In the second match, group 4 of the UEFA Nations League, Croatia will host England, at the Rijeka HNK Stadium, on Saturday 1.45 local time. This is the second meeting between Croatia and England after the 2018 World Cup meeting, and England lost at that time.
The Croatia squad has a very good performance this year. Until the 2018 World Cup they could penetrate the final even though they had to end up failing to win the championship after being silenced by France. But that will be a big capital for the Croatian squad to continue to increase.
However, there are strange things that happened after the world cup took place. They get worse. Armed with Spain in the first UEFA League match. Croatia were badly beaten by Spain with a final score of 6-0. Maybe you can see how Marco Asensio from Real Madrid is very troublesome for Modric's defense and his friends that day.
The match, they were like losing their spirits. The ball is dominated by Spain up to 70%. While Croatia is only 30%. Worse, only once. They can try to test Spain goalkeeper David De Gea. The performance of the day was very clear, that the Croatian squad had lost their appearance after the world cup.
Luca Modric and Ivan Rakitic will be at the heart of the Croatian national team. Of course their second appearance will determine the final result of the match. But most likely, this attack will have a change in the line, given a defeat like when the match against Spain at the start of the UEFA European Union League was held when Croatia silenced Spain.
Meanwhile, England also suffered a defeat from Spain with a final score of 2-1. Only Marcus Rashford scored England's only goal in the match. This match will be an interesting match, why? Because this can be a revenge match for England.
Croatia is a football team that thwarted Gareth Southgate's dream of getting the 2018 World Cup. They lost 2-1 in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals. Although initially they could be balanced 1-1 to 109 minutes, Mario Mandzukic managed to break England's goal until the score ended 2 -1.
Head to Head
The last match of the two teams was in the semifinal round of the world cup. Mandzukic became a hero who saved his team to the final with his last goal in the 109th minute. Although at the beginning of the match, England managed to break into Croatia's goal in the 5th minute. But Ivan Perisic managed to equalize shortly afterwards.
Of the previous seven matches, England still dominated the victory over Croatia. Of the seven matches, England won 4 times, lost 2 and drawn one. Strangely, from the last few matches every victory was only 1 goal difference. And just one match from two matches on Croatian soil, England won.
Prediction score, Croatia vs England
From analysis and head to head matches in recent years between Croatia vs. England. And from the last meeting to the last appearance of the team that lost the Croatia squad when dealing with Spain a few weeks ago, I drew the conclusion for the predictions of the Croatia 1 - 2 England score. []
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