CROATIA - BRAZIL

Guests are favorites here for me.

Croatia made a poor World Cup, playing defensively and winning only against Canada. Then played two goalless draws against Belgium and Morroco, and weren’t able to beat Japan in the regular time.

Belgium missed a lot of chances, while Japan’s game was tight. Croatia so far did not show them as a strong team as they were in the previous World Cup. The team is lacking goals upfront, they don't have any top goal scorer so goals are a reliance on midfielders (Modric, Perisic).

Are a very competitive side but they were only better than Canada. The experience is their strong point, but obviously are lacking quality and will have in front of them another very experienced team.

Brazil is the main reason for this pick. I honestly dont see how they can lose a match in this tournament. Are a perfect team: plenty of quality, experience, motivation and chemistry. A very solid defense, a good midfield (strong and creative) plus a very dangerous, vertical and unpredictable attack, with a lot of alternatives. They have good touch, velocity and precision. All factors needed to beat Croatia.

They outplayed all rivals so far, including the impressive game against South Korea where they scored 4 goals in 36 minutes. Along with France, are clearly the two best teams in the tournament and the main title contenders.

For this match Croatia will try to do the same as they did before: use their experience to make a slow game, trying to reduce the pace when they have the ball, because their midfield (the strong point of the team) has the ability to do it. Croatia will try to close all spaces at the back, but I dont think it will be enough.

Brazil is a very solid block and seeing the weak Croatia’s attack so far, I see them totally able to keep the goal to nil. In attack, Brazil is punishing hard all small mistakes or spaces they can find, because they have great strikers in great form. Won’t be easy for Croatia to stop them, because they conceded chances against Belgium and Japan which Brazil won’t miss.

Physically, Brazil should be above Croatia too. Croatia’s plan will be to try to resist and get the extra time, but we must remember that they are an old squad, coming from 3 difficult games in the group stage + extra time against Japan (who played a very fast football). Brazil is a young squad, coming from just two difficult games in the group stage (against Cameroon played with reserves and already qualified as first) and against South Korea they just played at 100% the first half.

NETHERLANDS - ARGENTINA

Here we could see the first surprise of the tournament.

I have big hopes for coach Van Gaal and Netherlands. It’s true that their rivals so far have not been very strong, but they have a good squad, and since Van Gaal took the team they improved a lot, being a very strong competitive block, unbeaten in the last 19 games, good performances in the EURO and Nations League, and the most important: Van Gaal has never lost a game in the World Cup. Played 11, and never lost in the regular time in any of them.

He is probably the best coach we have in the World Cup and the most experienced one, and he knows perfectly how to make Netherlands competitive enough to avoid a defeat against Argentina.

They have probably the revelation player of the tournament, Cody Gakpo who is making an amazing tournament with 3 goals already.

Argentina is coming as a strong favorite, thanks to the good level of Messi, but their performances have not been convincing. The team is under huge pressure, and we are seeing that in the players.

Players are nervous due to the pressure they have, and even against Australia (a very weak team) their second half was so poor, conceding chances. The second goal (2:0) was a gift from Australia, but then conceded an unlucky goal (2:1) and we started to see the tension and nerves of players, who weren’t able to control the last minutes of the game and leave Australia far from their area.

Only Leo Messi is the danger of this team, who is in great form and breaking all defenses/games. This should be the plan of Van Gaal: put someone following him and stop the most talented player of the tournament - Leo Messi. Without Messi, who was the man of the match against Australia and Mexico, I’m sure that Argentina wouldn’t be here.

I see this match as perfect for Netherlands and van Gaal. They know that they need to put even more pressure on Argentina (who as said, looks nervous and under huge pressure already), playing a slow game, solid in defense (guaranteed with a leader like Van Dijk at the back), avoiding Messi to appear near to the area and be “free” as he has been in the last games.

I think Netherlands has chances even to qualify. I may be wrong, but only see Argentina winning this thanks to some amazing classic action by Leo Messi. And as I’m sure that van Gaal also knows this, will prepare a match trying to avoid this.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

克罗地亚-巴西

我最喜欢这里的客人。

克罗地亚队在世界杯上表现不佳，他们防守严密，只赢过加拿大。随后与比利时和摩洛哥两场0 - 0战平，没能在常规时间内击败日本。

比利时队错失了很多机会，日本队的比赛也很紧张。到目前为止，克罗地亚队并没有表现出像上届世界杯那样的强队。球队缺乏前场进球，他们没有任何顶级射手，所以进球依赖于中场球员(莫德里奇，佩里西奇)。

他们是一支非常有竞争力的球队，但他们只比加拿大强。经验是他们的强项，但显然他们缺乏质量，在他们面前会有另一支非常有经验的球队。

巴西是这个选择的主要原因。说实话，我不明白他们怎么能在这场比赛中输掉一场比赛。我们是一个完美的团队:有足够的素质，经验，动力和化学反应。一个非常坚固的防守，一个优秀的中场(强壮而有创造力)，加上一个非常危险的，垂直的和不可预测的进攻，还有很多选择。他们有很好的手感、速度和精度。所有这些因素都需要击败克罗地亚。

到目前为止，他们击败了所有对手，包括对阵韩国的比赛，他们在36分钟内打进4球。显然，法国队是本届杯赛中最好的两支球队，也是冠军的主要争夺者。

这场比赛克罗地亚队将尝试做他们以前做过的事情:利用他们的经验来进行一场慢节奏的比赛，当他们拿球时试图降低节奏，因为他们的中场(球队的强项)有能力做到这一点。克罗地亚队将尝试封闭后场的所有空间，但我认为这是不够的。

巴西是一个非常坚固的屏障，到目前为止，看到克罗地亚虚弱的进攻，我认为他们完全可以把球保持为零。在进攻方面，巴西会严厉惩罚所有他们能找到的小失误或空档，因为他们拥有状态良好的优秀前锋。克罗地亚想要阻止他们并不容易，因为他们在对阵比利时和日本的比赛中失去了机会，而巴西不会错过这些机会。

从体能上来说，巴西也应该在克罗地亚之上。克罗地亚的计划是努力抵抗，争取加时赛，但我们必须记住，他们是一支老球队，在小组赛中经历了3场艰难的比赛，加上加时赛对阵日本(他们踢得非常快)。巴西队是一支年轻的球队，在小组赛中经历了两场艰难的比赛(对阵喀麦隆时他们是预备队，已经以第一名出线)，对阵韩国时他们上半场发挥出了100%的水平。

荷兰-阿根廷

在这里我们可以看到比赛的第一个惊喜。

我对范加尔教练和荷兰队寄予厚望。的确，到目前为止，他们的对手都不是很强大，但他们有一个很好的阵容，自从范加尔接手球队以来，他们进步了很多，成为了一个非常强大的竞争块，在过去19场比赛中保持不败，在欧洲杯和国家联赛中表现出色，最重要的是:范加尔在世界杯上从未输过一场比赛。打了11场，在常规时间内从未输过。

他可能是我们在世界杯上最好的教练，也是最有经验的教练，他完全知道如何让荷兰队保持足够的竞争力，避免输给阿根廷队。

他们可能拥有本届杯赛的最佳球员科迪·加克波，他已经打进3球，为本届杯赛带来了惊人的表现。

由于梅西的出色表现，阿根廷队成为夺冠热门，但他们的表现并不能令人信服。球队承受着巨大的压力，我们在球员身上看到了这一点。

球员们因为压力而紧张，即使是对阵澳大利亚(一支非常弱的球队)，他们的下半场也很糟糕，失去了机会。第二个进球(2:0)是来自澳大利亚的礼物，但随后不幸丢了一个进球(2:1)，我们开始看到球员的紧张和紧张，他们无法控制比赛的最后几分钟，让澳大利亚远离他们的区域。

只有梅西是这支球队的威胁，他状态很好，可以打破所有的防守/比赛。这应该是范加尔的计划:派人跟随他，阻止本届杯赛最有天赋的球员——梅西。梅西在对阵澳大利亚和墨西哥的比赛中是最佳球员，如果没有梅西，我敢肯定阿根廷队不会在这里。

我认为这场比赛对荷兰和范加尔来说是完美的。他们知道他们需要给阿根廷施加更大的压力(正如前面所说，阿根廷看起来很紧张，已经承受了巨大的压力)，打一场慢节奏的比赛，坚固的防守(保证有范戴克这样的领袖在后场)，避免梅西出现在禁区附近，像他在上几场比赛中那样“自由”。

我认为荷兰队甚至有机会出线。我可能是错的，但阿根廷队赢得这场比赛多亏了里奥·梅西的一些惊人的经典动作。我相信范加尔也知道这一点，他会准备一场尽量避免这种情况的比赛。