Argentina vs Croatia: Rematch between two sides with more at stake

Topics: TV Schedules, TV Listings, Argentina, Croatia, 2022 FIFA World Cup

Argentina and Croatia will face off once again at a World Cup as the two sides battle for a coveted spot in the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals on Tuesday, December 13th.

And then there were four. On Tuesday, the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finals gets underway as Argentina and Croatia prepare to do battle for a coveted spot in this year's finals. Having successfully navigated their way through the group stages, the round of 16, and the quarter-finals, only 90 minutes - or perhaps more - stands between either Argentina or Croatia making it to the final, where the winner of this match will take on either France or Morocco.

In 2018, Croatia impressed most people with a 3-0 win over the South American giants en route to making it to the final, where they were beaten 4-2 by France. Meanwhile, Argentina will be looking to not just grace the final, but, after losing narrowly to Germany eight years ago, to finally end their decades-long wait for what would be their third World Cup.

Here's all you need to know ahead of this tantalizing semi-finals clash, which will pit Argentina against Croatia for the second consecutive time.

Argentina: La Albiceleste faced quite a nervy journey to the semi-finals

Argentina's quest to win a third World Cup got off to the worst possible start, as Lionel Scaloni's men were surprisingly beaten by Saudi Arabia on matchday one. Despite Lionel Messi converting from the spot, the Green Falcons came roaring back in the second half to turn the tie on its head and complete arguably one of the biggest upsets in this competition's history. However, the reigning Copa America winners were able to quickly steady the wobbly ship, defeating both Mexico and Poland to head into the round of 16 top of their quartet, where they were pitted against surprise Group D runners-up Australia.

Although Messi again opened the scoring against the Socceroos and was involved in the team's second goal, an own goal from Enzo Fernandez appeared to give Australia some hope of pulling off a comeback. Fortunately for Argentina and their fans, Scaloni's side were able to survive a nervy end to that tie and set up an intriguing clash against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

Given the history between these two sides, nothing short of a true battle was expected, and the game definitely lived up to its billing, with a whopping 18 yellow cards dished out. Both teams were fortunate not to have at least one man sent off as tempers flared throughout the course of a very tense 120 minute battle. Argentina thought they had a comfortable 2-0 advantage, only for the Netherlands to score twice in the last minutes of the match to force the tie to penalties, which ultimately ended 4-3 in favor of La Albiceleste largely thanks to the heroics of Emiliano Martinez between the posts.

Now, they will take on a Croatia side who clearly have no issues with pushing matches to penalties, and revenge will be on Argentina's minds after their humiliating 3-0 loss to this same team four years ago.

Croatia: The Vatreni mostly steady and confident in their journey to the semi-finals

Since the start of this competition, Croatia have been determined to prove that their run to the 2018 World Cup finals was not just a fluke. The Vatreni did start off a bit slow, drawing Morocco in a scoreless affair, but soon began to assert themselves as evidenced by their comfortable 4-1 win over Canada. Despite being unfortunate not to score against Belgium, Zlatko Dalic's side had done enough to finish as runners-up in their group and set up a round of 16 meeting with Japan, who really shocked most by managing to finish top of a quartet that also included Spain and Germany.

Croatia clearly were well aware of Japan's game-plan, and did excellently in nullifying their opponents. Ivan Perisic's goal helped to save the Vatreni from what would have been a very disappointing early exit, and once the game went to penalties, the general consensus was that there was one team who would dominate. Four years ago, Croatia showed their mental fortitude to successfully navigate their way through back to back penalty shoot-outs in the round of 16 (against Denmark) and in the quarter-finals (against surprising quarter-finalists Russia), so were well prepared for penalties under this kind of atmosphere.

After seeing off Japan, Croatia next took on Brazil, widely viewed as major favorites to win this competition. And once again, Dalic's team demonstrated that even in the face of adversity, they refuse to give up. Although Neymar scored a goal after a brilliant solo effort, the Vatreni fought back to snatch a late equalizer and once again, pushed the match to penalties where they came out on top.

Key to their success in back back penalty shoot-outs has been the brilliant performance of shot-stopper Dominik Livakovic, and without a shadow of a doubt, Croatia will be heavily relying on him to come up with another big performance in their upcoming reunion with Argentina on Tuesday evening.

Team news: Argentina vs Croatia

*All info as of December 12th

Argentina: Both Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuna are suspended for this game after receiving yellow cards during the match against the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Angel Di Maria and Rodrigo De Paul look to have recovered from their respective injuries to feature in the starting XI, while Alejandro Gomez will hope to be involved as he continues to make progress in his recovery from an ankle injury.

Croatia: Croatia looks to have everyone fit and available for this game, with both Borna Sosa and Mislav Orsic having recovered from illness.

Match facts: Argentina vs Croatia

Argentina are hoping to make it to the FIFA World Cup final for the sixth time
Croatia and Argentina are meeting for the third time at a World Cup, and the first during a knockout round
Both teams have won one match each; Argentina 1-0 in 1998 and Croatia 3-0 in 2018
The Vatreni could become the second team in World Cup history to defeat both Argentina and Brazil at the same World Cup (after Germany did so in 2014)
La Albiceleste have won just one of their last seven World Cup meetings with European teams (D3 L3)...
...which was a 2-0 win over Poland at this year's competition
Croatia could become the fourth European nation to reach back to back World Cup finals if they win on Tuesday
Lionel Messi looks set to equal the 25 World Cup appearances set by Germany's Lothar Matthäus if he, as expected, features on Tuesday