🏆 Crunch time at the World Cup with semi-final places up for grabs | OneFootball

After two days without it, the World Cup is back in our lives on Friday.

Here’s what we have to look forward to ahead of the first two quarter-finals.

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So, I’m free today, what can I not afford to miss?

Strap yourselves in because it’s all about to get serious.

Semi-final places are up for grabs and we’re about to find out whether Brazil and Argentina are going to meet in the final four.

Croatia and the Netherlands will have something to say about that respectively as they look to cause the south Americans a surprise.

Dreams are about to be ruined. Memories are ready to develop. This is a time for heroes.

Got any interesting stats or facts?

Brazil have lost their last five World Cup knockout games against European teams, including three quarter-final ties in that time (France in 2006, Netherlands in 2010 and Belgium in 2018).

Louis van Gaal is unbeaten in his 11 World Cup matches as manager – winning eight and drawing three. If the Netherlands avoid defeat today, he will equal the record of 12 games without defeat – held by Luiz Felipe Scolari.

How have the four teams fared in the quarter-finals?

It’s either hit or miss for Croatia, they’ve only been past the group stage twice before this tournament but have made the final four on both occasions – finishing third in 1998 and as runners-up in 2018, they’ve never been knocked out at this point.

The Seleção have been knocked out of the last-eight on five different occasions and are looking to reach the semi-finals for a fifth time in eight tournaments.

Netherlands tend to go all the way or sign out early, having only been beaten at this stage once (in 1994) but they are seeking to qualify for the final four for a sixth time.

For Argentina, they haven’t made it this far since 2014 but this is a usual jumping off point, having been knocked out at the quarter-final stage four times.

Have you got a player to watch?

All the attention will (rightly) be on Lionel Messi in today’s late game, but if the Netherlands are going to book a semi-final place you imagine Cody Gakpo will have something to do with it.

The PSV forward scored in all three group stage games after coming into the tournament off the back of a campaign where he has scored nine goals and provided 13 assists.