Hot spots that can decide the match between Argentina and Croatia

* Argentina - Croatia: 2pm on Wednesday 14/12, on MetaSports.

The match against Australia in the 1/8 round of this year's World Cup marked Messi's 1,000th match in his career, including 169 for Argentina, 778 for Barca and 53 for PSG. That day, he scored a goal, to bring the total number of goals to 789. Australia is also the 129th team to be scored by Messi. Before that, in the group stage Messi scored twice against Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Before the semi-finals, he owned a total of four goals and two assists, three times being voted the best player.

Certainly, limiting Messi's influence will be key to Croatia's ambitions to reach a second consecutive World Cup final. One-on-one defensive play is a common method that many coaches use when playing Messi. However, the 35-year-old's ability to move and pass people is still very sharp, thereby making tutoring seem pointless. Especially in one-on-one situations, the victory will most likely belong to Messi.

In the quarter-final against the Netherlands, Nathan Ake repeatedly rose to close Messi. But it was this that caused the Dutch defense to reveal a gap, and the Argentine captain punished with a perfect slot to let Nahuel Molina penetrate the penalty area to open the score.

The other way to stop Messi is to defend by zone. The best way to describe this method is to create a "cell" around the opposing striker - in this case Messi - with the walls of the cell being the defensive players. If applied this way, Croatia needs many players around Messi all the time and always keep a close distance from the Argentine superstar. If Messi holds the ball in the danger zone, the Croatian players must close in large numbers and scramble.

At that time, Van Gaal used plan B - attack with the ball. At Man Utd before, the 71-year-old military leader had success with the "pole" Marouane Fellaini. For the Netherlands, it's Wout Weghorst and Luuk de Jong. After being led by two goals, Van Gaal launched the aforementioned striker duo on the field, and pushed Virgil van Dijk up to participate in the attack in many situations. This decision was effective when the Netherlands created suffocating pressure through crosses in the last 20 minutes, equalizing thanks to Weghorst's double to force the game to be decided on the penalty spot.

Coach Lionel Scaloni has almost no answer to the change of colleagues. Lisandro Martinez, Nicolas Otamendi and Cristian Romero are all modest in height, and are easily "bullied" by Dutch giants.

This is definitely something that coach Zlatko Dalic could have studied and could take advantage of today. With tall strikers like Marko Livaja (1.82 m), Bruno Petkovic (1.93 m), Ante Budimir (1.90 m), and stars who can cross the ball well like Ivan Perisic or Luka Modric , Croatia can play more directly, or take advantage of set pieces.

Croatia conceded three times at the 2022 World Cup, with two goals coming in regular time. Croatia's success comes from a defensive block with solid defenders and hard-working, quality and persistent midfielders. Both of these lines work tirelessly and constantly compete for the ball, making Croatia's system very difficult to break.

Playing with a 4-3-3 formation, but Croatia often switched to a 4-5-1 system, deep in defense, with the wingers playing across the midfield trio, including Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic . These three players play an important role in applying pressure, constantly pushing up to the player with the ball.

Such an aggressive midfield requires a strong bond with the defence. If a midfielder moves forward and loses his position, one of the central defenders must immediately step up and fill the void. This is Messi's favorite space, but other players like Alexis Mac Allister, Rodrigo de Paul or Angel Di Maria will also move into similar areas.

Therefore, Croatia needs to limit the space in the middle of the field and maintain a tight grip to prevent Argentina from approaching dangerous positions in front of and around the penalty area. If Messi and his teammates were to receive the passes behind the midfield, Croatia's goal would be put on alert.