World Cup warm up: Underachievers Croatia to get back on track against Nigeria

For all of the talent Croatia have developed over the years, it’s a surprise that the European outfit have not made it out of the group stages of a World Cup since reaching the last four of France 98.

The European outfit have only won two of the subsequent nine matches they have played since being eliminated by eventual winners France 20 years ago but will hope for better fortunes in Russia this summer.

Croatia are stacked with talent in midfield areas, so much so that they can afford to leave Mateo Kovacic and Milan Badelj out of the starting XI.

Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic are rivals at club level but the Real Madrid and Barcelona midfielders will play integral parts in any success Croatia have this season.

The former is afforded a more advanced role for Croatia and certainly has the passing ability to unlock any defence, leaving Inter’s Marcelo Brozovic to partner Rakitic at the based of Croatia’s midfield.

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Brozovic has been in sensational form for Inter since the turn of the year. In fact, no Inter player, including international team-mate Ivan Perisic, garnered a higher WhoScored rating than Brozovic (7.46) in Serie A during the second half of last season.

Croatia’s preparations for the World Cup were so turbulent that they sacked Ante Cacic with just one qualifier remaining. Former U21 boss Zlatko Dalic overcame Ukraine before seeing off Greece in the subsequent play-off. 

Things have certainly settled since then and it will be up to Dalic to get the best out of a really talented group of players this summer. With Argentina expected to top Group D, Croatia will battle it out with Iceland and Nigeria for second place.

Nigeria picked up a huge following in the weeks leading up to this summer’s competition after releasing one of the best World Cup kits of all time, but they flattered to deceive during their two warm-up matches.

Despite boasting a talented group of players, they fell short of expectations against England and Czech Republic and are now winless in their last four matches, scoring only twice in that period. Along with Peru, Nigeria are the neutrals favourite heading into the tournament, but they could prove huge disappointments this summer.

Writer Predictions:

Martin Laurence - Croatia 2-1 Nigeria

Ben McAleer - Croatia 2-1 Nigeria

Josh Wright - Croatia 2-0 Nigeria