Czech Republic vs Croatia Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jun 15, 2016 @ 02:51 am

Next Friday, 17th of June 2016, a motivated Croatia will measure forces with a Czech Republic hurting in their pride at Stade Geoffroy Guichard at Saint-Etienne for the second round of Group D.

Croatia have left their fans purring after a solid overall performance against Turkey in their opening match last Sunday. Quality ball possession, excellent short-passing between lines and the talent of all the players in the team pushed their opponents against the ropes for almost the entire match. After missing several chances still in the first-half, Croatia got the lead just before the break, thanks to a spectacular scorcher from outside the box by talented Real Madrid’s playmaker Luka Modric. The 30-year old midfielder took advantage from a poor clearance made by Turkish defensive line and fired a tremendous shot from outside the box to beat a hopeless Volkan Babacan.

Croatia piled on the pressure during the second-half and if it wasn’t from Babacan’s top performance at the Turkish net, Fatih Terim would have suffered a considerably painful defeat. The upcoming match against the Czech Republic will certainly not be an easy one given their opponents’ excellent defensive positioning, but Croatia have everything in their favour to claw the three points.

Darijo Srna, who was informed about the death of his father following last Sunday’s match, travelled to Croatia to attend the funeral and it is unclear if he will take part on the remaining matches of his team at the European Championship. Vedran Corluka, Ivan Strinic and Ivan Perisic are all recovering from minor injuries and are doubts out there.

As for the Czech Republic, Pavel Vrba’s men pulled off an almost heroic effort against Spain last Monday, but ended up defeat by Gerard Piqué’s late goal. The Czech team opted for a more pragmatic approach to the match with two lines of four players, in defense and in the midfield, and with Tomas Rosicky acting as some sort of trequartista supporting the powerful forward Tomas Necid. Spain experienced plenty of difficulty to unmount the Czech defensive spiderweb, but were persistent enough to take advantage from a marking mistake inside the box to sentence the match on minute 87’.

Pavel Vrba needs to rally the troops for the upcoming match against Croatia, otherwise his team might say goodbye to the European Championship very early in the competition.

Russia

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LLWWD

Croatia

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WWWDW

Possible Line-ups

Czech Republic (4-2-3-1) – Cech - Kaderabek - Sivok - Hubnik - Limbersky - Darida - Plasil - Selassie - Krejci - Rosicky - Necid

Croatia (4-2-3-1) – Subasic - Vrsaljko - Corluka - Vida - Jedvaj - Modric - Badelj - Rakitic - Brozovic - Perisic - Mandzukic

Injury List / Suspended Players

Czech Republic - None

Croatia - Srna (probably out for the tournament) - Corluka (in doubt) - Perisic (in doubt) - Strinic (in doubt)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions