Croatia vs Belgium Preview 01/12/2022

Croatia vs Belgium – 01/12/2022

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The final round of matches in Group F of the 2022 World Cup take place on the 1st of December, including a meeting between Croatia and Belgium. The match will take place at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan and Croatia come into the game top of the group on 4 points, while Belgium are in third place on 3 points.

Croatia took maximum points from their previous fixture against Canada having conceded an early goal in the match. The Canadians took the lead after only 2 minutes and Croatia struggled to create a clear chance to equalise.

However, that changed in the 36th minute when Croatia made the breakthrough and their dominance on the ball in midfield led to another goal shortly before half time.

The second goal was a major setback for Canada and Croatia came out confidently in the second half to score a third goal in the 70th minute and add a fourth in injury time.

That victory came on the back of a 0-0 draw in Croatia’s opening match of the tournament. That result looked like dropped points for Croatia but having seen Morocco perform well against Belgium, the draw now looks like a decent result.

The win over Canada means Croatia are undefeated in their last 8 matches in all competitions. They have won 6 of those games and have found the back of net at least once in 7 of their last 8 fixtures.

Belgium come into this game knowing they need to win to progress to the round of 16.

The Red Devils find themselves in this position having suffered a shock 2-0 loss at the hands of Morocco in their second game in the group.

Morocco fully deserved their victory and opened the scoring from a freekick in the 73rd minute.

Belgium started pushing more men forward in the search for an equaliser and Morocco hit them on the counterattack in the 92nd minute of the match to score their second and win the game.

Belgium won their opening fixture of the 2022 World Cup by beating Canada but it was a far from convincing performance. Canada missed a penalty and had other chances to score while Belgium laboured for much of the match.

Trends show Belgium have lost 3 of their last 4 games in all competitions, including friendlies. They have kept only 2 clean sheets in their last 9 matches.

Team news and Croatia are likely to go with the same starting XI from the win over Canada. That means Marko Livaja will start in attack with Andrej Kramarić.

Belgium could make several changes to their team, with Romelu Lukaku in contention to start up-front. Leandro Trossard, Youri Tielemans, and Dries Mertens could also begin the game.

The pressure is on for Belgium and they know they must win the match. That should make for a tense game of football but Belgium do have the talent in their ranks to win and could come away with a narrow 1-0 victory.