Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez scored to give Argentina 2-0 lead over Croatia in the first-half of the first semi-final match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 being played here at Lusail Stadium.
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 was just went high as Mateo Kovacic's assist went in vain.
In the 32nd minute Dominik Livakovic of Croatia conceded penalty corner. Livakovic and Kovacic both got yellow cards and in the 34th minute Messi converted it to give Argentina 1-0 lead
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 despite having only 38 per cent possession in comparison to Croatia who had 62. But the Argentines had five shots on target in comparison to Croatia who had none.
( With inputs from ANI )
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