Croatia, who knocked off another South American powerhouse earlier in the tournament, will face Argentina in one of the two 2022 World Cup Semi-Finals on Tuesday at Lusail Iconic Stadium, hoping to become the second team in World Cup history to earn a spot in two successive World Cup Finals. Both teams advanced to the semis thanks to penalty kick victories.
After CONMEBOL rivals Brazil, the Albiceleste are one of the tournament's heavy-betting favorites. The matchup between the two South American rivals was expected to happen, but Croatia's penalty shootout victory against Brazil in the Quarter-Finals spoilt the celebration. The 2018 runners-up want to make it to the finals for the second year in a row after losing the title to France.
After almost eliminating the Netherlands in the previous stage, Luka Modric and his teammates will want to do the same to Lionel Messi and Argentina in the semifinals. At what will almost certainly be his last World Cup, the Paris Saint-Germain star is once again carrying the dreams of his country on his shoulders in pursuit of a peak that neither he nor his primary adversary, Cristiano Ronaldo, have yet to achieve.
Which Argentina players will be absent vs Croatia in Qatar 2022?
Argentina, though, will need to prove themselves worthy of a spot in the championship game without the services of two regulars. According to FIFA's regulations, both Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuna will be suspended for the semifinal match against Croatia since they received yellow cards in the previous game against the Netherlands.
The two defenders, both of whom play for Sevilla, entered the Lusail Stadium match against the Dutch already on a yellow card. They were both given another yellow card in the match and will consequently miss the next game, which is against Croatia.
All in all, seven Argentines (L. Martnez, Paredes, Messi, Otamendi, Montiel, Pezzella, and manager Scaloni) received yellow cards on Friday. Of the eleven players, only Montiel and Acuna had been cautioned before, thus they will sit out the decisive clash.
The remainder of their cards have been wiped clean, and they won't be carrying any yellows into their match with Croatia. Scaloni will have to switch out his wingers and go with Nahuel Molina and Nicolas Tagliafico, both of whom started against the Oranje.
