Argentina face 2018 World Cup Finalists Croatia at the Lusail Iconic Stadium tonight, for a place in the 2022 World Cup Final in Qatar.

La Albiceleste beat the Netherlands 4-3 on penalties in the quarter-finals, in a controversial game fuelled by 16 yellow cards, as well as Denzel Dumfries being shown a red card in the penalty shootout.

Croatia won their second successive shootout in the knockout stage, to see off Brazil in the quarter-finals. 

The winner of tonight's game will face either France or an in-form Morocco side, who face off in the other semi-final tomorrow night.

All the talk in the build-up to the game has been about two legends of the game in the form of Lionel Messi and Luka Modric, who could well be playing in their last World Cups, and potentially tournaments for their county. 

Messi, who has scored in back-to-back games in the knockout rounds, will have to get past in-form Dominik Livakovic in the Croatia net, who saved four penalties in the two shootouts to help his nation in the semi-finals. 

Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni spoke to the press before the game, after being questioned about his players' sportsmanship in the Netherlands game: (quotes from the Guardian)

“There can be arguments, more challenging times but that’s all. That’s why there is a referee to make justice. And we need to just put an end to this idea of, you know, thinking Argentina is just that and we usually have that sort of behaviour.

His Argentina side picked up nine yellow cards against the Dutch, and were accused of unsportmanlike behaviour after a photo emerged of his side celebrating right in front of a deflated Netherlands side.

“We need to show our pride and we just played the game the way we had to play it. And then there is a referee in charge of making decisions. Things end in the moment the referee blows the final whistle. So, we respect all the teams, the Netherlands, Croatia now and all the opponents we face. That’s one of our main characteristics and features of our personality since the first game.

“We need to put an end to this idea of us not being good winners or losers – that’s very far from who we actually are as a team, as a squad and as the way we represent this nation.”

  • Zlatko Dalić

Croatia boss Zlatko Dalić also spoke to the press ahead of tonight's game, and gave CroatiaWeek his thoughts ahead of the showdown:

“We made it to the top four teams in the world, which is a great success for Croatia, it’s a big thing that we’ve done it two World Cups in a row. Now we want more, we’re playing against a great Argentina, an excellent team led by Leo Messi. They have more pressure, we know how they play what they want to win the match for. I trust the players, we won’t adapt much, Croatia will impose its own way of playing,”

Croatia staged an impressive comeback in the semi-finals four years ago in Russia, after coming from behind to beat England 2-1, ultimately going on to lose to fellow semi-finalists France in the final.

He also spoke about the impact that Lionel Messi could have on the game and against his side:

“Messi is in great form and can solve the game by himself, but he has the support of his teammates in combativeness and compactness, they are well balanced. They relaxed a little and the Netherlands equalised, maybe that warned them. I expect them to be even more combative, they will have a great support from the stands, it’s a handicap for us. The pressure is on them. We’re playing with one of the greatest teams in the world in history and we’re going to enjoy football."