Croatia vs Spain Predictions & Betting Tips

Croatia will be bitterly disappointed at the way their second group match ended against Czech Republic. They were two goals to the good and cruising against an inept Czech Republic side, but a series of events will have left them wondering just what happened.

Luka Modric was withdrawn after just after an hour after picking up a knock, and it has now been confirmed that he will miss the match against Spain. This came after the other two standout midfielders, Ivan Rakitic and Ivan Perisic, had scored one apiece in a dominant Croatia performance. Shortly after Modric came off Milan Skoda pulled one back for Czech Republic, and then the game was halted as the Croatia fans threw flares onto the pitch and started fighting amongst themselves. This visibly got to the Croatia players, and just a few minutes later Dmoagoj Vida handled the ball in the area and saw the resulting penalty smashed into the net by Tomas Necid.

Croatia fully deserved all three points from this game, but it wasn’t to be and they now head into the final group game against group favourites Spain with the possibility of missing out on automatic qualification. They currently sit 2nd in the group with four points, two points behind Spain at the top and three ahead of Czech Republic. A defeat for Croatia and a win for Czech Republic would see them draw level on points, and it could come down to UEFA fair play regulations. This would occur if Czech Republic and Spain both won 1-0.

Spain have no such worries going into the final group game. They are safely through to the knockout stages and just need to avoid defeat against Croatia in order to top their group.

Their group opener against Czech Republic was a lesson in possession, but they didn’t find the opening goal until very late on through Gerard Pique, further casting their goalscoring ability into doubt.

They attempted to erase this doubt against Turkey. Once again they enjoyed total dominance of the ball, and their opener came much earlier on as Alvaro Morata flicked a header in ten minutes before the break. Spain took advantage of the disarray in the Turkey defence as Nolito took advantage of a defensive error to put a second in just three minutes later. Morata added a third just after half-time to put the tie to bed, but in all honesty Turkey barely even turned up for the match.

Croatia will be a much more difficult match for Spain, even without Luka Modric. Czech Republic lacked the quality to deal with them and launch any meaningful attacks, and whilst Turkey are a greater quality side they never really seemed interested in trying to get a result.

Croatia are in excellent form as well. They are unbeten in nine and have won seven of these games, scoring 24 goals and conceding four. I can’t see them keeping that defensive record against a Spain side who always find a way through, but I can certainly see Croatia bagging a goal against a Spain defence that can be massively exposed on the counter attack.

Croatia have a lot of quality about them, and good teams have proved that they can fight back against Spain’s possession based system with fast counter attacks and taking advantage of their marauding full backs. Ivan Perisic, Ivan Rakitic, and Mateo Kovacic all have the ability to launch these counters and the talent to finish them off, so I expect them to get a goal against Spain. I can’t see them keeping a clean sheet against the high confidence Spain side, so I’m backing Both Teams to Score at 10/11. I think Croatia could hold out for a draw as well, and I’m going for a high scoring 2-2 draw at huge odds of 16/1.