Kenley Ward
Dailysports's expert
Croatia
Wales
Bonus up to $130/€100
On March 25, Stadion Poljud (Split) will host the match of the first round of the Euro 2024 Qualification, in which Croatia will compete with Wales. The battle will start at 20:45 CET.
Croatia
The team was able to get medals at two world championships in a row. After the 2018 final, there happened the departure of a number of veterans and, as a result, Zlatko Dalić had to reassemble the line-up. Generally speaking, he succeeded – the team didn’t fail at the Euro, and made its direct way to the next world championship directly, leaving the Russian national team behind. “The Checkered Ones” confirmed their high level in 2022. First, they won their group in the UEFA Nations League, in which among the opponents one could find Austria, France and Denmark (having 1 point in the first 2 matches, the team won four times in a row and “snatched” the lead). In Qatar, Modrić and the company were stopped only by Argentina, however, with a 3-0 score. Then, it turned out to beat the opening of the tournament, Morocco, in the duel for the bronze medals. It is reasonable to mention that nowadays the coaching staff does not have so many problems with the players: only Lovren and Vrsaljko left the team. There is no surprise that only a couple of debutants have reached the line-up.
Wales
The national team was able to break into the World Cup – that was for the first time in half a century. It seemed that it was the only precise target – the team devoted the previous year, without any care about the UEFA Nations League, to it. There, the team achieved a draw in the battle against Belgium and lost to both the Netherlands and Poland. The performance was not impressive in Qatar either. There, Rob Page’s wards started with a draw – Bale did not miss the penalty at the very end of the match with the USA. Still, the higher mentioned result was followed by hopeless defeats – a 0-2 misfire in the struggle with Iran and a 0-3 one in the battle against England. As a result, everything ended at the group stage. Nowadays, there will not be a support of the local legend, Gareth, as well as Gunter, Williams and Allen. It is a tradition to call players from the clubs like Luton, Ipswich and Millwall.
The statistics of head-to-head matches
There have been only 6 head-to-head matches. Wales was able to get only 2 draws, losing all other matches.
Predictions
Bookmakers believe that Croatia will improve the statistics by means of the following battle. We recommend betting on “the Checkered Ones” with “a -1 goal handicap” (odd: 2.14).
Bonus up to $130/€100
