Outright Odds: sixty six/one
Team File Winners: 6/1
Croatia enter their 3rd successive finals and may seek out a repeat of your heroics of 1998 in lieu of the shame of 2002. They topped a hard qualifying group which involved Bulgaria and Hungary and remained unbeaten more than 10 matches which integrated dwelling and away victories about fellow qualifiers Sweden.
Under supervisor Zlatko Kranjcar Croatia are a different staff to how neutrals will bear in mind them from their 1998 exploits which noticed them get to the semi-closing. Long gone are flair gamers such as Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinecki and previous Golden Boot Davor Suker. They are actually replaced by more useful players such as the Kovac brothers, Marko Babic and Dado Prso.
Like fellow qualifiers Serbia & Montenegro, Croatias achievements stemmed from a robust defence where they saved 6 clear sheets in ten games and conceded just five aims in the method.
A further toughness can be a amount of the present Croatia squad are based in the Bundesliga, with Josip Simunic and Niko Kovac at Hertha Berlin, Babic dependent at Bayer Leverkusen and Ivan Klasnic contracted to Werder Bremen.
Croatia have unearthed a talent in midfielder Dario Srna who's got made a knack for scoring very important objectives. The Shakhtar Donetsk participant scored both equally goals in the two one-0 wins above Sweden inside the defining matches from the team.
Key striker Dado Prso scored 5 targets in qualifying, his countrys joint top scorer with Srna. He burst into prominence when he netted 4 aims for Monaco within the 8-three Champions League thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna. He made his Global debut 8 months prior to the match but has because 카지노사이트 develop into an automated decision in attack.
Croatia have gone regarding their enterprise quietly and confidently and In spite of their unbeaten qualification efforts, will keep on being unfancied by a lot of to create any impact from the finals. That will fit them high-quality as previous mentor Mirko Jozic blamed the force on The category of 1998 for your dismal failure of the 2002 squad which noticed them reduce 1-0 to Ecuador within their remaining match.
Finally, they facial area favourites Brazil within their opening match so won't have to bother with going through the reigning champions within a crunch team decider. If they can get anything from that video game they will be in pole situation to achieving the next spherical.
Encouraged Guess
Despite the apparent toughness from the group, Croatia are much more than able to qualifying from it provided their latest showings in qualifying to the finals. With one of many meanest defences in Europe and a host of players plying their trade in Germany They are really a sound wager to adhere to Brazil into the last sixteen.
Croatia to qualify from Group F @ five/6
