A few goals to be had
Friday night sees World Cup semi finalists England and Croatia go head to head since their summer sojourn in Russia. Croatia started off their UEFA Nations League campaign in utter fiasco against Spain. England lost their first against the Iberians, so there’s a lot of ground to be made up for here. I predict a few goals to fly in.
Croatia
Croatia had a crazy World Cup campaign, and although they didn’t win it, taking home silver can’t be seen as anything other than a success. They generally have a quite well rounded squad, but especially in terms of their midfield containing the likes of Modric, Rakitic, and Kovacic. Even their forward line screams quality with Kramaric, Perisic and Rebic.
In their opening Nations League game they lost an astonishing 6-0 to Spain, and with it all the positivity of the World Cup crashing down into an untimely end. It surely must have been down to some kind of exhaustion from an overactive and over-expected summer, potentially even over-confidence.
Hopefully we’ll be able to see a reboot of the Croatia we saw in the summer, especially when considering they’re meeting up with an England team they got the better of only a few short weeks ago.
And it wouldn’t be a surprise, if they did. The Croats scored at least a goal in ten straight matches, prior to the Spain debacle.
England
England also lost their opener to Spain, but not because of being outclassed like the Croats. Similarly though England come out of the World Cup basking in positivity, heralding in a new generation of players.
England are young, free flowing and quick on the attack. Accordingly, England scored in their last 10 as well, before meeting Belgium in the playoff for third spot.
During the summer England showed how dangerous they are on the attack, although they also revealed weaknesses at the back. Still, their defensive line up isn’t clear and it’s likely to be a problem against Croatia. The last ten matches England have played have had an average of 2.60 goals scored overall.
Match Tip
Despite their opener, Croatia are still a strong team with top players and an impressive offensive line up. They will create problems for England’s defence. Still, England with Rashford and Sterling will create problems in turn for the Croats.
There's a few goals in this one for sure and that’s exactly why I’m going for over 2 goals in the match at bright odds of 5/4 (2.25) with William Hill.
