Julian Alvarez`s brace and Lionel Messi`s goal help Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 here at Lusail Stadium to enter the final of the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Midfielder Leandro Paredes and defender Nicolas Tagliafico were brought into Argentina`s starting line-up.
Croatia started off aggressively getting a corner in the 16th minute where Dejan Lovren`s header from a difficult angle on the left was too high with the help of Josip Juranovic`s cross.
Lionel Scaloni`s men made their first aggressive move in the 25th minute when Enzo Fernandez`s right footed shot from outside the box was saved in the bottom right corner coming from the assist of Alexis Mac Allister.
Six minutes later Croatia`s Ivan Perisic`s right-footed shot from the left side of the box went high as Mateo Kovacic`s assist went in vain.
In the 32nd minute, Dominik Livakovic of Croatia conceded a penalty corner. Livakovic and Kovacic both got yellow cards and in the 34th minute Messi converted it to give Argentina a 1-0 lead.
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This appearance was Lionel Messi`s 25th equalling Lothar Matthaus` record in FIFA World Cup.
In the 39th minute, the Argentines doubled their lead as Julian Alvarez scored a goal to give his side a 2-0 lead.
Argentine scored almost for the third time when Messi`s cross helped Alexis Mac Allister take a header from the left side of the six-yard box to save in the centre of the goal.
Argentina went into half-time with a 2-0 lead.
In the second half too Lionel Messi-led side`s domination continued as in the 49th minute Rodrigo De Paul`s assist helped Leandro Paredes` right-footed shot from outside the box was saved in the centre of the goal.
In the 69th minute, Messi`s brilliant assist helped Alvarez score his second goal of the match and give the two-time champions a commanding 3-0 lead.
Argentina went into full-time with a 3-0 lead and hence entered the final of FIFA World Cup 2022. With this win, the two-time champions will be facing either France or Morocco who will clash in the second semi-final while the loss for Croatia have ended their campaign and they will now be facing the loser of the second semi-final in the third-place match.
Argentina had only 39 per cent of possession while 2018 champions Croatia had 61 per cent. But the two-time champions had seven shots on target in comparison to Croatia who had only 2.
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