Key events
John Brewin on Football Daily duty? Yes please.
Croatia probably need a draw against Ghana to secure a spot in the last 32, but attacker Ivan Perisic is confident in his side’s record against African opposition.
The 2018 runners-up and 2022 third-place finishers have three wins and a draw against African World Cup foes since 2014, including their third-place victory over Morocco.
“That’s something that we commented on,” Perisic said. “And we played against many teams in the past 10 years, and all of the results were positive. So I believe that this is going to be the same this time as well, and that we will be playing a very good match, just like we did against the other teams.”
England and Ghana enter the final Group L matchday on four points, while Croatia have three and Panama are already eliminated. The question is whether this remains the same Croatia side of the last decade. After a 4-2 loss to England, Croatia narrowly defeated Panama 1-0 on Ante Budimir’s 54th-minute goal.
Perisic is 37 and captain Luka Modric is 40. And even manager Zlatko Dalic admits the performances have looked unfamiliar.
“We need to raise the level of our play,” he said through an interpreter. “We’re not what Croatia can be. So we haven’t shown the best we can, but tomorrow is the opportunity to do so. We never made so many mistakes in some of the passes or when we were in the possession of the ball. This is where we had the force and we were really strong, but we seem to be losing the ball easily. We need to be quicker and we need to raise the level of concentration.“
Perisic also was unsure whether Ghana’s low-block approach, a staple of several Carlos Queiroz-managed World Cup sides, would continue. “They are a very good team,” he said. “Very compact. Perhaps they played the lower block in the past two matches. Given that, maybe they might be changing for tomorrow or something, but we have to be ready for both options.
“But yes, we’re focusing on ourselves and our game and what we need to do. And we need to be a lot better than we were in the past two matches.” Reuters
Luka Modric is yet to find his groove in this tournament. Maybe he will be afforded more time and space against Ghana, if they defend as deeply as we expect.
Pre-match reading courtesy of our very own Adrian Chiles.
Wasn’t Adrian good with ITV News’ Dan Hewitt this week on the radio?
Preamble
This is the real quiz in the group. It is winner takes all for second but Ghana have a one-point advantage and a draw would be enough for them. Carlos Quieroz is the man for the job because he knows how to bore everyone to tears with defensive discipline and organisation.
Croatia, however, are a decent side when they put their minds to it. Admittedly, they have not shown much indication of it thus far, losing to England and scraping past Panama thanks to the performance of goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Luka Modric made his 200th international appearance in that match but needs more help around him because the 40-year-old cannot do it all by himself.
It should be a fascinating watch.
Kick-off: 10pm BST/5pm EDT/7am AEST
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