Croatia Beat Nigeria 2-0 in full-time FIFA World Cup 2018

Croatia go top of Group D after breezing beyond Nigeria in Kaliningrad. That was pretty uneventful, but they cannot all be Friday-night good, can they?

It was the definition of a routine win for Croatia, with Modric sealing victory with that ice-cool second-half penalty. Straightforward stuff but Nigeria were desperately mediocre; food for thought for Gernot Rohr. Croatia will certainly have to up the ante against a team like Argentina (on Thursday) but, as they say, you can only beat what’s in front of you and they are a classy, professional side. Nigeria take on Iceland on Friday, with anything other than victory bound to end their journey in Russia.

If Nigeria play like this on their next couple of games as well I don’t think that shirt that their supporters queued for for so long will become as fondly remembered as the one it was designed to commemorate.

We expected better from Nigeria. We still do!