As Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand know, whether you are a brilliant age, you require, sooner or later, to sparkle. For the Croatia of Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic and Dejan Lovren, all nearing or past their 30th birthday celebration, time is about up.
Maybe that is the reason a normal triumph over Nigeria was praised so intensely in Kaliningrad’s Victory Square, which turned into a mass of red-and-white checked shirts and banners that influenced and moved, encompassed by bewildered police separations, until the point when the morning light started sifting in from the east. It was Zagreb on the Baltic.
On the off chance that they praise like this on Thursday, Croatia will be through to the knockout periods of a World Cup without precedent for a long time while Argentina and Lionel Messi will waver on the precarious edge of blankness.
Croatia may have had less shots than Messi alone had in the 1-1 draw with Iceland, they may have beaten Nigeria through a claim objective and a punishment however they accept and you think about whether Argentina do.
Like whatever remains of the squad, Dejan Lovren had watched Iceland’s back-four hold out against Messi in Moscow and when the time comes, he was certain he could do likewise. “We know it will be extreme, we have effectively played them previously,” he said alluding to a 2-1 overcome in a well disposed at Upton Park four years back. At that point, Messi had changed over his punishment.
“Be that as it may, we know how to play against the huge groups and we are not frightened of them. They have a standout amongst other players on the planet, perhaps the best, in Messi, yet when you saw their amusement against Iceland, they completed an extraordinary activity and demonstrated to protect against him. You can’t stop him with one player, you need to guard like a group. You saw that with Iceland.
“It’s a respect, obviously, to play against the greatest players on the planet. Half a month back, I played against Cristiano Ronaldo (in the Champions League last for Liverpool), two weeks prior it was Neymar (in an agreeable at Anfield) and now it’s Messi. That is something you need to do from adolescence – to play against the greatest.”