Hysterical and a spike in adrenaline, football is so great. Friday was an unbelievable day in World Cup history with two big epics from Argentina and Croatia. The Croatians will face the Argentines in the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday.
La Albiceleste eventually reached the 2022 Qatar World Cup semi-finals after a 120-minute marathon and a penalty shootout. In spite of Hollands late comeback, the dream is still alive.
On the other side, Croatia had pulled off a memorable upset and won yet another World Cup penalty shootout, kicking Brazil out. A country of four million people and no World Cups just beat a country of 214 million with five World Cups to reach their second straight semi-final in the competition.
This tactical analysis will provide an analysis preview of the first semi-final, illustrating the critical tactical factors of the two nations that may influence the outcome. So, lets dig into the tactics.
News & predicted XI
Argentina will enter the match suffering from the absences of Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel and there are some worries about the fitness of Juventus player Angel Di Maria. Papu Gomez also is a doubt with an ankle knock that kept him out of the quarter-final.
Former Ajax full-back Nicolas Tagliafico should come in on the left side of the defence and Nahuel Molina can continue on the right. Scaloni may opt for a four or five-man backline which could depend on Di Maria’s physical form. Returning to a 4-3-3, with Di Maria and Julian Alvarez flanking Lionel Messi may cost Manchester United star Lisandro Martínez his position.
Zlatko Dalić is expected to minimise the changes against Argentina. Croatia have no injury worries to speak of heading into this match. Borna Sosa has returned to start at left back and Mario Pašalić has returned to the right-wing whilst Andrej Kramarić has been pushed to be the proper number 9. Bruno Petković also may be awarded a starting spot after he scored from the bench late on against Brazil.
Predicted Argentina XI (3-5-2): Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Lisandro Martinez, Nicolás Tagliafico; Enzo Fernández, Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister; Lionel Messi, Julián Álvarez.
Predicted Croatia XI (4-3-3): Dominik Livaković; Josip Juranović, Dejan Lovren, Joško Gvardiol, Borna Sosa; Marcelo Brozović, Mateo Kovačić, Luka Modrić; Ivan Perišić, Mario Pašalić, Andrej Kramarić.
Similar ideas
Whichever structure Lionel Scaloni adopted, his narrow 4-3-3 shape or the pure 3-5-2, there were some ideas Argentina tried from the beginning of the tournament. The team had suffered largely against compact defensive structures, but whether it was available for Messi and his teammates, they showed us their positional play and the intention to search for superiority and create space between the lines on the right half-space with a vertical spin between Messi and de Paul.
This positional play was noticeable against Poland in the group stage and in the quarter-finals match despite the diversity of the oppositions defensive plans.
In the above image, Messi and De Paul had left their positions and moved right to overload which produced a space behind the midfield that could be exploited by a dynamic 1-2 combination or by the dropping-off striker Álvarez who intended to exploit it. Also, the overloading offered Molina room to overlap behind the backline while his marker was busy with Messi.
The image below is also a scene from the Netherlands game. Implementing 3-5-2 gives the right center-back Cristian Romero more involvement in the play. Here, he overloaded the flank, meanwhile, Molina had pushed up.
Furthermore, the vertical rotation between de Paul and Messi offered Messi space to receive to create from a deeper position without any noise. You know almost his traditional long diagonal pass to the LB that overlaps in the blindside of the opponent FB as if he had received the ball here.
