Spain vs Croatia predictions and betting tips on June 24, 2023
Ileana Sanchez
Dailysports's expert
Spain U21
Croatia U21
On June 24, Superbet Arena – Giulesti (Bucharest) will host the match of the 2nd round of the Euro U21, in which Spain will compete with Croatia. The battle will start at 20:45 CET.
Spain
The national team has become the continental champion in this age category 5 times. Moreover, this achievement happened three times in the past decade, in 2011, 2013 and 2019. Speaking about the previous tournament, which was a couple of years ago, everything ended at the semi-final stage. A lot is always expected from “La Rojita”, including from the current generation, although Ansu Fati, Pedri, Gavi, Pino, Eric Garcia, Alejandro Balde, Arnau Martinez, Gil, Sancet, Ferran Torres and Nico Williams are out of the squad. Even without all this heap of stars, the team demonstrated 100% results in the qualification, winning all 8 matches – however, Slovakia was the strongest opponent there. The Spanish team, speaking about the current Euro, examined the hosts, Romania, in the 1st round. The opponent survived for a little more than half a match, but the grandee brought the matter to a devastating 3-0 score. Moreover, the team is clearly determined to win more.
Croatia
The team has already played at the Euro four times before. “The Checkered Ones” were again knocked out at the end of the group stage in 2019, and a couple of years later they managed to get into the play-offs for the first time, however, that success was followed by a defeat already in the quarter-final. The new qualification brought a stubborn struggle with Norway and, as a result, the Scandinavians got one victory more. Skočić’s wards went to the play-offs with 7 wins and 22 points, where they exchanged 2-1 victories in the confrontation with Denmark – still, it became better in the penalty shoot-out. The scenario of the 1st round of the Euro in the battle against Ukraine was completely different. The team conceded a goal in each of the halves, having failed to make a reply, on Wednesday.
The statistics of head-to-head matches
The Spanish team won 3 out of 4 first fights in the qualifications in 2011-2015. And the most important thing is that these teams played a head-to-head match in the previous Euro: “La Rojita” became the winner at the 1/4 stage, having achieved a 2-1 score in extra time due to Puado’s double.
Predictions
Bookmakers do not believe that the teams will suddenly change. Thus, we can risk and bet on “La Rojita” with “a -1 goal handicap” (odd: 2.10).
