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I certainly hope so. Denmark has been the most boring (and still somehow succesful) side of this WC and Croatia has been great, living up to their potential.
Denmark plays it safe. They are disciplined defensively, but offer little in attack, and were outplayed in all 3 group matches. Croatia will run them ragged in midfield. Croatia 2 - 0 Denmark.
I do not really know what to expect, but so far this Danish team has played unusually defensive minded in the group stage and the last match against France was used for experiments and looked like both France and Denmark were playing a friendly, to get ready for the next stage ... If we are to go by the promise made by the Danish NT coach, who is Norwegian, and has more or less played "Norwegian style" in the group stage, Denmark has now progressed which was a must do, and so now will play more attacking minded and entertaining, also releasing Eriksen from all tactical and defensive duties ... but again, the NT coach is Norwegian and has no past experience from any WC. But fact is that Denmark is on an unbeaten streak of 18 games in a row, which is an all-time Danish record and only 1 goal has been score against Denmark in all of 2018 and that was not in open play but a (according to most experts, former top referees and pundits) questionable 50/50 VAR call in the match against Australia ... The Danish keeper Kasper Peter Schmeichel has also just beaten his dads al-time clean sheet's record from the early 90's, so perhaps you should not count out Denmark that easilly ...
If we're honest, Peru outplayed Denmark, Australia outplayed Denmark, and France outplayed Denmark. Denmark played with 10 men behind the ball much of the time and got 5 points. I am happy for them, but if not for the Peruvian missed penalty, they would already be home. Eriksen is a great player and Schmeichel is a great keeper. These points cannot be denied. But really, Denmark hasn't shown anything, and the Croatian midfield is superb. If Denmark plays more attacking, then they will be torn apart by Croatia. Oh how I miss the days of Michael Laudrup.
Denmark will be a much harder match up for us than the teams we had in our group. They are well organised and defend much better. They also did not lose a game for a while. They will frustrate us. Will be tough.
Australia did not outplay any team in the group ... in fact, Denmark and Australia had the exact same number of attempts on and off-target, the possession was 49% v 51% and the pass accuracy was 88% for Denmark and 85% for Australia ... but I will like to show you the official FIFA match statistics from the Peru v Denmark game and then compare it with the match statistics from the Uruguay v Portugal game... Attempts on-target : Uruguay 3 v 5 Portugal ............ Denmark 3 v 6 Peru Attempts off-target : Uruguay 2 v 7 Portugal ............ Denmark 5 v 7 Peru Blocked ................ : Uruguay 1 v 8 Portugal ............ Denmark 2 v 5 Peru Corners ................ : Uruguay 2 v 10 Portugal .......... Denmark 7 v 3 Peru Offsides ............... : Uruguay 0 v 1 Portugal ............ Denmark 3 v 5 Peru Possesssion ........ : Uruguay 39% v 61% Portugal .... Denmark 48% v 52% Peru Pass accuracy .... : Uruguay 70% v 84% Portugal ........ Denmark 82% v 85% Peru Passes ................ : Uruguay 266 v 584 Portugal ...... Denmark 342 v 394 Peru Passes completed ; Uruguay 185 v 489 Portugal ...... Denmark 282 v 334 Peru https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/match/300331544/#match-statistics https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/match/300331528/#match-statistics I think perhaps what has stuck in most peoples memory from the Denmark v Peru game is the missed VAR pernalty and the last 30 minutes, when Denmark went more or less bunker-style to keep their 1-0 lead and Schmeichel made a few excellent saves ... because up until the goal, Denmark actually had most possession and as you can see also most corners and the difference in accuracy of passes was not really that big, even with Denmark bunkering at the end to hold their 1-0 lead, much like France also was trying to hold their 4-2 lead against Argentina
I agree. Now starts a new stage. It's always another challenge in the knockout stage. Denmark played so far very defensively. In the group stage they had always 6 players with a defensive mindset on the pitch. They hardly go forward on numbers. Only four players are really attacking. Croatia needs patience to break them down eventually.
I don't have a read on this game. It will be difficult for both teams to score. A moment of brilliance may be needed. Eriksen can do that but Croatia has a few players who can do that too. May the best team win/advance.
So the winner of this match is going to face Russia in the Quarter-finals ... and statistics show that only 1 out of 4 teams that progress after extra time are also able to progress from the next round, so unless this match also go into extra time, it's highly likely that the winner of this match will also progress to the Semi-finals...
Hopefully Croatia will take care of business. I'd hate to see another boring team get through. And Modric is always a joy to watch
Croatia can win this and probably with relative ease. Just a reminder to everyone that Croatia do have players that can nullify any defensive teams. They’re arguably the most complete team in this WC along with France and Brazil.