, and at the last frontier Alisson is in good shape. Yes, there is already a defeat, but to Cameroon, within the framework of the 3rd round. Prior to this, the Selesao defeated both Serbia and Switzerland. And in the 1/8 finals, in fact, South Korea was completely dismantled in half an hour. Not surprisingly, even the stern mentor danced during the celebration of one of the goals. It seems that the cursed ¼-finals does not seem to scare the Brazilians.
All that Croatia did was to draw the first head-to-head match, and that friendly one. After that, the Brazilians won all 3 fights, including 2 in the world championships. The “Checkered” is unlikely to be able to survive in the quarterfinals – here the opponents will not be as complacent as Lukaku or the Japanese. We recommend betting on the fact that “pentacampeons” will be able to win with a handicap of “-1.5 goals scored”.
Prediction for the match: Brazil to win with -1.5 handicap.
