World Cup 2018: Why Lionel Messi holds no fear for Dejan Lovren and Croatia

It is Croatia's last chance to make use of their golden generation of stars

As Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand know, if you are a golden generation, you need, at some point, to shine. For the Croatia of Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic and Dejan Lovren, all nearing or past their 30th birthday, time is nearly up.

Perhaps that is why an ordinary victory over Nigeria was celebrated so fervently in Kaliningrad’s Victory Square, which became a mass of red-and-white checked shirts and flags that swayed and danced, surrounded by bemused police detachments, until the morning light began filtering in from the east. It was Zagreb on the Baltic.

If they celebrate like this on Thursday, Croatia will be through to the knockout phases of a World Cup for the first time in 20 years while Argentina and Lionel Messi will be teetering on the brink of oblivion.

Croatia may have had fewer shots than Messi alone had in the 1-1 draw with Iceland, they may have beaten Nigeria through an own-goal and a penalty but they believe and you wonder if Argentina do.

Like the rest of the squad, Dejan Lovren had watched Iceland’s back-four hold out against Messi in Moscow and when the time comes, he was confident he could do the same. “We know it will be tough, we have already played them before,” he said referring to a 2-1 defeat in a friendly at Upton Park four years ago. Then, Messi had converted his penalty.

“But we know how to play against the big teams and we are not scared of them. They have one of the best players in the world, maybe the best, in Messi, but when you saw their game against Iceland, they did a great job and showed how to defend against him. You can’t stop him with one player, you have to defend like a team. You saw that with Iceland.

“It’s an honour, of course, to play against the biggest players in the world. A few weeks ago, I played against Cristiano Ronaldo (in the Champions League final for Liverpool), two weeks ago it was Neymar (in a friendly at Anfield) and now it’s Messi. That’s something you want to do from childhood – to play against the biggest.”

Dejan Lovren of Croatia celebrates with fans following his side's victory over Nigeria (Getty Images)

For Lovren there is the taste of Liverpool’s defeat in Kiev to wash out of his mouth. For his captain, Modric, there is the memory of holding another European Cup aloft to keep the tiredness of an exhausting season at bay. Lovren admits he has less to cling on to.

“Luka feels much better than me, of course,” he smiled. “I wouldn’t say that all emotions have gone and it took me a couple of days to get back into shape mentally – although physically I feel fine. After the final it took me a couple of days to accept it. Now that’s over. I am with the national team and ready to fight.”

For Lovren, Modric and the rest there will always be the long shadow of 1998 cast by Davor Suker, Robert Prosinecki and Slaven Bilic – the men who represented Croatia in their first World Cup and finished third. In the two decades that followed, Croatia have been unable to get out of their group.

On the morning of the match against Nigeria, Lovren and the rest of the squad had gathered in a room at the Radisson hotel and watched a film of that World Cup in France.

“We did it for motivation,” Lovren said. “We know what we want and expectations are really high. Even they, the boys of 98, talk of us as the biggest and best generation we have had – when you see the talent in our squad it is unbelievable. Sometimes, though, you need some luck.”

In Kaliningrad, Croatia took their chances in a way Argentina did not in Moscow while Modric demonstrated to Messi precisely how a penalty should be put away. In 1998 they won their first game, beating the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica 3-1 in Lens. They have not won an opening fixture since. In the squares and streets of Kaliningrad and in Croatia’s training camp near St Petersburg, they will grasp at any omen.

“They say we are much better than in ‘98 but we need to prove it on the pitch,” said Lovren. “For our generation this is the last chance to do something big.”