World Cup: Can Croatia stop Messi, Morocco slay France?

After thrills, cheers and tears in the second round and quarterfinals, only four teams remain in the quest to land football's greatest prize.On Tuesday, Argentina take on Croatia at the Lusail Stadium. This will be the third time that the two sides will meet in the World Cup. However, they are yet to face off in a knockout round. The honours are shared 1-1 with Argentina winning 1-0 in 1998 and Croatia winning 3-0 in 2018.Croatia haven't played very attractive football, but what they have lacked in style, they have made up with steel. Argentina have relied on their talisman, Lionel Messi, to either score dazzling goals or provide surreal assists, when all seemed lost after the shock defeat to Saudi Arabia.Croatia ended Neymar Junior's world cup dream. to think they can do the same to Messi is almost too hard to imagine.The other semi final features, the story of this world cup. Morocco. Look at the teams they have taken out. Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and all without conceding a goal! Will France be next? Walid Regragui’s side are riding a wave of emotion and in Qatar, have found huge support from the fans. While they too haven’t been very enterprising in their approach, there’s no denying it has been mighty effective as their elimination of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal saw Morocco become the first African nation to reach the World Cup semi finals.With many Moroccan players featuring in the top leagues of Europe, don't expect the North African side to die wondering or get intimidated against the defending champions, who have been quite solid throughout their campaign with Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappe providing the highlights.As the semifinals loom, Times Of India's Saumyajit Basu and Nitin Naik attempt to dissect the strengths and weaknesses of the teams, marvel at the Morocco story and try and find out whether the unusual scheduling of this World Cup has resulted in teams getting thrown off gear and getting beaten by less fancied sides. Audio production: Sahil Gupta