Brazil’s journey to a sixth World Cup continues tonight (Friday, 17:00), when the Selecao meet Croatia in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup. Tita’s team convinced in the round of 16 with an electrifying first half in a 4-1 win over South Korea, but now A much more difficult obstacle awaits her – the runner-up of the world champion. For the Balkans, this is the third appearance in the quarter-finals as an independent country, when in the previous times (1998 and 2018) it continued at least to the semi-finals. Seven of Croatia’s last eight knock-out games at major tournaments have gone into extra time, with the exception being the World Cup final against France in 2018. Will the seeded team drag the Selecao into a long evening?
For the first time in Qatar, Tita kept the lineup that beat South Korea in the previous game, so Neymar, who returned from injury, continued in the front alongside Rafinha, Vinicius and Risharlison. In the absence of the injured Alex Sandro and Alex Teles, Danilo continued as left back while Ader Militau was on the right. The Croatians made one change, when Borna Sosa, who was absent from the round of 16 against Japan due to illness, returned and replaced Borna Barisic at left back. Bruno Petkovic, who replaced Marko Livaya in the lineup in the round of 16, went down to the bench this time and was replaced by Mario Pešalić.
The current meeting will be the third between the two teams in the World Cup. The Selção won 0:1 in 2006 and 1:3 in the game that opened the home World Cup in 2014. In that meeting, Neymar scored twice, and he will want to repeat it this time because one goal will be enough for him to equal Pele as the king of goals for the Brazilian national team of all time. On the other hand, Ivan Perisic will try to pass the legendary Davor Šuker as the king of Croatian goals in the World Cups, after Moll Japan equaled him with his sixth goal in World Cups.
The composition of the groups
Croatia
The game setup
4:3:3
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22J. Juranovic -
6d. Luburn -
20J. Gabriel -
19B. mare
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10To. Modric -
11M. Brozovich -
8M. Kovacic
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15M. Peshalic -
9A. Kramaric -
4A. Frisic
Substitutes bench:
Brazil
The game setup
4:2:4
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14A. Militao -
4Marcinius -
3ninth. Silva -
2Danilo
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7To. Pacta -
5Casmiro
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11Rafinha -
9Richarlison -
10Neymar -
20Vinicius
Substitutes bench:
Group games victories draw losses gates points
The winner of the quarter-final between Croatia and Brazil will meet the winner between the Netherlands and Argentina in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
The full broadcast schedule of the 2022 World Cup
World Cup 2022 in Vala! sport