itsbeautifuloutside

I was glad Spot chose the Brazil game for his final match report from this group as this one looked nicely set up, with Croatia needing to win to edge out Mexico for qualification. So the first half was rather a disappointment as neither side looked to be particularly penetrative, with defences well on top.

Early on there’s a discussion about Ronald and Erwin Koeman for some reason, co-commentator Danny Someone (Murphy?) saying that ‘hopefully’ Saints can continue going from strength to strength. This is the most interesting thing in the opening quarter hour, as although Croatia try to put Mexico under pressure, they fail to create anything of note. Then we get another reminder of Saints as the Mexicans start to build out from the back when it doesn’t really look on, but credit to them they do really well to work their way downfield, the move leading to an excellent Herrera shot from 25 yards that hits the underside of the bar and bounces clear. This lifts Mexico, who get a grip on the game for a while, Peralta getting on the end of a through pass but he can’t finish from a difficult angle.

Pranjic and Perisic both shoot off target from distance for Croatia and both sides are limited to long range efforts for the rest of the half, which gets a bit testy towards the end. Some niggly challenges, accusations of diving from both teams give a bit of edge to the game.

Unfortunately this aggro doesn’t exactly lead to goalmouth action and the second half begins in the same fashion as both teams become wasteful as they get into the final third. Of course all this suits Mexico down to the ground and it’s Croatia that need to take the game to their opponents. It’s Mexico that push forward though, and they should have a penalty as Srna blocks a shot with his arm, we get a very amusing shot of the Mexican bench going apoplectic with rage at the decision. Moments later Corluka has to head out from under his own bar from a dangerous corner and Aguilar forces a good save from Pletikosa at close range.

After 71 minutes, Mexico get the goal they deserve, yet another from a corner at this World Cup, Marquez beating Corluka in the air and heading down and into the net. Saints trivia- I remember Gordon Strachan saying that we made some attempts to sign Marquez before he joined Barcelona back in the day, what a shame we never did. The tv director finds plenty of Mexican fans suitably dressed as stereotypes. 3 minutes later the Mexicans get a second, breaking and finding a stretched and tired Croatian defence, they work it cleverly to drag defenders out of position and find Guardado who buries it into the roof of the net, it’s a really good goal and it ends any Croatian hope.

Croatia do try to spark to life, a burst into the box denied only by an excellent clearance by Moreno, but Mexico get a third, a well worked near post flick from another corner is finished at close range by Hernandez who is unmarked and makes Mexico dream of topping the group, needing only one more goal to do so, but we shortly hear that Brazil have scored another to end that idea, then Perisic collects a nice backheel from Rakitic to score a good consolation goal and effectively confirm second place. Rebic is sent off at the end, but I actually missed that, I read that it was a bad challenge though.

This wasn’t the classic that it might have been, I guess that would have needed a quicker start from Croatia which might have meant it would swing back and forth, but Croatia never really looked like getting in front. Mexico managed the game well, keeping things tight at the start and slowly taking a grip on things. They were dominant in the second half and made the better chances. Once they were in front they repeatedly looked like scoring more goals on the break. How far can they go? Much like Chile and Costa Rica, they play as a team and as we have seen many times in the tournament so far, that’s a very useful thing.