The TOP16 round in the World Cup was very interesting and now it is the turn to switch to TOP8 games. It will start on Friday evening with a clash between Croatia and Brazil. The previous round was very different for both teams. Croatia was down by 0:1 against Japan but came back and was forced to get into a penalty shutout where they were better. Brazil played against South Korea and already was up by 4:0 in the first half. In this game, I'm taking Brazil to win.

Croatia's performance on the group stage wasn't very impressive. They couldn't do a thing against Morocco who will also play in the quarterfinal. The second game was very impressive for the Croatians as they crushed Canada 4:1. They only needed a draw against Belgium and they were lucky that the opponents didn't score a goal. The tournament favorites Brazilians played very well during the group stage. They got two wins against Serbia and Switzerland that already guaranteed a place in the knockout stage. They lost to Cameroon but some bench guys were playing and that didn't affect anything in the standings.

Of course, we can't say that South Korea is the same team as Croatia but Brazil had an xG rating of 3.60 in the first-round game. Croatia had an xG rating of 1.45 against Japan while the opponents had 1.21 and they allowed them to make 13 shots and both teams had four shots on target. While South Koreans also had one goal, their xG rating was just 0.48 with eight total shots. In the group, the Croatians had only the 3rd-best xG rating (3.8) and xGA was 2nd-best but also 3.8. The Brazilians dominated the group with an xG of 5.9 (4th-best in the tournament) and xGA was just 0.9 (the 2nd-best among all teams).

Croatia and Brazil have faced each other four times in history and the Brazilians went unbeaten in all of those matches. Their first encounter in 2005 ended in a 1:1 draw, following which Brazil defeated them in their next three encounters. Two of them came at the World Cups - in Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014 - and the South American giants won by 1:0 and 3:1 respectively.

It's going to be a tough task for Croatia. They haven't shown the best game so far and they were very close to being eliminated in the last group stage game and in the first round. Their pair of scoreless group-stage draws proved they don't have enough in the attack to compete. At the same time, Brazil has performed brilliantly and their attack is on point. Potentially it could be a tight affair but Brazil should win in the regulation and qualify for the next round.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

世界杯的TOP16非常有趣，现在轮到TOP8比赛了。比赛将从周五晚上克罗地亚和巴西的比赛开始。上一轮比赛对两支球队来说非常不同。克罗地亚队0:1落后日本队，但他们扳回一城，被迫在他们表现更好的地方被点球锁定。巴西队对阵韩国队，在上半场就已经以4:0领先。在这场比赛中，我要让巴西赢。

克罗地亚队在小组赛阶段的表现并不令人印象深刻。他们对摩洛哥无能为力，摩洛哥也将参加四分之一决赛。克罗地亚人在第二场比赛中以4:1大胜加拿大，给人留下了深刻的印象。他们只需要和比利时打平，他们很幸运对手没有进球。世界杯热门球队巴西人在小组赛阶段表现出色。他们在对阵塞尔维亚和瑞士的比赛中取得了两场胜利，已经确保了一个淘汰赛阶段的席位。他们输给了喀麦隆，但一些替补球员还在比赛，这对排名没有任何影响。

当然，我们不能说韩国队和克罗地亚队是同一支球队，但巴西在第一轮比赛中的xG评分为3.60。克罗地亚对日本的xG评分为1.45，而对手为1.21，他们让日本有13次射门，两队都有4次射正。虽然韩国也有1个进球，但他们总共射门8次，xG评分仅为0.48。在小组中，克罗地亚人的xG评分仅为第三(3.8)，xGA评分为第二，但也是3.8。巴西队以5.9的xG(本届比赛中排名第四)统治了小组，xGA仅为0.9(所有球队中排名第二)。

克罗地亚和巴西在历史上交锋过四次，巴西人在所有这些比赛中都保持不败。他们在2005年的第一次交锋中以1:1战平，随后巴西在接下来的三次交锋中击败了他们。其中两次是在2006年德国世界杯和2014年巴西世界杯上，南美巨人分别以1:0和3:1获胜。

这对克罗地亚来说将是一项艰巨的任务。到目前为止，他们并没有表现出最好的表现，他们在上一场小组赛和第一轮比赛中几乎被淘汰。他们在小组赛阶段的两场平局证明他们在进攻方面没有足够的竞争力。与此同时，巴西队表现出色，他们的进攻恰到好处。这可能是一场势均力敌的比赛，但巴西队应该会在常规时间中获胜，并获得下一轮的资格。