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Lionel Messi's dream of laying hands on the FIFA World Cup trophy suffered a huge blow as a rampant Croatian side, led ably by Luka Modric, embarrassed Argentina 3-0 in the sides' second group stage match of the World Cup.
Coming in from a 1-1 draw against first-timers Iceland, not many expected Argentina to be run over like they were - their biggest WC group stage defeat in 60 years.
Post a goalless first-half, Chelsea's goalkeeper Willy Caballero's failure to clear a Gabriel Mercado's back-pass led to the first Croat goal in the 53rd minute. The mistimed clearance was pounced upon by Ante Rebic, who drilled the ball past the Argentine goalkeeper.
The opener gave the European side a much-needed boost while it set the Argentines on the backfoot. The lead was then doubled by Croatia's midfield general Modric, who curled in a long-ranger into the bottom left corner of Caballero's goal in the 80th minute.
The Croatians weren't done though and a counter-attack in the injury time saw Ivan Rakitic grab a well-deserved goal. With this victory, Croatia are now through to the last 16 of the tournament, most probably as the group toppers.
Jorge Sampaoli's side, on the other hand, lacked cohesiveness. The forward line, comprising of few of the best attackers currently in the sport, and the midfielders weren't on the same wavelength.
With their hopes of qualifying to the next hanging by a thread, perhaps worse, the Argentines wouldn't want a repeat of tonight's performance when they play Nigeria in five days. Whereas the Croatians would love to continue their winning run as the tournament enters its next stage.
On that note, let's take a look at three things which the Croatians did right to topple Messi's Argentina over.
#3 Not allowing Argentina a shot on target in the first half
That Argentina's strength lies in their attack is universally known and Croatia managed to nullify exactly that. In an even first half, where both the teams could have gotten onto the scoresheet, Argentina weren't able to test Croatia's custodian Danijel Subasic even once.
There were lousy defensive mistakes made by both the sides but with the likes of Messi and Aguero in the side, the South American side were expected to at least test the goalkeeper, let alone break the deadlock. The best of chances fell to Enzo Perez, who fired wide at an open goal after a miscommunication between Dejan Lovren and Subasic.
Aguero was probably the worst performer tonight and touched the ball on only 16 occasions in his 53-minute stay on the pitch. The dismal first-half performance and an early Croatian goal in the second half didn't pegged the Argentines back and led to their downfall.
#2 Modric-Rakitic pair running riot
Two of the most experienced, and important, Croatians on the pitch - Modric and Ivan Rakitic - led their team by example and ran over the Argentine side, and their hopes.
The pair of the Real Madrid and Barcelona midfielders registered a combined total of six shots, made three key passes, had the second and third most touches of the ball from their side and scored two goals in the match.
Rakitic kept a check on his Barca teammate Messi to perfection, while Modric was ever-present and along with his compatriot, formed a perfect pair and completely dominated the midfield, a plan with which coach Zlatko Dalic went into the match.
#1 An off day for Leo Messi
Every tournament that the duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi are a part of is built up as a competition between the two best players in the sport. The World Cup 2018 has not been different and especially after a stellar start from the Portuguese, which has seen him score four goals in two matches, and a sub-par outing against Iceland for Messi, the pressure was on the Barcelona talisman to outperform his rival.
Messi, however, was anonymous tonight and failed miserably in leading his side from the front. The diminutive forward managed just the one shot, which wasn't on target, and misplaced 25% of his passes. Even though he drifted back to the midfield to see more of the ball, Messi could manage only 49 touches, just six more than his goalkeeper, Willy Caballero.
Messi's dream of winning the World Cup is now all but shattered and he would have to depend on favourable results from other matches of the group and hope that Argentina beat Nigeria in their final group stage match in style.
