Negative Nigeria make a far from super start

Croatia 2
Etebo (OG) 32, Modric (pen) 71
Nigeria 0

Three things we learned...

1England's pre-tournament form takes a knock
It was two wins from two in England's World Cup warm-ups but those victories over Nigeria and Costa Rica may not amount to much after the Super Eagles stunk the place out in their Group D opener against Croatia.

Nigeria were negative, failing to create a chance in the entire 90 minutes with Croatia barely out of first gear in landing a 2-0 win.

On this evidence there was absolutely nothing to get excited about regarding England's 2-1 friendly success at Wembley over such limited opponents.

2Nigeria's Achilles heel is defending set-pieces
England exposed Nigeria's set-piece weakness and so too did Croatia - the first goal came from a corner that caused confusion with Oghenekaro Etebo putting through his own net before centre-back William Troost-Ekong pulled back Mario Mandzukic from another set-piece, allowing Luka Modric to convert a penalty.

Iceland have many players capable of taking advantage from dead-ball situations and when Nigeria face Argentina consider a few quid on Nicolas Otamendi getting on the scoresheet.

3Croatia formation could do with a tinker
A win to nil sounds easy for Croatia and it was but tougher tests are to come and they look unbalanced with forwards Mandzukic, Andrej Kramaric and Ante Rebic all on the pitch together.

Rebic offered little and possibly needs replacing with Mateo Kovacic or Marcelo Brozovic to give Croatia more command of midfield and allow Modric and Ivan Rakitic to be more dominant.

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