The Croatian national football team continues its demanding tour in the World Cup qualifiers in Qatar. After a goalless draw in Moscow, this Saturday our guests are in Bratislava , with another direct rival for the first place in Group H, which leads directly to the World Cup.

Zlatko Dalić's side was in a qualifying period far from untouchable, which showed the defeat of Slovenia. A point against Russia kept Croatia in the lead, but not a single national team, including Cyprus and Malta, dropped out of the game to go further, so we can say that the key games are yet to come. Croatian footballers definitely play one of them away against Slovakia. The key role will again have to be taken by the most experienced, first of all Ivan Perišić in the offensive, as well as Mateo Kovačić in the middle of the field, while Dejan Lovren continues to lead the defense. Croatia has some problems with injuries. There is no Luka Modrić , which is a huge handicap, and Ante Budimir is also missing in the attack, while Dalić gave up Brekal, Rebić and Petković. There are also problems in the defense, because Ćaleta-Car and Guardiol were injured in Moscow, but he is returning to the team after the suspension of Domagoj Vida , which is great news. All in all, this is a team that is certainly not the strongest that Croatia has at the moment, but it has a quality with which it can match everyone in the group.

And Slovakia, on the other hand, is completely unpredictable. Sometimes they plays great, sometimes desperately. Started the qualifiers with stumbles against Cyprus and Malta , and when everyone had already written her off, they beat Russia away.The Slovaks, whose coach Štefan Tarkovič survived the 0: 5 defeat by Spain at the recent European Championship, once again showed on Wednesday with a draw away to Slovenia that they can play good football and our team must not underestimate them. The host has some very respectable football players in its ranks, such as defender Milan Škriniar and the legendary Marek Hamšik , while Duda, Kučka, Weiss, and Lobotka are also well known to everyone. In the attack, they have a new striking force, 21-year-old Robert Boženik , who scored in the previous match and should get adequate attention from the Croatian defense. Croatia does not have bad experiences with the Slovaks and has not lost to them so far, but every game is a new challenge. In any case, at the Tehelné pole stadium, our team will have to play extremely concentrated if they want to win.

Even if we had bets against Croatia in last match vs Russia, I think now that Croatia is a good bet here as most recent games showed me signals to think so. Missing of Luka Modric is really big thing for a team but I think Croatia still got enough to win here. Last matches are showing that Croatia knows to play against Slovakia.

16.11.19 Croatia 3: 1 Slovakia

06.09.19 Slovakia 0: 4 Croatia

11.08.10 Slovakia 1: 1 Croatia

16.10.07 Croatia 3: 0 Slovakia

29.05.04 Croatia 1: 0 Slovakia

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

克罗地亚国家足球队继续在卡塔尔进行艰苦的世界杯预选赛。在莫斯科0 - 0战平后，本周六我们的客人将来到布拉迪斯拉发，与另一个直接竞争H组第一的对手，直接进入世界杯。

Zlatko Dalić的球队在预选赛阶段远未达到不可触碰的水平，这显示了对斯洛文尼亚的失败。克罗地亚在与俄罗斯的比赛中领先一分，但包括塞浦路斯和马耳他在内的所有国家队都没有退出比赛，因此我们可以说，关键的比赛还没有到来。克罗地亚球员肯定会在客场对阵斯洛伐克。关键的角色将再次由最有经验的人来担当，首先是进攻端的伊凡Perišić，以及中场的马特奥Kovačić，而德扬洛夫伦将继续领导防守。克罗地亚有一些伤病问题。没有Luka Modrić，这是一个巨大的障碍，Ante Budimir也在攻击中消失，Dalić放弃了Brekal, Rebić和Petković。防守方面也有问题，Ćaleta-Car和Guardiol在莫斯科受伤，但他在Domagoj Vida停赛后回到了球队，这是一个好消息。总而言之，这支球队肯定不是克罗地亚队目前最强的，但它的实力可以与小组中的其他球队相匹敌。

另一方面，斯洛伐克是完全不可预测的。他们有时打得很好，有时打得很拼命。在预选赛开始时，她在与塞浦路斯和马耳他的比赛中遭遇了挫折，当所有人都认为她输了的时候，他们击败了俄罗斯。斯洛伐克队主教练Štefan Tarkovič在最近的欧洲杯0:5负于西班牙的比赛中幸免于难。在周三对阵斯洛文尼亚的比赛中，斯洛伐克队再次证明，他们可以踢出漂亮的足球，我们的球队不能低估他们。主办方有一些非常受人尊敬的足球运动员，如后卫米兰Škriniar和传奇马立克Hamšik，而杜达、Kučka、韦斯和洛波特卡也广为人知。在进攻方面，他们有了新的攻击力，21岁的罗伯特Boženik，他在上一场比赛中进球，应该得到克罗地亚防守的足够重视。克罗地亚与斯洛伐克的比赛并没有糟糕的经历，到目前为止也没有输给他们，但每一场比赛都是新的挑战。无论如何，在Tehelné杆球场，我们的球队必须非常集中，如果他们想赢。

即使我们在上一场对俄罗斯的比赛中赌克罗地亚输，我认为现在克罗地亚是一个很好的赌注，因为最近的比赛给了我这样想的信号。失去莫德里奇对一支球队来说是件大事，但我认为克罗地亚仍然有足够的实力赢得比赛。最近的比赛表明克罗地亚知道如何对付斯洛伐克。