World Cup quarter-final preview: Brazil v Croatia

On Friday, December 9th, Brazil will face Croatia in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Head to head

The teams have played each other four times before, and the current head to head record is three wins to Brazil and one draw.

Two of those previous meetings occurred during World Cups.

In 2006 Brazil won their group game by a single goal, and, when they were drawn in the same group again in 2014, when Brazil were the hosts, they won that match by three goals to one.

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Brazil

Brazil arrived in the Middle East as World Cup favourites, and that status remains undiminished as the tournament reaches the business end. Not only do they seem to have the deepest squad, but they have players in almost every position blessed with both ability and flair.

Certainly they were far too strong for South Korea in their round of 16 game, and had it not been for a tendency to overplay and showboat, their margin of victory would have been even greater.

They are not unbeatable – they lost a group game to Cameroon, although they fielded a weakened team for that match and had numerous chances to win the game for themselves.

Croatia

Croatia have not exactly set the football world alight since they have been in Qatar, with to goalless draws against Morocco and Belgium in the group stages, although they did recover from the loss of an early goal against Canada to put four past them.

In their last 16 match with Japan, they were second best in the first half, deservedly went a gaol down, but. although they equalised, lacked ambition after that and were seemingly happy to wait for extra time and penalties.

There their greater experience told. This was a team that had reached the final in Russia four years ago after all three of their knock-out games went to extra time and goalkeeper Dominik Livaković made himself the hero on this occasion by saving three Japanese penalties.

Prediction

Whilst some commentators have been quick to write off Croatia’s chances in this match, they should not be underestimated. They are one of the most experienced team at this World Cup, and many of the team that reached the final four years ago are still involved.

That means that they know what it takes to win games in the knock-out stages of a tournament, and will sit deep, happy to wait for opportunities when they present itself. It would not be a surprise, even if their game plan was to try and play for penalties, counting on their know-how.

Brazil cannot expect to have the same room that they enjoyed against South Korea.

And they will also be aware of their recent record – since they last one the World Cup in 2002, every time they have been knocked-out of the World Cup it has been at the hands of a European team.

However, for all that, they have enough quality in the team to create some clear cut chances and will be confident of taking at least one, and, probably, several of them.