As Croatia prepares to face World Cup favorites Brazil of their quarter-final conflict on Friday, defender Dejan Lovren is bracing himself for one more confrontation along with his outdated nemesis Neymar.
The 33-year-old centre-back Lovren has confronted Neymar on three events and misplaced each time, with the unstoppable Brazilian scoring 4 objectives in opposition to him. Those encounters embody Brazil beating Croatia 3-1 in a World Cup group-stage conflict in 2014 when Neymar scored twice and a pleasant at Anfield in 2018 per week earlier than the beginning of the World Cup in Russia when he scored in his facet’s 2-0 win.
Croatia and Brazil have met 5 occasions in all, with the South Americans profitable thrice and the 2 sides drawing twice. Perhaps probably the most painful reminiscence for Lovren, although, might be Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to a Neymar-inspired Paris St-Germain within the Champions League group stage in 2018. Neymar scored the winner and placed on a masterclass that evening in Paris, with Lovren struggling to include him.
While Liverpool had the final snort that season, placing that loss behind them and happening to win the Champions League, Lovren all however vanished from Juergen Klopp’s choice for the remainder of the competitors, making the beginning lineup solely as soon as extra.
On Friday, Croatia may have a much bigger drawback than simply Neymar nevertheless, with younger weapons Vinicius Jr, Lucas Paqueta and Richarlison all rising to the event and shining for Brazil at this World Cup. Lovren, who typically begins as a right-side centre again, may have the help of RB Leipzig prodigy Josko Gvardiol to assist him. The 20-year-old Gvardiol has been good up to now for Croatia, placing in a variety of goal-saving tackles to maintain his facet alive of their video games.
Indeed, Croatia have conceded solely two objectives of their 4 video games up to now in Qatar. Their hardest problem but might be to cease the Brazilian juggernaut on Friday.
