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We are down to the final four in the 2022 World Cup, as Argentina will face Croatia on Tuesday, while France takes on Morocco on Wednesday. Argentina features one of the greatest players of all time in Lionel Messi and they are listed as a solid favorite against Croatia. France is the defending World Cup champion and they feature the leading scorer in this year’s World Cup, Kylian Mbappe. France is listed as a big favorite to defeat Morocco on Wednesday. France is trying to do something that has not been done in 60 years, and that is win consecutive World Cups. Let’s look at World Cup Semifinal odds and World Cup semifinal picks.
2022 World Cup – Semifinals
Argentina vs. Croatia
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 2:00 p.m. Eastern (FOX)
World Cup Odds
Argentina -125, Croatia +440, Draw +240 Total 2.5 (Under -182)
Team to Advance
Argentina -265 Croatia +215
Argentina vs. Croatia
This will be the third meeting at a World Cup, but first in the knockout round between Argentina and Croatia. Argentina won the first meeting 1-0 in the 1998 group stage, while Croatia won 3-0 in 2018. Croatia just continually finds way to win and they are coming off a win over Brazil in the quarterfinals. Croatia has the great midfield of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic.
Argentina has Messi but overall, they are not that explosive on offense. Argentina needs Julian Alvarez to continue to play well and they need Alexis MacAllister to keep up his good play. Perhaps most importantly they need goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to not give up a bad goal. There is not much to like about the offense of Croatia and Croatia has seen eight of their last nine knockout matchups go to extra time. Other than their win against Canada where they scored four times, they have scored just twice in their other four matches. Andrej Kramaric is their leading scorer and he has just two goals.
Croatia will rely heavily on their midfield to control Messi and limit Argentina’s chances. Croatia is a team that is not afraid to slow things down, so this match may not see much action.
Argentina vs. Croatia World Cup Picks
Can either of these teams score more than a goal? Messi gets all of the press but Croatia is definitely capable of shutting him down. I can’t see either of these teams doing much so I will go under the total.
2022 World Cup – Semifinals
France vs. Morocco
Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Venue: Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, Qatar
TV: FOX
World Cup Odds
France -190
Morocco +700
Draw +295
Total 2.5 (under -157)
Team to Advance
France -420
Morocco +325
France vs. Morocco
This is the first meeting between the teams since they met in a friendly in 2007 that ended in a 2-2 draw. There is no question that France has more talent, but Morocco has more crowd support. Morocco is the first African nation to reach the semifinal and it’s also the first Arab nation and only the second Muslim nation to play in the semifinals. Morocco has a stifling defense that has given up just one goal in the tournament and that was an own goal. If any team can stop Kylian Mbappe it could be Morocco and they have the World Cup’s outstanding keeper thus far in Yassine Bounou. The problem for Morocco is that they don’t have many scoring options and France has more scoring options than just Mbappe. France has so many players who can break down a defense in Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud, France’s all-time leading goal scorer.
France vs. Morocco World Cup Picks
How is Morocco going to score? They simply don’t have enough offensive threats to win this game and it seems unlikely they can stop all of France’s offensive weapons. I’ll lay the price and take France to get the win in regulation.
Check out the latest World Cup semifinal odds at BetRivers.
