WORLD CUP PREVIEW Fri: Croatia v Brazil

After their stunning win over South Korea in the last-16, current starsports.bet favourites Brazil now move onto the quarter-final stage of the 2022 World Cup where they take on Croatia at the Education City Stadium.

Brazil showed flashes of their quality in the group-stages, but that win over South Korea was the game in which they really announced to the rest of the nations at the tournament what they can do and what they are made of.

After the joy of reaching the last-16, it was all over for South Korea very quickly with Brazil sprinting out of the blocks and racing into a 2-0 lead within 13 minutes thanks to a Vinicius Jr strike and a Neymar penalty.

Two more goals were added before the break with two Premier League stars, Richarlison of Tottenham and West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta, getting themselves on the scoresheet and extending their side’s lead to four.

South Korea did manage to pull one back in the second-half, but it was all too late by that point.

There was some criticism over Brazil’s dance celebrations, but they won’t care one bit. They are through to the quarter-finals and, worryingly for the other teams in the competition, appear to be getting stronger and stronger as the tournament progresses.

They will be without a couple of players through injury with striker Gabriel Jesus and full-back Alex Telles both facing a spell on the sidelines, but Brazil’s incredible strength-in-depth means that this shouldn’t be too much of an issue for them.

Croatia v Brazil
FIFA World Cup 2022 Quarter-Final
15:00 BBC One / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website

LAST FIVE STATS

CROATIA
NOV 2022 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Saudi Arabia 0-1 Croatia
NOV 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Morocco 0-0 Croatia
NOV 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Croatia 4-1 Canada
DEC 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Croatia 0-0 Belgium
DEC 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Japan 1-1 Croatia

BRAZIL
SEP 2022 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Brazil 5-1 Tunisia
NOV 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Brazil 2-0 Serbia
NOV 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Brazil 1-0 Switzerland
NOV 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Cameroon 1-0 Brazil
DEC 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP Brazil 4-1 South Korea

It was a much tenser and nervier last-16 clash between Japan and Croatia, but it was Zlatko Dalic’s side who managed to find a way to progress through to the last-eight of the competition via a penalty shoot-out.

In that shoot-out, Japan appeared to crumble under the pressure – missing three of their four spot-kicks – whereas Croatia kept their cool and composure with Dominik Livakovic making himself the hero between the sticks.

Despite being boosted by the potential return of Borna Sosa and Josip Stanisic from injury, progressing any further will be a massive ask for them as they face a Brazil team that have all the quality and momentum.

At 2/1 with starsports.bet, Brazil winning both halves looks like an appealing bet as does Richarlison continuing his fine form in a Brazil shirt by scoring at any time in the match at 7/5.

JOE CITRONE

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RECOMMENDED BETS

BACK Brazil to win both halves 3pts at 2/1 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
BACK Richarlison anytime goalscorer 1pt at 7/5 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

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PROFIT/LOSS (WORLD CUP 2022): LOSS 44.83 points (after matches on Tues 6 Dec, includes TWO GOOD bonus on CAMEROON v SERBIA 28 Nov)
(Will include returns from both the OUTRIGHT and SPECIALS previews too)

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