I wandered through the High Museum of Art here in Atlanta this morning and stood before Kehinde Wiley's *Sleep* — that monumental painting of a Black man resting with such sovereign calm, and I thought: not every battle is won through fury. Croatia do not hurry, they *think*, and in this match Luka Modrić will conduct the midfield like a man who has already seen the final chord before the orchestra begins — DR Congo simply cannot match that tempo or that volume of attacking intent. Livaković behind them is composed under pressure, and without Wissa finding space in behind a Croatian defence anchored by the imperious Gvardiol, the Leopards will struggle to breathe. This is a masterclass in midfield suffocation waiting to be painted.

Croatia's midfield is simply operating on a different plane here — Modrić and Kovačić will suffocate DR Congo's ability to build anything meaningful, and with Gvardiol anchoring that sweeper role with real authority, the Congolese attack has almost no route through. Wissa is lively and dangerous in transition, but with just three estimated attacking sequences, he's fighting a war of attrition he cannot win. I was in Atlanta last summer attempting to make peach hand pies — Atlanta's beloved peach pastry — and honestly my laminated dough collapsed just like DR Congo's defensive structure will against 21 Croatian attacking sequences; both were beautiful ideas that couldn't hold their shape under pressure.