Croatia vs Wales Prediction & Betting Tips - Euro

Prediction published on 04/05/2019, 23:08  by Donal Kearns | Modified on 06/06/2019 at 13:02 in Euro Predictions

Ryan Giggs takes Wales to Croatia on Saturday, but can his team produce a result to stay in contention for a place at Euro 2020? These two sides have a tricky group in their fight to make the next major tournament, while neither side is currently in the playoffs through the Nations League. That leaves them chasing a top-two finish in this group, so Saturday’s meeting in Osijek is a crucial clash for both teams. Since making the World Cup final a year ago, things have been quite up and down for Croatia. They’ve recorded a win and a heavy defeat against Spain, while they’ve started their qualifying campaign with a win and a defeat. The Croatians are likely to make the Euros given their consistent qualifying record, but we see them being put under pressure here. This group includes one of the Euro 2020 hosts – Azerbaijan – and four sides who all will expect to make it to the tournament. Three of the five made the last 16 at the previous European Championships – Slovakia, Hungary and World Cup runners-up Croatia. On top of that, Wales were semi-finalists in France three years ago. That leaves Ryan Giggs with a big job to do, while he has to navigate his team through what is likely to be a tight game. Croatia’s games during the World Cup qualifying campaign were quite low scoring, with nine of the 10 seeing fewer than three goals scored. The only anomaly in that bunch was a 6-0 win over Kosovo in one of the minnow’s first competitive international matches. Otherwise, Croatia’s games tended to be on the dull side – including their 1-0 win at home to Kosovo later in the group. All five of Croatia’s home qualifying group games saw under 2.5 goals, with just eight goals scored across those matches.