Brazil, Argentina eyes mouth-watering World Cup semi-final berth

Brazil will look to become the first team to advance to the World Cup semi-finals when they face Croatia, while Argentina looks to overcome an unpredictable Netherlands outfit on Friday.

After three weeks of intense competition, only eight teams remain as the 32-nation tournament enters the knockout competition’s final rounds after a two-day break.

Neymar has recovered from an ankle injury he suffered in the tournament’s opening match and will be available for Brazil’s quarterfinal match against 2018’s surprise runners-up, Croatia.

“I’ll be doing everything that I can to win with the Brazilian national team. That’s our mission and our dream,” said Neymar.

“We’re getting ever closer, we’ve got another step to go now.”

Croatia is a drastically different team from the one that reached the final four years ago, but 37-year-old Luka Modric is still their key player.

“I agree that we did a great thing by getting to the quarter-finals but regardless of that we would like to do more,” said Modric, who will come up against his Real Madrid teammates Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Eder Militao in the match at Education City Stadium.

“We know that the greatest match is ahead of us. Brazil are always favourites. We have to be ourselves.”

After losing the final to Germany in extra time eight years ago, Lionel Messi hopes to finally win the World Cup with Argentina this year.

The Copa America champions face the Netherlands in Friday’s second quarterfinal at Lusail Stadium, which will host the final on December 18.

The two nations have met five times previously at the World Cup, including the 1978 final, which Argentina won 3-1 in overtime. In 90 minutes, Argentina has never defeated the Netherlands.

It is a rematch of their 2014 semi-final match in Brazil, which the South Americans won on penalties after 120 minutes of a scoreless draw.

“In 2014 I was there and things ended slightly differently (to how we wanted) but I’d like to change that now,” Dutch forward Memphis Depay said at a pre-match press conference.