Croatia vs Azerbaijan Prediction & Betting Tips - Euro

Prediction published on 19/03/2019, 19:57  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/03/2019 at 20:58 in Euro Predictions

Croatia were the nearly men of world football last year. Runners-up in the World Cup and then in with a great chance of winning their UEFA Nations League group only to lose to England. They begin their Euro 2020 campaign with a home match against Azerbaijan. The other teams in their qualifying group are Wales, Hungary and Slovakia. Croatia have a fantastic home record and haven't lost in Croatia since a World Cup qualifying loss to Belgium in 2013. Since 1994 when first playing as Croatia they have played 30 home European Championship qualifers and not lost one of them. 

Azerbaijan played in League D of the Nations League but failed to win promotion, finishing second behind Kosovo but ahead of the Faroe Islands and Malta. They only won one of their three away games and lost 4-0 in Kosovo. Azerbaijan have never qualified for a major finals, usually finishing fifth out of six in their groups. They have lost six of their last seven European Championship qualifiers, the other being a 5-1 home win over lowly San Marino who are bottom of the FIFA world rankings. Away form has seen Azerbaijan two away qualifiers in the last 23 years beating San Marino and Leichtenstein. Overall, they only have two wins in their last seven played away from home and the tip here is for Croatia to win and lead at both half and full time.