South American nation Argentina is on the brink of exiting the 2018 World Cup in the group stage after failing to win either of their first two matches in the tournament.

After being stunned in a 1-1 draw with perceived minnows Iceland, it was expected that Jorge Sampaoli's side would return with renewed purpose and get their campaign on track. Yet expectation has again been met with disappointment as the star-studded squad is left with very little hope of qualifying for the knockout round.

After playing Croatia at the Nhzni Novgorod Stadium on Thursday in their second Group D showdown, La Albiceleste emerged worse for wear, convincingly beaten by what we're now realizing is a fearsome Croat side.

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Willy Caballero's costly error set things in motion and things snowballed from there on after, with the Europeans running riot to claim an impressive 3-0 win. The Chelsea goalkeeper did start off well, getting down to save a stinging shot from Inter Milan's Ivan Perisic from the left side of the box in the first half.

But, with just eight minutes gone in the second period, he gifted the Croatians with their first goal, failing to deal with a simple backpass and handing possession over to Ante Rebic in his own box.

There was hardly any hint of Croatia scoring on the play as Caballero could have simply thumped the ball upfield or even kept it, yet he decided to do the brave thing and pass it back, only the ball never reached it's intended target as Rebic instinctively rose to scissor kick it into the back of the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Check out the blunder in the video below:

Real Madrid star Luka Modric piled on the pressure in the 80th minute with a scintillating shot from outside of the box to take the scores to 2-0. And, as if that wasn't enough, Ivan Rakitic topped things up with a third goal during the first minute of stoppage time.

The Argentines are now facing early elimination from the tournament and their hopes rest on Nigeria beating Iceland on Friday.

Sampaoli, meanwhile, has blamed his team's inability to coexist with Lionel Messi for poor results.

"Leo is limited because the team doesn't gel ideally with him as it should," he told the BBC after the match. "I would beg fans for their forgiveness. I am responsible.

"I am just as dreamy-eyed as any fan and I am very hurt. Messi is our captain, he leads the team and we quite simply couldn't pass to him to help him generate the situations he is used to. We worked to give him the ball but the opponent also worked hard to prevent him from getting the ball. We lost that battle."

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