Following Friday’s thrilling day of performances and last minute heroics, Saturday features a quartet of matches across Russia.
The first of four matches sees France and Australia duke it out in Group C. Les Bleus are the heavy favorites to win the group but also advance deep into the knockout stage. Led by a youthful attack, Didier Deschamps side will look to roll past a unified Australian team.
Argentina and Iceland feature in the second match of the day, with both looking for strong starts in Group D. Lionel Messi headlines the Argentine attack, while Sergio Aguero and Paulo Dybala will also look to feature alongside the Barcelona star. Iceland are making their first ever World Cup appearance and would love to kick it off with a splash. Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson will pull the strings in midfield and can also knock in a goal or two himself.
The 12:00 noon match sees Peru face Denmark in a battle of two sides in the race for a runners up spot in Group C. Both teams will look to spoil France’s dreams of winning the group, but first they will need a strong start against one another. Peru is headlined by striker Paolo Guerrero who was admitted to play by FIFA. Denmark will look to counter with the star ability of Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen. This is the first ever meeting between these two countries.
The day concludes with Nigeria looking to pull an upset against Croatia. The Super Eagles are propelled by a veteran leader in John Obi Mikel while Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho highlight the attack. Croatia are a stubborn defensive side who have enough star quality to win Group D. Midfielder Luka Modric and striker Mario Mandzukic are the dangerous duo for the Croats.
The SBI staff will be offering updates and analysis in the comments section below, so feel free to follow along, and as always, please feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions below.
Enjoy the action.
That’s all for the busiest day of the 2018 World Cup. We will be back tomorrow, when Mexico kick off their campaign against the world champs.
Nigeria is getting forward, but they aren’t exactly putting much pressure on the Croatia goal. It’s hard to see them getting one consolation goal, let alone making a comeback, at this point.
It’s all uphill for Nigeria now. They haven’t created much so far and will now have to push forward against a Croatia team that can be dangerous on the counter.
Luka Modric neatly tucks the penalty into the low left corner of the net and it’s 2-0 to Croatia.
Penalty to Croatia! Out of nowhere the referee points to the spot whistling William Troost-Ekong for bear hugging Mario Mandzukic in the penalty area on a corner.
Not much doing here in the second half. Neither team really doing much, despite Croatia controlling the ball. Nigeria’s defense has been quite disciplined.