The thousands of dejected and tearful faces painted white and blue in Moscow’s Nizhny Novgorod Stadium immediately after the final whistle vividly summed up the story of this match. Argentina, a team loaded with talented and highlighted by Lionel Messi, entered the World Cup with both high hopes and deep-seated worries about the chemistry of its squad.
After two games — a hard-fought tie against tiny Iceland and a thoroughly disappointing 3-0 loss against Croatia on Thursday — the Argentines find themselves facing long odds to even escape Group D. Croatia, with its own talented attack featuring Luka Modric, Mario Mandzukic and Ivan Rakitic, showed exactly what it is capable of doing in a patient and disciplined dismantling of Argentina.
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