Croatia and Nigeria fight for life in Group of Death
Dark horse Croatia takes on spirited Nigeria in its World Cup opener that could leave one side fighting for its tournament life in the Group of Death.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-06-15 15:59 GMT
At every World Cup a group is stamped with the ominous ‘Death’ label and in Russia that designation has fallen on Group D. Croatia and Nigeria, two teams who fully expect to reach the knockout round, are joined by Argentina, and surprise package Iceland, looking to match its march into the quarter-finals at Euro 2016.
Nigeria will try to put a run of indifferent form and controversy behind it when it steps onto the pitch at the Kaliningrad Stadium. The Super Eagles comes into its tournament opener having failed to win in its last four international friendlies and dogged by scandal with coach Gernot Rohr accusing some reporters of unethical behaviour and coming up with lies in the build-up to the World Cup.
Nigeria is the lowest-ranked team in the group at 48 but has displayed the ability to punch above its weight as it did at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when it reached the round of 16.
“I love this group because we know how to rise to the occasion together,” said Rohr, on the Nigerian Football Federation website. “Nigeria will be ready for Croatia.”
In contrast, Croatia, a team stacked with quality, has often failed to live up to expectations. Talent has never been quite enough for under-achieving Croatia, which has failed to advance past the group stage since its debut as an independent country at the 1998 World Cup in France, where it finished third. It could not escape the group stage four years ago in Brazil and failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Croatia, however, arrives in Russia with the sort of quality and experience throughout its line-up that should make it a threat to any team, marking it out as tournament dark horse. While its qualifying campaign was spotty, the build up to the World Cup has been promising with wins over Senegal and Mexico and a 2-0 loss to Brazil.
- Croatia made a splash in its first World Cup as an independent nation taking third place in France in 1998 but has not advanced out of the group stage since.
- Nigeria won just once at the 2014 Brazil World Cup but still advanced to the knockout round.
- Nigeria was the first nation to qualify from Africa for the 2018 tournament, finishing top of a group featuring Cameroon, Zambia and Algeria
- Previous meetings: The two have never met.
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