Croatia, a rival with an even and special history for Messi

The record between the two teams has five games in total: two games won by each one and a draw.

However, the most outstanding fact of those five matches was that in one of them the current captain of the Argentine National Team, Lionel Messi, scored his first goal with the light blue and white shirt in the Major.

It was in the friendly played in the Swiss city of Basel on March 1, 2006 and that the Croats ended up winning 3-2: the score was opened after three minutes by Iván Klasnic and 180 seconds later La Pulga intercepted a pass in the defense Balkan, made his classic play of facing right towards the center and there, left-footed, he put the ball next to Stipe Pletikosa’s right post.

That match also meant a key date for another of the great footballers who will be on the pitch next Tuesday: Luka Modric made his debut with the Croatian National Team shirt.

Previously, Argentina and Croatia had their first duel on June 4, 1994 in Zagreb and it was a goalless draw, despite the fact that idols and legends of each team were on the pitch: Diego Armando Maradona Y David Suker.

Then they met again on the third date of Group H of the World Cup in France ’98 and it was a 1-0 victory for Argentina, with a goal from Mauricio Pineda.

At the end of 2014, in Basel, a new friendly between the two teams ended 2-1 in favor of Argentina, with goals from Cristian Ansaldi and Lionel Messi, while Anas Sharbini scored for the Balkans.

The latest precedent is the 3-0 victory of Croatia on the second date of Group D in the 2018 World Cup in Russia: in that duel at the Nizhny Novgorod stadium Ante Rebic, Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic scored.

Next Tuesday at 4:00 p.m., the Argentines and Croatians will meet again on the field: this time in one of the Qatar 2022 semifinals, at the Lusail Stadium, and one of the finalists will come from there.