Solid play and experience vs enthusiasm and non stop running

Croatia and Nigeria are in a very difficult and well balanced group, along with Argentina and Iceland. If we take for granted that Argentina is the undisputable favorite for qualification and of course the 1st place in the group, for the second spot that also gives an advancing spot evrything is open with the other 3 teams fighting very hard for it. From this point of view, the opening game between Croatia and Nigeria has an enormous importance.

Croatia paricipate for the 5th time in their history in the final stage of a World Cup. And that's a great achievement if we consider that is an indepentant country for less than 30 years. They have many players of a huge value who play at the top European Clubs. As Greeks we saw what Croatia can do since they won our National team at play out for the qualification.

Nigeria may seem to be the outsider of the group but they are trying hard for a good result. They didn't have to try hard to get the qualification though since they were first placed in the group with Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria. However in preparation games where they played against difficult European teams they proved that it's very tricky for them to compete in such a high level. 

This match is very possible to determine the second place of the group. Croatia are supperior in quality and experience and I think that they have a winning lead.