Croatia VS Wales

Croatia host Wales for this EURO 2024 qualification Group D clash at Stadion Poljud in Split early Sunday morning Beijing time. The other teams in this group are Armenia, Turkey and Latvia. Croatia are massive favorites to win this group! However, the teams that finishes in second place also earns a ticket to the tournament in the summer next year. Wales surely do have a chance to achieve this place but they are in steep decline. Gareth Bale, 33, Wales' most important player for over a decade quit his magnificent career of the World Cup in Qatar. This is a massive blow to the Welsh national team, both on and off the pitch. He was a great leader and often scored a decisive goal at a critical moment. He even defended with a great attitude when playing for his country. I am not sure of the betting market fully realizes how much his absence will affect the team. Even with Bale Wales were bad in the World Cup..

Their FIFA ranking of 28 is definitely too high – I have them in the 41th place in my world power rating that reflects the teams' pure class with the best possible lineup. Croatia, too, have had some changes in the squad. Luckily for the hosts Luca Modric is still there, dominating the midfield. The Real Madrid super star never seems to get too old! For a top-10 Croatia do lack some offensive creativity so Luca's role is very important. He is also a true leader and boosts other players, especially younger ones, with this presence! Croatia are in 7th place in the FIFA ranking and this is a bit too high. I would rate them as the 10th-best team in the world. Even so, they have a massive edge over Wales in all areas of the game. Especially offensively Wales will surely struggle here.. They scored just one goal in the World Cup, against a mediocre team USA. Croatia, on the other hand, played a strong tournament beating even the number one favorites, Brazill, in the play offs as massive underdogs on the betting market. They, once again proved that the would earn more respect from the bookies. I do not often go for big favorites at pretty low odds but will make an exception here. For the fans who like bigger odds Croatia -1.5 goals is a good option with a 51% chance of winning. Croatia have a 75% chance taking all three points here. They took third place in Qatar beating Morocco in the last game. In the semi-final they were outplayed by Argentina though but the 3-0 final score is still misleading. Let's remember that Wales have not won any of their most recent eight matches! The most recent win was achieved last June in UEFA Nations League when they beat Ukraine at home but the win was an undeserved one as Ukraine had around 65% ball possession and also recorded many more shots on goal, goal attempts, total passes, completed passes, attacks and dangerous attacks. They also looked much better overall. In their most recent match they had not chance at all and England crushed them 3-0.