Saudi Arabia vs Croatia

Mrsool Park in Riyadh is the venue as Saudi Arabia and Croatia go head-to-head in their final warm-up fixture ahead of the Qatar World Cup.

Stuck with Argentina, Poland and Mexico in a highly-competitive Group C, Saudi Arabia need as much momentum as they can gather if they’re to make it out of the World Cup group stages for the first time since 1994. After booking tickets for back-to-back World Cup finals for the first time since 2006, Herve Renard’s men have gone from strength to strength, racking up a seven-game unbeaten streak (W2, D5). Low scoring has been a common theme in Saudi Arabia’s matches in 2022, with each of their 13 internationals this calendar year featuring under 2.5 total goals. Much of the credit for those uneventful events goes to a rock-solid backline that last conceded more than one goal per game in a 2-0 defeat to Japan in February.

In the meantime, the 2018 World Cup beaten finalists Croatia will have to navigate the 2022 group stages past Belgium, Canada and Morocco after an almost-perfect qualifying campaign in Group H (W7, D2, L1). Zlatko Dalic’s lads are fresh from leaving reigning world champions France and last year’s Euros semi-finalists Denmark in their weak as they eked out a top-place finish in a fierce UEFA Nations League Group A/1 this year (W4, D1, L1). Four successive victories in the build-up to this encounter stand as a testament to Croatia’s high ambitions in Qatar, as does their outrageous run of six straight wins on foreign soil. Almost impenetrable at the back, the ‘Blazers’ have kept five clean sheets across their last seven international travels, conceding precisely once across the other two!