Croatia will bring their big guns to the World Cup, looking to repeat the success of 1998 when they finished 3rd. They will start their World Cup duties with a match against Nigeria on Saturday, looking to grab all three points. Nigeria have a lot of players that are playing in the Premier League, and their mix of strength and speed just might cause problems here.
Croatia have some top-class players in their squad, like Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic, Real Madrid’s Luka Modric, Juventus’ Mario Mandzukic and Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic among others. However, they did not have an easy job at all in the World Cup Qualifiers, but eventually finished at the 2nd spot of Group I (6-2-2). However, that group lacked a major name, as it featured Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland and Kosovo. Croatia didn’t have it easy and were actually in danger of missing out. They had a pretty easy job in the playoffs against Greece, as they destroyed the former EURO champions by 1-4 at home before a goal-less draw in Greece.
Nigeria did a great job in the African qualifiers, where they easily finished at the top of Goup B (4-0-2) that also featured Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria. They might have conceded just four goals in the process, but results against more decent teams in their recent friendlies have not been as good (1-4-1). They have been consistently participating in the World Cup in the past two decades. Since their debut in 1994 in USA they have only missed to qualify once and have produced some really quality players in the past. This time around they have a lot of players who are playing mainly in England, like Obi Mikel, Victor Moses, Leicester’s Ndidi and Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi. However, they do lack a proper goalkeeper and their defense lacks a big name.
