‘Croatia are better than Argentina’

Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic, who plays for Real Madrid has said that his team are a better collective outfit than Argentina who are heavily dependent on one man.

It should not be hard to guess who Kovacic is referring to. It is none other than Argentina captain and playmaker Lionel Messi. Kovcic’s teammate Antic Rebel also sang the same tune regarding the mesmerizing playmaker.

Argentina will face Croatia on June 22 at the Nizhny Novogorod Stadium in what is potentially a must win game for the Albiceleste. Croatia are currently sitting at the top of Group D following their win over Nigeria and a similar result against Argentina will ensure they finish top of the group.

Kovacic of course knows Messi well from their duels in the famed El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid and the midfielder reiterated that Croatia as a team know of the dangers posed by Messi.

He seemed to insinuate that stopping Messi will be good enough to stop Argentina, citing an over-dependence on Messi, which spoke to the reality of how poor the Albiceleste have been as a team. "Argentina depends a lot on Messi, although they are a great team and one must be careful about other positions," Four Four Two quoted Kovacic as saying.

Messi will most likely be marked by Modric and Rakitic and if Kovacic starts, he will form part of a midfield trio which will oversee the Messi challenge and ensure the Argentine has a poor game.

"You cannot just prepare for one player [to mark Messi] … it is [better to deal with him] collectively, one on one is quite difficult. The coaching staff will prepare tactics well for him,” he said.

He then went on to say Croatian players are better than Argentine ones, with Messi being the only exception. "We do not need to be too afraid of Argentina, we are individually better than them, except Messi, and so we have… to look at ourselves, not others."

Winger Rebic agreed with the assessment of his team-mate, saying: "Against Argentina we have to be united, Messi is 50 percent of the team, if we defend … all together, we have a great chance."