Argentina vs Croatia Live Score, FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar: Clinical Argentina storm into World Cup final

That's it for this game. We will be back for tomorrow's semi-final between France and Morocco. We will see you there. Till then take care and be well. Bye for now.

16 - Lionel Messi has scored 16 goals for Argentina in 2022, more than he's netted in any other year. Icon.

🗓️ - ⚽️
2005 - 0
2006 - 2
2007 - 6
2008 - 2
2009 - 3
2010 - 2
2011 - 4
2012 - 12
2013 - 6
2014 - 8
2015 - 4
2016 - 8
2017 - 4
2018 - 4
2019 - 5
2020 - 1
2021 - 9
2022 - 16 pic.twitter.com/WOLjytWAIL
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 13, 2022

Lionel Messi vs. Croatia:

90 minutes played
63 touches
2 shots (100% accuracy)
1 goal
34 passes (85% accuracy)
2 key passes
2 big chances created
1 assist

Unplayable 🔥 #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/v5q6jYTKf4
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 13, 2022

3 - Argentina (3-0) recorded the largest victory of any team in a World Cup semi-final without conceding a goal. Brilliant. #ARGCRO pic.twitter.com/pEFXyBEAy9
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) December 13, 2022

We will leave you with a couple of tweets.

STAT courtesy The Athletic: Argentina advance to their sixth World Cup final, tied with Italy for third-most all-time:

Germany: 8 final appearances
Brazil: 7
Argentina: 6
Italy: 6
France: 3
Netherlands: 3

So Argentina will either face France or Morocco in Sunday's final at the same stadium as tonight's game.

FULL-TIME! Argentina 3 Croatia 0. Messi scored one and set up two for Julian Alvarez as Argentina finished off Croatia in a clinical fashion. Once Argentina scored twice in quick succession, it was always tough for Croatia who just wilted. Pretty one-sided game in the 2nd half.

5 minutes of added time.

Another couple of changes for Argentina: Nahuel Molina and Alexis Mac Allister off. Juan Foyth and Angel Correa on.

Good chance for Croatia from a corner - Perisic flicks it at the near-post and Lovren at the back stick can't get his foot on that. Had he got any touch, was surely in.

Croatia make a change: Luka Modric off. Lovro Majer on.

Argentina make a double change: Rodrigo De Paul and Julian Alvarez off. Exequiel Palacios and Paulo Dybala on.

Changes for both sides: Andrej Kramaric off. Marko Livaja on for Croatia.

That was Croatia's first shot on target in the game.

The free-kick from around 40 yards is straight at Dibu Martinez who dives to his left to save.

YELLOW CARD TO Nicolas Otamendi for a challenge from behind.

GOAL! Julian Alvarez in the 69th minute! Argentina 3 France 0. That is Messi at his absolute best. He takes the ball on the right and skips past Josko Gvardiol, turns one way and the other, cuts to the byline and then with the centre-back at his heels, he slides the ball to Alvarez who side-foots home from close range. The stadium bow to Messi.

YELLOW CARD TO Cristian Romero for a tackle from behind.

Argentina make a change: Leandro Paredes off. Lisandro Martinez on.

Great play between Messi and Enzo Fernandez and Messi's shot is saved well by Dominik Livakovic at his near-post. Did not have the power behind that one.

Another change for Croatia: Marcelo Brozovic off. Bruno Petkovic on.

Double substitution for Croatia: Nikola Vlasic and Mislav Orsic on. Off go Borna Sosa and Mario Pasalic.

Second half begins.

STATS courtesy BBC:

Croatia have not had a shot on target so far in this game.

They have failed to score a first-half goal in five of their six games, more often than any other team in the 2022 World Cup.

HALF-TIME! Argentina 2 Croatia 0. For 30 minutes nothing happened in terms of chances and one ball over the top set Alvarez away and he won a penalty which Messi converted. Then Alvarez made a surging run from a counter to score a lovely goal. Croatia look rattled and it will need a big effort from here to come back.

4 minutes of added time.

GOAL! Julian Alvarez in the 39th minute! Argentina 2 Croatia 0. What a counter-attacking goal that is. Julian Alvarez runs from his own half and via a couple of lucky deflections, he this time dinks it cleanly over the advancing Livakovic. That is one of the goals of the tournament. Superb composure from Alvarez to finish after a mazy run.

GOAL! Lionel Messi in the 33rd minute! Argentina 1 Croatia 0. Unstoppable penalty that. To Livakovic's left - high and rising into the top corner. No goalkeeper stops that and Argentina lead. Messi just went for power and placement and nailed it.

YELLOW CARD TO Mateo Kovacic for arguing with the referee.

YELLOW CARD TO Dominik Livakovic for bringing down Julian Alvarez who was through on goal, he tries to dink and it's a weak effort, but Daniele Orsato points to the spot.

PENALTY TO ARGENTINA!

First shot on target and it's from Enzo Fernandez but Dominik Livakovic is there to push it away.

This is like a chess game. Both teams having possession but nothing constructive out of it so far.

Early possession from Argentina. Croatia well organised with two banks of four though.

KICK-OFF!

The players are coming out for the national anthems.

Croatia Subs: Stanisic, Barisic, Erlic, Majer, Grbic, Vlasic, Livaja, Petkovic, Budimir, Orsic, Vida, Ivusic, Sutalo, Sucic, Jakic.

Argentina Subs: Armani, Foyth, Pezzella, Di Maria, Rulli, Palacios, Correa, Almada, Rodriguez, Dybala, Lautaro Martinez, Lisandro Martinez.

The players are out for the warm-ups.

Meanwhile Croatia are going in with an unchanged lineup from their quarter-final game.

Lionel Scaloni has gone for a 4-4-2 for this one as he brings in Leandro Paredes for Lisandro Martinez. Another enforced change is that at left back with Nicolas Tagliafico coming in for the suspended Marcos Acuna.

Croatia: Livakovic, Juranovic, Lovren, Gvardiol, Sosa, Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic, Pasalic, Kramaric, Perisic.

Argentina: Damian Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico, De Paul, Paredes, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Messi, Alvarez.

The lineups are out.

Team news: Croatia:

Croatia have no players suspended and also no injury concerns to worry about.

Team news: Argentina:

Argentina will be without the suspended Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel while the fitness of Angel Di Maria is also a worry.

If Croatia win they could also become just the second nation to knock out Argentina and Brazil in the same World Cup, after Germany achieved this in 2014.

STATS courtesy BBC:

This is the third World Cup meeting between Argentina and Croatia, and first in the knockout stages. Argentina won 1-0 in 1998, before Croatia's 3-0 win in the 2018 tournament in Russia.

Argentina are looking to reach the World Cup final for the sixth time, a figure bettered only by Germany with eight. They've never been eliminated at the semi-final stage before, most recently beating the Netherlands in 2014.

Argentina have won just one of their past seven World Cup games against European sides (D3, L3), beating Poland 2-0 in the group stage this year. However, two of those three draws have resulted in penalty shootout victories.

Croatia were losing finalists in 2018, and could become the fourth European nation to reach consecutive World Cup finals after Italy (1934, 1938), Netherlands (1974, 1978) and Germany (1982, 1986, 1990).

Croatia have won all four of their penalty shootouts at the World Cup, knocking out Japan and Brazil in the last 16 and quarter-finals in 2022 respectively. The only nation to win more penalty shootouts in the competition are Argentina, with five.

Now we move on to pre-match stats as we build up to the lineups.