Croatia VS Belgium

Croatia and Belgium lock horns in this Group F clash at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan late Thursday evening Beijing time. The stakes are massive and the situation ahead of this game in the group is very interesting. Canada, despite being energetic and better than the results suggest on the pitch are out as they have not scored any points. Croatia lead the the group with four points, Morocco too have four points in the bank but have a worse score difference - 2:0. Belgium have taken three points but have a negative score difference – 1:2. If teams finish on equal points at the end of the season, score difference will be the tie-breaker. Indeed, Morocco, who have positively surprised probably almost everyone are clear – over 50% favorites against the Canadians who only have their pride in play tonight. If Canada do not win, Belgium must take all three points. They may not take big risks early into the game but unless Canada take a clear lead Belgium have to start taking any risk necessary to win. I believe this will not end well against an excellent team, Croatia. They have many experienced and ultra-skilled players. We all probably know Luca Modric.. They also have the under-rated Ivan Perišić, who is another player to watch closely! This experienced (33 years old) and extremely creative guy earns his salary with Tottenham, a team that currently occupies the 4th place in the English Premier League, the best league on the planet– just three points behind the mighty Manchester City, the best club in the world.

This is probably a bold statement but at the moment, in my view, Croatia have an edge in all areas of the game! Yes, also in offense as Inter Milan's Lukaku has been suffering from injuries, Hazard has not been good for some three years! Kevin De Bruyne is absolutely great with Manchester City but not so much with the national team.. He should be more creative when playing for his country but of course his team mates are much worse than for example the super talented Norwegian Erling Håland at Man City.In defense Belgium have shown even more weakness than expected! Especially Verthongen is too old and slow for this level If Croatia get a chance for fast counter attacks it could be very bad for Belgium's already slim chances of qualifying for the play offs.. They have also have possibly serious internal issues as widely known by most football fans at this point, I believe. It is hard to say how much this affects them but of course it is very bad news for massively disappointing Belgium who would not have deserved a win against Canada in terms of expected goals.. I do not trust their Spanish coach Roberto Martinez in terms of tactical ability. Their goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, 30 who plays for Real Madrid is a world-class player at least.. Even so, as a whole Belgium were awful against Morocco and I would say deservedly lost 0-2 after shaky defending and being lame offensively - taking into account the list of players and the (way too high FIFA ranking - 2nd) Croatia, on the other hand, crushed Canada recording whopping 3.66 in expected goals! The final score was 4-1. I do not understand why (at the time of writing this) Belgium are the favorites to win on the betting market! We will trust Croatia here. They should be the favorites with a 43% chance of winning!

A few more word about Real Madrid's Luca Modric; He is indeed expected to prove shine once again! He has not shown any signs of slowing down despite the mature age of 37! His ability to read the game and at least 95 % of the time to give the correct pass are at an amazing level! He is also a massive leader - even a father figure - for Croatia - a very united team without any known internal issues. Luca was in a big role in May when Real Madrid went all the way in Champions League beating massive clubs like PSG, Manchester City and lastly Liverpool - all as underdogs - in the final! He was excellent also in the World Cup back in 2018 when his country even made it to the final but lost to France 2-4 after a huge fight.Croatia have won six of their latest seven games and lost just one of their latest 18 matches! This loss happened early summer this year in UEFA Nations League 0-3 at home against Austria, a quite good team and we must remember that Croatia did not start the game with their best players.. The final score is very misleading as Croatia had almost 60% ball possession and much more attacks and dangerous attacks. They also defeated France, the reigning World Champions, in the Nations League early in the summer 1-0. They topped the tough group with 13 points in the pocket. Denmark, another strong team - at the time at least -came second with 12 points. Croatia beat the Danes even in Copenhagen at Parken 1-0 allowing the hosts just one shot on goal! Against Morocco Croatia were, however, a little disappointing offensively but it was a very cautious match from both teams. Morocco were also better and tactically more mature than I would have expected..

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克罗地亚VS比利时

北京时间周四晚间，F组克罗地亚和比利时在阿尔雷扬的艾哈迈德·本·阿里体育场进行了激烈的交锋。赌注是巨大的，小组赛前的情况非常有趣。尽管加拿大队在场上的表现比比赛结果要好，但他们没有得到任何分数，因此出局了。克罗地亚以4分领跑小组，摩洛哥也有4分的积分金，但他们的比分更差——2:0。比利时已经拿了3分，但是他们的比分是负的——1:2。如果两支球队在赛季结束时积分相等，那么比分差将成为决胜局。事实上，摩洛哥给几乎所有人都带来了惊喜，超过50%的人看好他们，而加拿大人今晚的比赛只体现了他们的骄傲。如果加拿大赢不了，比利时必须拿下全部三分。他们可能不会在比赛初期冒太大的风险，但除非加拿大取得明显领先，否则比利时必须开始冒任何必要的风险来赢得比赛。我相信对阵克罗地亚这样一支优秀的球队不会有好结果。他们有许多经验丰富和技术精湛的球员。我们可能都认识卢卡·莫德里奇。他们还有被低估的佩里希奇，他是另一个需要密切关注的球员!这位经验丰富(33岁)且极具创造力的球员在托特纳姆热刺挣薪水，这支球队目前在英超排名第四，是这个星球上最好的联赛——只比强大的曼城，世界上最好的俱乐部落后3分。

这可能是一个大胆的声明，但在目前，在我看来，克罗地亚在比赛的所有领域都有优势!是的，在进攻端，由于国际米兰的卢卡库一直在受伤病困扰，阿扎尔已经有三年的时间状态不佳了!凯文·德布鲁因在曼城的表现非常出色，但在国家队就不那么出色了。他在为国效力时应该更有创造力，但当然他的队友比超级天才挪威人埃林Håland在曼城要差得多。在防御方面，比利时表现出的弱点比预期的还要多!特别是维尔通根太老了，速度太慢了，不适合这个水平。如果克罗地亚有机会进行快速反击，那将对比利时本已渺茫的预赛出线机会非常不利。我相信，就像大多数球迷所熟知的那样，他们可能也存在严重的内部问题。很难说这对他们的影响有多大，但当然，这对非常令人失望的比利时来说是非常坏的消息，从预期进球来看，他们本不应该赢加拿大。就战术能力而言，我不相信他们的西班牙教练罗伯托·马丁内斯。他们的门将库尔图瓦，30岁，效力于皇家马德里，至少是世界级的球员。尽管如此，整个比利时在对阵摩洛哥的比赛中表现得很糟糕，在防守不稳定和进攻不力的情况下，我想说0:2的输球是理所当然的——考虑到球员名单和(FIFA排名太高了，第2)克罗地亚，另一方面，击败了加拿大，预期进球数高达3.66 !最终比分是4比1。我不明白为什么(在写这篇文章的时候)比利时是博彩市场上最受欢迎的赢家!我们相信克罗地亚。他们应该是最有希望的，有43%的机会获胜!

再多说几句关于皇马的卢卡·莫德里奇;他确实被期待再次证明自己的光芒!尽管他已经37岁了，但他并没有表现出任何放缓的迹象!他阅读比赛的能力和至少95%的时间给出正确的传球是一个惊人的水平!他也是一个伟大的领袖，甚至是一个父亲般的人物，对于克罗地亚来说，这是一支非常团结的球队，没有任何已知的内部问题。卢卡在5月份的欧冠决赛中发挥了重要作用，当时皇马一路在欧冠决赛中击败了圣日耳曼、曼城和最后的利物浦等豪门，而这些球队都是不被看好的球队。在2018年的世界杯上，他也表现出色，当时他的国家甚至进入了决赛，但在激烈的战斗后以2-4输给了法国。克罗地亚在最近的7场比赛中赢了6场，在最近的18场比赛中只输了1场!这场失利发生在今年初夏的欧足联国家联赛中，主场0-3输给了奥地利，这是一支相当不错的球队，我们必须记住，克罗地亚在比赛开始时并没有派出最好的球员。最终的比分是非常误导人的，因为克罗地亚几乎有60%的控球率，更多的进攻和危险的进攻。今年夏初，他们还在国家联赛(Nations League)中以1比0击败了卫冕世界冠军法国队。他们以13分领跑了这一组。丹麦，另一支强队——至少在当时——以12分排名第二。克罗地亚甚至在哥本哈根的帕肯1-0击败了丹麦，东道主只射了一球!对阵摩洛哥，克罗地亚在进攻端有些令人失望，但这是两支球队都非常谨慎的比赛。摩洛哥也比我想象的更好，战术上更成熟。