Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric has warned that Saturday’s opening Group D match against Nigeria will define his team’s outing at the World Cup in Russia.
The match in Kaliningrad will kick off at 8pm local time, which will be 6pm in Nigeria.
It will be the first-ever meeting between the two countries at full international level as Croatia only became an independent country in 1992.
Kramaric said it is a crunch game for his star-studded team, who qualified for Russia 2018 through the playoffs.
“Nigeria are for me the most difficult and most important opponents,” he said at the team’s training ground in Saint Petersburg.
“That game is for us opening or the closing of the World Cup.
“So, we will have full concentration on that game.”
Argentina and Iceland are the other teams in Group D.
