<p>Moscow [Russia], June 22 (ANI): Lionel Messi's dream of winning the World Cup now looks remote as Argentina crashed to a 3-0 defeat to Croatia at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.</p><p>Argentine goalkeeper Willy Caballero in the 53rd minute gave Ante Rebic an opportunity which was hard to refuse, as per goal.com.</p><p>Rebic sent a volley through Caballero's silhouette to begin the scoring.</p><p>Real Madrid's Modric bent a wonder strike around a diving Caballero in the 80th minute before Messi's Barcelona team-mate Rakitic completed the scoring after Croatia sliced apart Argentina's hapless defence in injury time.</p><p>Second-half goals from Rebic, Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic sealed a deserved victory for Croatia.</p><p>Croatia has made space for itself into the last 16 of the World Cup.</p><p>Croatia has been in two wins against Nigeria and now La Albiceleste, Argentina.</p><p>In order to save itself from humiliation, as per the Group D defeat, Argentina will probably have to beat Nigeria in their last game to avoid elimination.</p><p>Talking about the match, Argentina Manager Jorge Sampaoli said the team couldn't change the course of events.</p><p>"We were emotionally broken and we didn't have any football arguments to make to change the course of events," The Washington Post quoted Sampaoli as saying.</p><p>Argentina seems to need loads of help. The Argentina Manager said the team played under pressure.</p><p>"We're playing with a lot of pressure for our last match. We tried everything and clearly we didn't find what we wanted to find," Sampaoli said.</p><p>The defeat leaves the Argentinians facing a repeat of their 2002 campaign when they also went out at the group stage after being tipped as possible World Cup winners. (ANI)</p><br/><center><em><p>This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI</p></em></center>
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