Why neither Croatia or Argentina hold any fears for me

[Ayo Akinfe]

Croatia:

[1] By the time the World Cup starts, this will be the ages of their star players:
Luca Modric -32
Ivan Rakitić - 30
Mario Mandžukić - 32
Nikola Kalinić - 30
Ivan Perišić - 29

[2] Croatia will not be able to deal with our pace

[3] By the time Croatia attack, we will have had defenders back in place

[4] Croatia relies on slow methodical build-ups

[5] Croatia do not have the legs to deal with our swift counter-attacks

[6] Domagoj Vida theior Dynamo Kiev centreback and rock alongside Dejan Lovren, does not strike me as someone who can handle say Moses or Ighalo

[7] Ivan Strinić, their leftback who plays for Samdoria is 30. How will he gallop up and down the flanks at the same rate as Ebuehi?

[8] Croatia are not a high scoring side. If you look at their qualification, most of their victories were 1-0 affairs. They were just lucky to have Kosovo in their group, who they beat 6-0 away, boosting their goal aggregated

[9] From what I can see, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland and Finland were all equally matched in their qualification group

[10] I can see Croatia struggling to break down a stubborn Iceland defence



Argentina
[1] Argentina have been crap for the last two years now. See how they struggled in their qualifiers.

[2] Argentina have a chronic problem at the back. Otamendi and Mascherano are too slow to cope with quick attackers.

[3] Upfront they are fine with Messi, Aguero and Di Maria but their defence is leaking goals. They simply do not have the legs to cope with counter-attacks.

[4] I do not see how that will change between now an June unless two top central defenders emerge and the coach has the guts to drop Mascherano and Otamendi.

[5] Argentina play with three at the back and simply cannot defend balls down the channel

[6] I have watched most of their World Cup qualifiers and can tell you now that no one in South America fears Argentina. Our 4-2 victory just confirmed what has been going on for the last two years.

[7] Can you please tell me how things will change. Which defenders will you bring in to replace the ageing Zavier Mascherano and the slow Nicholas Otamendi?

[8] Against Nigeria, Germán Pezzella, the centreback who plays for Italian club Fiorentina, on loan from Real Betis, made his debut alongside Otamendi and Mascherano in the back three. Of the trio, only Pezella looked like he could cope with the pace of Iwobi, Iheanacho and Idowu

[9] I do not see Sampoli dropping the ageing Mascherano. His tactics have left a lot to desired. I doubt he has the guts to be brave

[10] By the time we play Argentina, I believe they will be out of the tournament

[kali]

Croatia have always been highly talented. I wouldnt write them off. I think they will take Argentinas scalp.

Argentina still has the greatest player in the world and Aguero. Their defence has been found out tho.

[Ayo Akinfe]

Croatia have always been highly talented. I wouldnt write them off. I think they will take Argentinas scalp.

Argentina still has the greatest player in the world and Aguero. Their defence has been found out tho.

If we get our act together, we are better than both of them. Neither of them have our legs, pace and energy.

[Coach]

@Kali, is our defence much better than Argentina's?

@Ayo, if Costa Rica get their act together, they could do well. Why must If be a purely Nigeriacentric entity? If Argentina pull their finger out and fire on all cylinders, the world is in trouble.

[Kabalega]

@Ayo, so Iceland and Nigeria will make it out of the group?

[Ayo Akinfe]

@Kali, is our defence much better than Argentina's?

Maybe not "much" but yes, it is better.