Argentina vs Croatia Prediction | World Cup 2022 ‣ Betiton™

At the start of this competition 32 teams set out to try and claim World Cup glory, and now only four teams are still in with a shot of completing their dream. The remaining four nations know that just two more wins will see them lift the prestigious Jules Rimet trophy. The first semi-final of the 2022 Qatar World Cup will see Argentina take on Croatia for a place in the final. This match will take place at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail on the 13th of December at 19:00. If you are looking for some useful World Cup 2022 predictions for this match, you need to keep on reading our Argentina vs Croatia prediction.

Argentina vs Croatia Preview

This Argentina vs Croatia semi-final will be broadcast live on ITV 1, so ensure that you get yourself a cup of tea and tune into the action about 30 minutes before the scheduled kick-off so that you enjoy the build-up and enjoy the atmosphere. With what is at stake, this is bound to be a game with plenty of drama, so you definitely do not want to tune in late to this big match.

How have both Argentina and Croatia managed to make it to the final four of the 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup? Well, below you can find out more about the teams that both of these sides have had to get by in order to book themselves a spot in the Semi-Finals.

Argentina:

• Round of 16: Argentina 2 – Australia 1
• Quarter-Finals: Netherlands 2 – Argentina 2 (Argentina win 4-3 on penalties)

Croatia:

• Round of 16: Croatia 1 – Japan 1 (Croatia won 3-1 on penalties)
• Quarter-Finals: Croatia 0 – Brazil 0 (Croatia won 4-2 on penalties)

🏠 Argentina Form and Team News

Taking some time to have a closer look at how both teams have made it this far in such a big competition is something that you should always do when you are thinking about doing some football betting since you do not want to ignore form when you are betting on any type of football match, no matter the level. Hence, we’ll be doing just that in this Argentina vs Croatia prediction.

Argentina started their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia, which is something that not many football betting punters would have had their money on, especially when Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the spot with not long on the clock. However, the Saudis showed plenty of heart and talent and went on to cause a big upset. This meant that Argentina had no room left for errors because one more defeat in the Group Stage would have sent them crashing out. They went on to win their remaining two group matches against Poland and Mexico 2-0 to finish at the top of the table and keep their World Cup dreams alive.

Finishing top of the group earned them a Round of 16 clash with Australia, and many thought that it would be a walk in the park for the Argentinians. However, Australia showed a lot of spirit, and with a little bit of luck, they could have taken the match to extra-time. As it was, the game finished 2-1 in favour of Argentina, and the Australian keeper, Matt Ryan, will remember this match for a while because it was his poor mistake that cost his team the second goal, which turned out to be the winner.

This win against the Aussies booked them a Quarter-Final spot against the Netherlands, and it was one of the feistiest games of the World Cup so far. Overall, the referee, who was poor, dished out 13 yellow cards, while, for some reason only known to him, he also failed to send off Paredes and Messi. The former kicked the ball into the Dutch dugout after a really late tackle to cause a mass brawl, while the latter deliberately handled the ball and did not pick up a yellow. Argentina were winning 2-0, but Wout Weghorst scored a late brace, including a brilliantly worked free-kick to take the game into extra-time, with the Argentinians going on to win on penalties. Argentina are sore losers and even worse winners, so every neutral out there will be hoping for Croatia to make it through to yet another World Cup final.

With so many cards dished out, Argentina’s manager, Lionel Scaloni, has a couple of suspensions that he will have to deal with for this match. Both Marcos Acuña and Gonzalo Montiel picked up their second bookings of the competition in this game, ruling them out of the semi-final against Croatia. Although Scaloni will be peeved that these two players are suspended, it is fair to say that he has enough quality at his disposal to replace them with.

Argentina Starting Lineup

In their match against the Dutch, Scaloni opted for a 5-3-2 formation, but we think that he will go back to a 4-3-3 formation for this Semi-Final because Croatia do not have the same attacking talent that the Netherlands have. In fact, Croatia will look to take this game as deep as possible and hit on the counter. With this in mind, below you can find the 11 players that we think Scaloni will start with on Tuesday evening:

• E. Martinez
• N. Molina
• C. Romero
• N. Otamendi
• N. Tagliafico
• R. De Paul
• E. Fernández
• A. Mac Allister
• A. Di Maria
• L. Messi
• J. Álvarez

If this starting XI is not doing it against a decent Croatia side, then Scaloni has plenty of quality players on his bench that he can call upon in order to try and turn the tide. This includes the likes of Gomez, Correa, Dybala, and Paredes.

Argentina Players to Watch

This is not the best Argentinian squad that they have had, but there is still plenty of quality in there that Croatia will be wary of. Below are three players that you should keep a close eye on when this Semi-Final is being played:

• Lionel Messi: The constant talk about Messi from the commentators is getting extremely nauseating and, because of this, many football fans will probably be happy to not see Messi lift the trophy on the 18th of December. Yes, he is a really good player, but we do not have to have everything he does exaggerated tenfold. Croatia will know of the dangers that he can cause, and it will be interesting to see how they go about stopping him – although, they will be quite confident of being able to do so
• Emi Martinez: There is a chance that this match will end up going to penalties, and if this is the case then Martinez is definitely a man to keep an eye on. The Aston Villa keeper is probably one of the best keepers out there when it comes to penalties, and the Argentinians will back him to get the job done should it come down to it. However, we could all do with a little bit less of the dancing if he does manage to make a couple of saves
• Julián Álvarez: He is just 22 years of age, but the youngster has already shown us all that he has the ability to become one of the best wingers in the world. He has scored three times in this Qatar World Cup, and he will be quietly confident of being able to cause the Croatia defence a number of issues. If Croatia give him the time to shoot, they could find themselves playing a 3rd/4th Play-Off instead of the final

🏠 Croatia Form and Team News

Croatia finished second in their group with one win and two draws from their three matches. The big surprise from this group was Morocco finishing at the top of the table because many football bettors would have put their money on Belgium and Croatia to be the two teams to make it through to the Round of 16. Croatia’s first match of the Qatar WC was against Morocco, and the match ended without a goal, although it was more exciting that the majority of 0-0 draws that we encounter.

In the second game of the Group Stage, they played Canada, knowing that they needed a win in order to give themselves a good chance of qualifying. They were shaken early on when Alphonso Davis scored a bullet header, but the Croats got into their groove and won the match 4-1, knocking out Canada in the process. Croatia’s last game of the Group Stage was against Belgium, and they entered this match knowing that a draw would be enough to see them through. They also drew this game 0-0, which set up a Round of 16 match with Japan, while Belgium were sent home.

For their knockout game against Japan, Croatia were the slight favourites, but they knew Japan were no mugs as they had beaten both Germany and Spain in order to get to the knockout stages. At this point, seven of Croatia’s last eight knockout matches at international competitions had gone to extra time, so it was no surprise to regular football fans when this match ended 1-1 after 90 minutes. Nothing much happened in the extra 30 minutes, so the match went to penalties, where Japan took some of the worse penalties that you will see. Croatia showed them how to take penalties like actual professionals, and won the penalty shootout 3-1 to book themselves a spot in the Quarter-Finals.

They took on Brazil in the last eight, and not many football bettors would have had Croatia to make it through to the final four. However, Croatia’s strong point is their midfield, and their midfield trio of L. Modrić, M. Brozović, and M. Kovačić bossed the game to make sure that Brazil never got a stranglehold on the match. Despite this, Croatia were pretty blunt in attack, and before long we had the feeling that this was going to be another Croatia game that was going to be decided in extra time or penalties. Once again, the match was 0-0 after 90 minutes, and Neymar broke the deadlock with a well-worked goal in the 106th minute. However, some lapse defensive work saw Petkovic equalise with minutes to go, and the match went to penalties. Dominik Livakovic produced a couple of fine saves to help Croatia win 4-2 on penalties and send Brazil dancing to the airport.

There were a number of Croatian players at risk of missing out on a semi-final if they got booked against Brazil, but all four players avoided a booking, meaning that Zlatko Dalić does not have anyone suspended for this big game. He also has no injuries to contend with, but his players must be pretty tired after all the additional minutes that they have had to play. It really does seem a bit surreal for a team to be in the semi-finals after winning just one match and drawing four.

Croatia Starting Lineup

In their defeat of Brazil in the Quarter-Finals, Croatia began the match using a 4-3-3 formation, and we expect that this will be the same for this big game against Argentina. We are quite confident that Dalić will decide to use the same starting XI that he started with against Brazil. The main reason why we think this is because he does not have the same squad depth as the likes of Argentina. Thus, with this in mind, below is our predicted XI:

• D. Livaković
• J. Juranović
• D. Lovren
• J. Gvardiol
• B. Sosa
• L. Modrić
• M. Brozović
• M. Kovačić
• A. Kramarić
• B. Petković
• I. Perišić

Croatia Players to Watch

Croatia, despite being a small country, have always managed to produce some top footballers, and we are now going to give you three Croats to look out for when they play Brazil on Tuesday the 13th of December:

• Luka Modrić: While Ronaldo has dramatically decreased in quality with age, Modrić is one of those players that seems to get better with age. He is still one of the world’s best players, and if Argentina just let him play his normal game, then he will pull them all over the park and out of shape, which will leave space for his teammates to work in. He can pick a pass that nobody can see, while he is also not shy when it comes to scoring goals. If Croatia make it to the final, then we are sure that Modrić will have played a big part
• Dominic Livaković: Croatia also have a quality keeper that has shown his skills when it comes to stopping penalties. The Croatian keeper played a big role in both shootouts against Japan and Brazil, and if it comes to pens against Argentina, then Croatia will need him to pull a rabbit out of a hat once again. However, he is not just a penalty stopper as he showed by denying Neymar on numerous occasions during the 120 minutes of football. It will be interesting to see how he performs against another talented attack
• Joško Gvardiol: This guy is just 20 years of age, but he has been one of the standout defenders at this World Cup and it is safe to say that he will be playing for a better team than RB Leipzig this time next year. It would not be a surprise to see the likes of Real Madrid or PSG put in a big offer for his services. He has been one of the main reasons why Croatia have been so hard to score against, and we will be looking forward to seeing how he goes about stopping Argentina’s strikers

Netherlands vs Argentina Betting Odds

If you are considering placing any football predictions on this semi-final match, then you will obviously want to do so using some top WC 2022 betting odds. You will be able to do this right here at Betiton since we always provide our customers with competitive football betting odds for a variety of markets. There are two betting markets that our football punters like to put World Cup bets on, and these happen to be Match Winner and Total Goals Scored. Below are the odds that are available for the two aforementioned markets.

Match Winner

Over/Under 2.5 Goals

Who Will Win? Argentina vs Croatia Prediction

If we were to do some online sports betting on this Semi-Final match, then who would we put our money on to win? Well, we can see this being another tight game, and we would not be that surprised if it also went to extra time and penalties. However, we think that Argentina have the talent to get over the line in 90 minutes, while Croatia’s best hope of winning is to take the game as deep as possible. So, our World Cup betting is to bet on Argentina to win 1-0 in 90 minutes.

Our Argentina vs Croatia prediction: Argentina to win

Our Argentina vs Netherlands Betting Tips

What other World Cup tips can we give you for this Semi-Final clash? Well, given that both teams have really good defensive records, we do not see this being a high-scoring game, so you should think about opting for the under 2.5 goals market. Also, if you want to bet on a player to find the back of the net, then think about betting on Messi.