Half time: Argentina 2-0 ahead with Messi and Alvarez goals against Croatia

Following a tightly-contested first half-hour, Argentina's breakthrough via the penalty spot opened up this semi-final, and as Croatia flooded forward in search of a quick response they were punished by Alvarez's goal on the counter. The young forward also won the penalty which led to Messi's opener, which saw the Albiceleste skipper become his nation's leading scorer in World Cup finals - and in emphatic style. The Croatians may feel hard done by, but now have a mountain to climb if they are to make a second successive World Cup final.

45' + 5' HALF-TIME: ARGENTINA 2-0 CROATIA

45' + 5' In the final act of the first half, Messi eludes three defenders to earn a free-kick deep inside Croatia's defensive third. There's no time to take it, though, as the whistle blows for half-time.

45' + 3' Perisic tries to send over a cross from high up on the left flank, but mishits it badly and sends the ball careering over the crossbar and on to the top of Martinez's net.

45' + 1' After Modric thumps a shot into Otamendi's face from the edge of the area, Juranovic sends a dangerous ball over from the right, which Martinez manages to shepherd away to safety.

44' Two quickfire strikes have changed this game entirely, as Livakovic punches the next corner clear under heavy pressure. Croatia are suddenly hanging on here, as the half-time whistle approaches.

42' SUPER STOP! Reacting sharply to parry away a goalbound header from Mac Allister, Livakovic earns partial redemption for his eariler error, as he keeps Croatia's deficit down to two! It was an excellent effort from the Brighton midfielder, following a corner, and his team-mates can barely believe it didn't sneak into the bottom corner!

41' De Paul drives in a shot from the edge of the box, which Gvardiol manages to block at close quarters, but on closer inspection it seems that it hit the defender's arm. However, he could do little about it and escapes censure from the referee, despite his opponent's pleas.

39' ALVAREZ STRIKES! Argentina go 2-0 ahead, through the sheer persistence of Alvarez! Released by Messi on the halfway line, the young striker charges through the centre, leaving a trail of defenders in his wake, then benefits from a couple of fortunate deflections before poking the ball home from close range!

36' Croatia are clearly stung by their mistake, and having slipped a goal behind are now stepping up their passing rhhytm a notch. They've come from behind several times in the past two World Cups, so shouldn't be phased.

34' ARGENTINA LEAD! Messi is the man for the big moment again, as the Argentina skipper steps up to the spot and sweeps his penalty into the top-right corner, evading the despairing dive of Livakovic! There was no stopping that! The South American champions lead 1-0 in this World Cup semi-final!

32' For bringing down Alvarez with a clumsy challenge in the area, Livakovic receives a yellow card and - more importantly - concedes a penalty.

32' PENALTY FOR ARGENTINA! An error from penalty shootout hero Livakovic sees the Croatia goalkeeper clatter Alvarez in the area, as the Argentina striker strides on to a throughball! That's a penalty for Argentina!

31' This time, Perisic escapes Molina's attentions and manages to turn inside from the left side of the box before seeing a deflected shot loop up over the crossbar. However, the officials mistakenly award a goal-kick.

29' Martinez slides towards the left byline in order to avoid conceding a corner, and his intervention limits the damage to a Croatia throw-in, which ultimately comes to nothing.

27' Modric delivers a disappointing free-kick into the area from the right-centre of Argentina's half, then tracks back to play a crucial role in snuffing out the subsequent counter-attack. Once more, leading by example.

25' SAVE! Livakovic makes the first save of note in this semi-final, as Fernandez curls an optimistic shot towards the bottom-right corner from distance. The Croatian keeper leaps low to his left and palms the ball away!

24' There's no doubt that the Albiceleste are in the ascendancy now, as Tagliafico battles well to keep the ball alive on the left byline and turn the ball across the box - though to no avail - and Croatia find themselves penned in.

22' Having kept a disciplined defensive line so far, Croatia's back four are almost breached for the first time as Gvardiol's clearance gives the ball away to Messi inside the box, but the Argentina captain can't get a shot away.

19' Croatia's short spell of supremacy seems to be at an end - for now, at least - as Argentina manage to progress up the field a few yards. They've yet to cause any real attacking threat, though.

17' Being closed down by Argentina workhorse De Paul, an off-balance Sosa sends his cross towards the area from deep on the left way wide of the target - not his finest moment.

15' After Modric wriggles clear of two men, Juranovic has a cross from the right byline blocked behind; earning the first corner of the game. However, Lovren is then penalised for climbing on his marker, Romero, from the subsequent set-piece.

13' Claiming he was blocked off on the edge of the area by masked man Gvardiol, as he tries to latch on to Fernandez's throughball, Messi gesticulates towards the referee but is ignored.

11' The duel between Perisic and Molina has been well-fought so far, and the latter just about denies his Croatian counterpart the chance to cross from the left byline. This semi-final remains a fairly cagey affair at this point.

9' Croatia are now building their familiar passing rhythm, keeping the ball carefully near the halfway line as Argentina now take their turn to sit back in numbers.

7' In a sign that it could be another combative encounter today, both Romero and Pasalic put in crunching challenges which concede free-kicks.

5' Martinez claims a cross from the left flank with authority, then bowls the ball out and sets Argentina off on the counter-attack. However, they encounter a compact Croatian team, all sitting cautiously inside their own half.

3' After Molina beats Sosa in a foot race towards the right byline, the full-back whips a dangerous cross along the edge of the six-yard box, but no albiceleste shirts are able to make contact as the ball zips away to safety.

1' Croatia kick off, and we are under way in the World Cup semi-final at Lusail Stadium!

1' Hello and welcome to live coverage of today's World Cup semi-final between Argentina and Croatia at Lusail Stadium!

After rousing renditions of both national anthems, both teams are taking up their positions: kick-off is now just moments away!

Croatia name an unchanged team today, so Pasalic retains his place in support of Kramaric - the latter holding off the challenge of extra-time hero Petkovic to start. A much-lauded midfield triumvirate again features Brozovic, Kovacic and captain Modric.

Following a fiery semi-final clash on Friday, Argentina full-backs Montiel and Acuna are both suspended today, and in the latter's absence Tagliafico comes in on the left side of a back four. Lionel Scaloni makes one more change to the XI which started his side's quarter-final win over the Netherlands, as Paredes replaces Lisandro Martinez, in order to combat Croatia's masterful midfield.

SUBS: Ivo Grbic, Ivica Ivusic, Martin Erlic, Mislav Orsic, Nikola Vlasic, Ante Budimir, Kristijan Jakic, Josip Sutalo, Josip Stanisic, Bruno Petkovic, Domagoj Vida, Borna Barisic, Lovro Majer, Marko Livaja, Luka Sucic.

CROATIA (4-3-3): Dominik Livakovic; Josip Juranovic, Josko Gvardiol, Dejan Lovren, Borna Sosa; Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic; Mario Pasalic, Andrej Kramaric, Ivan Perisic.

SUBS: Franco Armani, Geronimo Rulli, Lisandro Martinez, Angel Correa, Exequiel Palacios, Paulo Dybala, Juan Foyth, Thiago Almada, Guido Rodriguez, Angel Di Maria, German Pezzella, Lautaro Martinez.

ARGENTINA (4-4-2): Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico; Rodrigo de Paul, Leandro Paredes, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister; Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez.

Four years after their opponents fell just short in Brazil, Croatia were losing finalists in 2018, and could now become only the fourth European nation to reach consecutive World Cup finals. Today marks their third meeting with Argentina in the competition, but the first in the latter stages; both have won one apiece. While Zlatko Dalic's side have not scored first in any of their last nine World Cup games, Croatian teams have never failed to find the net in their 10 knockout matches since independence. Furthermore, they have won all four of their previous penalty shootouts - this year knocking out Japan and Brazil by that means, in the last 16 and quarter-final respectively. The only nation to win more times on spot-kicks are, of course, Argentina.

Aiming to reach the World Cup final for a sixth time, Argentina approach today's match having never before been eliminated at this stage - most recently making the competition's grand finale in 2014. Though the Albiceleste have won just one of their last seven World Cup finals fixtures against European teams - beating Poland 2-0 in the group stages this year - they edged past the Netherlands in the quarter-finals on penalties, following an absorbing encounter featuring four goals and 18 yellow cards. After losing their opening game in Qatar to Saudi Arabia, the champions of South America recovered to win three successive matches, with captain Lionel Messi leading the way in terms of goals and assists