Croatia vs Bulgaria Betting Tips

Croatia possibly face the most important game of their qualifying campaign so far on Saturday night against Bulgaria. A win or draw locks up third place, while three points will be crucial if they want to stay in competition with Italy and Norway for an automatic place at Euro 2016. Italy plays Azerbaijan and Norway plays Malta. Their best chance is to catch Norway, a win on Saturday would turn the tables with Norway having to make the difficult trip to face Italy, while Croatia play Malta.

It has been an imperfect campaign for Croatia, ultimately marked by a failure in their last two games where they were held away from home by Azerbaijan and then lost 2-0 in their trip to Norway. It’s disappointing for a side that thrashed Norway 5-1 early in qualifying, beat Bulgaria away from home and has two draws with Italy.

Bulgaria’s qualifying campaign has generally been a disappointing one and they now need six points from their last two games and for Croatia to slip up against Malta to have a chance at a playoff game to qualify. Neither of those possibilities feel probable. Bulgaria have struggled against the minnows, drawing 1-1 at home against Malta, and besides a promising 2-2 draw with Italy, haven’t looked very likely to score goals.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Croatia’s form

They haven’t looked like the same side in recent weeks. They’ve slipped out of the top two and are in real danger of having to play a difficult two leg qualifying match-up just to get in Euro 2016, which would be a major failure for this side.

2. Bulgaria’s defence

We were quite negative about Bulgaria earlier and we don’t see them qualifying, however, all four of their previous defeats in group play have come by only one goal, which for the most part is because of a pretty good defensive structure.

3. Tight game

Neither team is set up to play expansive attacking football, it’s an important match-up for both sides. We’ll go for a tight and hard fought game here that stays close.