Croatia beat Nigeria 2-0 in the World Cup on Saturday night.
Croatia kicked off their 2018 World Cup campaign in style as they comfortably saw off Nigeria with a 2-0 win in Kaliningrad on Saturday night.
The two sides saw group rivals Argentina and Iceland play out a 1-1 draw in Moscow earlier on Saturday, and knew that a win would take them top of their group in a crucial clash.
It was billed as the final knockings of Croatia’s ‘golden generation’ against an effervescent Nigeria side, but in truth, Croatia were convincing winners.
Zlatko Dalic’s men took a first half lead as Mario Mandzukic’s wayward header was turned into his own net by Oghenekaro Otebo from close range ahead of Andrej Kramaric.
Nigeria attempted to get back into the game, but William Troost-Ekong’s foul on Mandzukic allowed Luka Modric to score from the penalty spot and hand Croatia a 2-0 victory.
Whilst Mandzukic had a hand in both goals, fellow forward Kramaric turned in a strong display as a No. 10, operating behind Mandzukic as he looked to both create for his teammates and carve out his own chances.
Kramaric impressed for Croatia, and whilst he may have hit 36 goals in 93 games for Hoffenheim, many still remember him for a poor spell with Leicester City, in which he scored four times in 20 games and was quickly flogged to Hoffenheim.
After Saturday’s display, Leicester fans took to Twitter to praise Kramaric’s display, suggesting that he looks good and was let go by the Foxes too early, with some claiming he was ‘ahead of his time’ as he would be the perfect player to play behind Jamie Vardy right now, and others unable to believe that Leicester let him go so cheaply.
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