2022 FIFA World Cup Semi Finals Odds, Picks & Predictions: A Total Pick in Argentina vs. Croatia

Find the World Cup betting picks and predictions OddsJam’s soccer expert @NorthSideCapper is locking in for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

World Cup Semi Finals Betting Predictions

Argentina vs. Croatia Pick: Over 2 | -109 on BetRivers

Tuesday, December 13 | 2 p.m. ET

Destiny is calling. Leo Messi is 90 minutes away from a World Cup final in which he hopes will be the addition that is missing from his impressive resume. 90 minutes – that’s it. The same holds true for a resilient Croatia bunch who have in all honesty exceeded expectations (at least on our end). Argentina and Croatia meet in what should be a classic in the making – the winner advancing to the finals of the World Cup and is a rematch of their World Cup 2018 group stage match that saw Croatia come out 3-0 winners.

Argentina enter this fixture and may consider themselves lucky to an extent. Holding a 2-0 advantage heading into the final 10 minutes of the match, they were forced to claim the victory in penalties after conceding twice to the Netherlands in the final stages in what was a near melt down and likely would have been the end to Messi’s storied Argentinian career.

La Albiceleste are five matches deep at this point, having seen all five of those matches reach our total of 2. While proving capable of doing damage in the final third, they have been somewhat poor on the defensive end – which is surprising given their near dominance in the defensive third throughout South American World Cup Qualifying (obtaining a clean sheet in eight of their final 10 Qualifying matches).

Croatia – what can we say? They are an older bunch who appeared in Qatar just for the party when entering the tournament. Their legs with a ton of miles on them surely wouldn’t have been capable and yet here we are. Not having recorded a single loss in any of their last 10 matches (all competitions), they look to extend that streak when going up against the favourites to lift the World Cup trophy in a week’s time.

If we have learned anything, it’s that this Croatian bunch do not throw in the towel and are willing to give it one last run before they turn the page over and hand the reins to the new generation. While Croatia haven’t been as dominant in the final third as Argentina in relation to collecting goals, they have done so when required. A 0-0 draw to Morocco now looks like an impressive result even if that wasn’t the case at the time.

Morocco have conceded once all tournament – an own goal, followed up by a 4-1 beat down of Canada, another 0-0 draw against Belgium in which Croatia didn’t need the three points and a penalty shoot out victory over Japan that saw the total reach two prior to another penalty victory.

To the naked eye, you may be hard pressed to see two goals in this match up and that’s likely due to Croatia not pulling their weight, however, when considering the context of their matchups and what was required, they’ve scored when they have needed to score.

It’s hard to envision them absorbing 90 minutes of this Argentina attack without taking any risks of their own in the final third. The recent concerns of the Argentine backline and their willingness to concede should provide hope for Luka Modric and Co. to find the back of the net and for our sakes, push the total past the desired two goals because we all know Argentina should be good for a goal or two if their track record is anything to go by.