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The first half of the Spain v Croatia match ended up being played in the way we expected.
Spain was dominant and even though Croatia had a number of well-known faces in the lineup, some of those faces are getting on a bit and they did struggle against the young talent that Spain has on offer.
Surprisingly, the second half was a different story, Croatia came back into the game and looked for a real threat going forward.
If you watched the Spain v Croatia match, you would have no doubt been blown away by the Spanish striker, Lamine Yamal who is the youngest ever player in the European Championships at only 16 years old.
What a talent and what an experience for the young player, we can’t wait to follow his progress in this tournament and beyond.
Albania played far better against Italy than we anticipated, taking an early lead (the fastest goal in European Championship history at 23 seconds) certainly changed the direction of the game, but Italy looked calm and assured, quickly scoring two goals to put their mark in the match.
Odds and Predictions
For our tips and predictions, we are going for a Croatia win at odds of 1.48 as we believe that the Croatia team can completely outclass Albania with the vast amount of experience in the team and we are also looking at a scoreline of 3 – 1 at odds of 15.0.
Top-class players, such as Luca Modric, always shine and they will find this game against Albania to be a far more straightforward task than it was against the flair and pace of the Spanish side.
Bearing that in mind, we are also going for a Betbuilder, ‘Croatia to win’, ‘over 2 goals’ and ‘over 8 corners’, which comes in at odds of 4.20.
Comparison and Statistics from Past Meetings between the Teams
Croatia and Albania have faced each other H2H a total of five times in their footballing history. Croatia has won three of these encounters, Albania has won once, and one match ended in a draw.
The results of the five head-to-head matches are listed below.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Oct 2018 | albania | 0-1 | croatia | Friendly Game |
| 05 Sep 2017 | croatia | 1-1 | albania | Friendly Game |
| 11 Oct 2016 | albania | 2-2 | croatia | Friendly Game |
| 11 Jun 2013 | croatia | 2-0 | albania | European Championship Qualifiere |
| 29 Mar 2011 | albania | 0-3 | croatia | World Cup Qualifier |
Expected Line Ups
There were a few tired legs in the Croatian side after the Spain match so it will be interesting to see if the physios can work their magic.
The same could be said about the Albanian side, who certainly worked their socks off against an increasingly confident Italian side, but that’s what the European Championships are all about: rest and recover for the next confrontation as the games come thick and fast.
Croatia (4-3-3): Dominik Livaković; Josip Juranović, Josko Gvardiol, Josip Sutalo, Borna Sosa; Luka Modrić, Mateo Kovačić, Marcelo Brozović; Ivan Perišić, Andrej Kramarić, Nikola Vlašić.
Albania (4-4-2): Etrit Berisha; Elseid Hysaj, Berat Djimsiti, Marash Kumbulla, Mario Mitaj; Taulant Seferi, Ylber Ramadani, Nedim Bajrami, Klaus Gjasula; Armando Broja, Sokol Cikalleshi.
How Far Will These Teams Progress in the Tournament?
Our opinion on Albania hasn’t changed, even after that spirited performance against Italy, we still think they will be knocked out in the group stages. If they were to stand a chance of going through to the last 16, this is a must-win match for them.
As for Croatia, we believe they have got enough in the tank to qualify from this group but the round of 16 may prove to be too much for them.
