Bar Messi, Croatia have better players than Argentina: Kovacic
Besides Lionel Messi, Croatia are man-for-man a better team than Argentina.
That was the assessment of Croatia's Mateo Kovacic ahead of tomorrow morning's (Singapore time) World Cup Group D clash between the sides.
"Argentina depend a lot on Messi, although they are a great team in other positions," said the Real Madrid midfielder.
"He has to take care of them most of the time.
"He is phenomenal, he can resolve the game at any time...
"We do not need to be too afraid of Argentina, we are singularly better than them, except Messi, and so we should look at ourselves, not others."
Croatia sit atop Group D after a 2-0 win against Nigeria last week, while Argentina were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Iceland in their opener.
The Albiceleste are now under pressure to get all three points against Croatia to stay in contention in Group D.
But they haven't had the best of preparations for Russia, with two of their friendlies, against Nicaragua and Israel, being cancelled.
Since being on the end of a 6-1 humbling by Spain in March, Argentina have played just one friendly - a 4-0 win over minnows Haiti.
They didn't look impressive in qualifying as well, registering the worst shot conversion rate (8.1 per cent) in the South American qualifiers. Only Bolivia scored fewer goals than Argentina.
Messi, meanwhile, has not scored in his last 21 shots at World Cup Finals - a total which includes a penalty miss against Iceland.
While the Barcelona man remains Argentina's undisputed star, Atletico Madrid fullback Sime Vrsaljko said his team have prepared to face Argentina, not just Messi.
He said: " Messi is surely one of the best players in the world, but the coaches have prepared us for facing the whole Argentine team, not just Messi.
"Eleven players take the field. Our 11 players will try to do themselves justice."
Nikola Kalinic, however, won't be one of those players, having been sent home for refusing to take to the pitch when his coach Zlatko Dalic wanted to bring him on against Nigeria.
Milan Badelj, who played with Kalinic at Fiorentina, suggested the striker has an ego.
He said: "What happened didn't affect us. The first thing is the team, you have to put your ego to one side when you talk about your national team."
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