FIFA World Cup 1st Knockout Round Preview

Croatia vs Denmark

Two maestros

Croatia have been very impressive in their world cup campaign and have won all their of their group fixtures rather convincingly.

As expected, their midfield general Luka Modric has been the star, scoring two goals, including a stunner against Argentina and controlling games from the midfield. Everyone remembers Croatia's brilliant World Cup campaign in 1998 where they reached the Semi-Finals and this current unit is more than capable of emulating that result if not improving on it.

Croatia boast of a fine striker in Mario Mandzukic and a solid defense, but it is their midfield which poses the biggest threat to any opposition.

Star midfielder Luka Modric is very ably supported by Ivan Rakitic and Ivan Perisic and they possess the ability to unlock any defense in the competition with their passes.

However the true strength of Croatia is their work rate and they are a tireless unit on the field which makes the team greater than the sum of its part.

Denmark have gone largely unnoticed so far in the world cup and have done enough to quietly sneak past Peru and Australia in their group. Denmark rely heavily on Christian Eriksen to pull the strings from the midfield, but their squad lacks the overall quality required to go deep in a global tournament like the FIFA World Cup.

Its hard to see the Danes posing too much of a threat for the Croatians and man for man, seem well outmatched all over the pitch.

Result - Croatia to cruise past Denmark and score a few in the process too.