The first FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ semi-final brings together two teams that reached the last four with dramatic penalty shoot-out victories, Croatia overcoming Brazil before Argentina knocked out the Netherlands.
The teams are evenly matched historically, both in terms of matches overall, with two wins apiece and one draw, and at the FIFA World Cup™, with one group-stage victory each. Argentina prevailed 1-0 in 1998 while Croatia claimed a 3-0 success over Lionel Messi and co. in 2018, with Luka Modrić among the scorers. The nations have not met since that match in Nizhny Novgorod.
Whereas Croatia lost their first FIFA World Cup semi-final, 2-1 to France in 1998, and won the second, 2-1 after extra time against England in 2018, Argentina have emerged victorious from all four of their previous semi-finals – against the USA in 1930 (6-1), Belgium in 1986 (2-0), Italy in 1990 (1-1, 4-3 on penalties) and the Netherlands in 2014 (0-0, 4-2 on penalties).