Croatia vs Wales 08/06/19

8 June 2019

Croatia and Wales go head-to-head in a competitive group E at the European qualifiers, with the match scheduled to take place at the Stadion Gradski Vrt in Osijek.

After starting their European qualifiers off on the right foot with a 2-1 home win over Azerbaijan, the hosts have suffered a 2-1 away loss to Hungary, which highlights their inconsistency in the post-World Cup period. The 2018 World Cup runners-up have picked up just three triumphs in eight games since returning from Russia (W3, D2, L3), with all of their three defeats in that period coming in competitive outings. Notably, the Blazers have conceded over 1.5 match goals across all of those failures, while netting 2+ match goals in all three of their wins in the past ten months. Also, Zlatko Dalic can be encouraged by the fact his players have won seven of their previous ten competitive home games (W7, D3).

Meanwhile, the visitors are eager to battle their way to a major international competition after failing to qualify for the World Cup. They have outplayed Slovakia 1-0 at home in their opening match in the European qualifiers. Interestingly, four of five of the Dragons’ previous games have ended with the identical 1-0 scoreline (W3, L1), with three of those goals coming after the halftime break. Ryan Giggs’ potential worry could be Wales’ indifferent road form lately (W2, D1, L3), especially the fact that his players have struggled to find the net in four of those matches. Additionally, just one of Wales’ ten previous away games has featured over 2.5 goals, with one seeing both teams score too.