World Cup: Argentina on verge of exit, France through after beating Peru

Argentina could fall to their first World Cup Group Stage exit since 2002 after a 3-0 loss to Croatia.

That result coupled with their shock 1-1 draw against Iceland leaves Argentina with just one point from their opening two games.

Argentina had the majority of possession throughout the match, but simply do not have the talent throughout the squad to threaten the top nations.

Croatia have one of the most talented midfield in the tournament with Luka Modric, Ivan Perisic and Ivan Rakitic and put Argentina’s defence to the sword.

When a so-called top nation needs to rely on Manchester City backup goalkeeper Willy Caballero there will always be vulnerabilities, and the fact that he is not cut out at the highest level was highlighted with Croatia’s opener with a horrible error.

A backpass was played back to Caballero and he somehow chipped the ball straight to Ante Rebic who volleyed past him from 10 yards.

Modric then added a second when he curled the ball into the bottom corner before Rakitic’s tap-in completed the scoring in stoppage time.

All four Group C teams were in action earlier in the day.

France secured their place in the second round with a 1-0 win over Peru with Kylian Mbappe scoring his first goal of the tournament when he finished from close range. France could have had more through Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele.

Peru had their chances though but Paolo Guerrero was denied by Hugo Lloris and Pedro Sanchez hit the post from long range.

In the first game of the day, a controversial VAR-given penalty rescued a point for Australia against Denmark.

Christian Eriksen opened the scoring in the seventh minute but Mile Jedinak scored his second spot-kick of the competition after VAR overturned the referee’s decision and deemed that Yussuf Poulsen had handballed in the area.

Cover Photo: FIFA World Cup 2014 by Mariya Butd used under license by CC BY 2.0.