Croatia vs Brazil Preview

2022 FIFA World Cup favourites Brazil will look to continue their run in Qatar this Friday when they face 2018 finalists Croatia at the Education City Stadium.

Croatia booked their place in this round of the tournament thanks to a penalty shootout win over Japan in the last round. After playing out a goalless 120 minutes with the Asian side, Zlatko Dalić’s men prevailed on penalties thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Dominik Livaković who became just the third goalkeeper in history to save three spot-kicks in a World Cup shootout.

That result booked Croatia’s place in the quarter-finals for the third time with two of their last quarter-final outings leading them to the semi-finals and so they will regard themselves as one of the experienced sides in the World Cup.

They come into this tie in good shape too, having lost just one of their games since their elimination from Euro 2020 last summer (W13, D6). They are unbeaten in their last ten games (W6, D4) and will fancy themselves to win this game should it go to penalties given that they have won all three of their World Cup penalty shootouts, including in back-to-back games en route to the 2018 final.

Meanwhile, Brazil will fancy their chances of avoiding a penalty shootout with Croatia given their form.

The Samba boys have lost just one of their last 19 games (W15, D3) and possess a dominant H2H record, winning both World Cup clashes against Croatia while avoiding defeat in two other meetings (W1, D1).

However, they have a poor record against European opposition in the knockouts of the World Cup, with all of their five exits from this tournament after 1990 coming at the hands of European sides.

However, Tite’s men will be buoyed by their impressive win over South Korea in their last outing in a game that saw them score four first-half goals while resting a lot of players in the second half. With most of their injured stars except Gabriel Jesus and Alex Telles back in the side, Tite will be confident that his side can get the win in this game.