Euro 2020 Preview: Croatia vs the Czech Republic, Key stats, Line-ups, Odds, Prediction

England's Gareth Southgate, Croatia's Zlatko Dalic and Czech Republic's Jaroslav Silhavy
England's Gareth Southgate, Croatia's Zlatko Dalic and Czech Republic's Jaroslav Silhavy

Croatia will look to bounce back from their opening day loss to England when they play the Czech Republic in their second group match of Euro 2020.

Stadium: Hampden Park (Glasgow)

Key Statistics

Croatia are winless in their last three games. They have kept just two clean sheets in their last 17 games 

The Czech Republic have won their previous two games. The shut-out recorded against Scotland was their first clean sheet in 2021.

Patrik Schick‘s 49.7-yard effort for Czech against Scotland was the longest-range strike at the Euros since 1980.

Head to Head

Croatia 1 win; 2 Draws; Czech Republic no win; Croatia scored 7 goals against 5 by the Czech Republic (in total 3 matches).

Latest Performance

Croatia: LWWDLL (Goals for 2, Goals against 7)

Czech Republic: WDLLWW (Goals for 12, Goals against 9)

Croatia

Croatia began their Euro 2020 campaign on a losing note after being beaten by England in a keenly contested game.

Prior to their latest loss, the 2018 World Cup finalists had never lost their European Championship opening match.

As such, they have found themselves in an unfamiliar situation and will be looking to correct the anomaly in this game.

Zlatko Dalić’s Men are aiming to reach the knockout stages for the fourth time in their history and must win this game to give them a chance of doing so. 

But just two wins from their last ten games means that they head into this tie in poor form. However, they will hope to correct that form and pick up their first points in a difficult group. 

Possible line-ups 

Dominik Livakovic; Sime Vrsaljko, Domagoj Vida, Duje Caleta-Car, Borna Barisic; Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic, Ante Rebic, Ivan Perisic, Bruno Petkovic.

Czech Republic

Patrik Schick and the Czech Republic sent out a strong message in their opening day win over Scotland to cement their place at the top of the Group D table.

The Nároďák produced a mature performance in the game to ensure that they head into Round 2 in control of their qualification destinies. The win was their second in as many games and resulted in their first clean sheet in six games.

They will hope to kick on from where there and consolidate on their win to ensure that they remain top of the table, or at least near the top, before meeting group favourites England in the final group match.

Possible line-ups 

Tomas Vaclik; Vladimir Coufal, Ondrej Celustka, Tomas Kalas, Jan Boril; Tomas Soucek, Alex Kral; Lukas Masopust, Vladimir Darida, Jakub Jankto; Patrik Schick.

Betting Odds

Croatia : Draw : the Czech Republic :: 2.15 : 3.30 : 3.50

Croatia GoalCzech Republic GoalBetting Odds
117.00
107.50
008.50
0110.00
2010.00
2110.00

Prediction

Croatia 2-1 Czech Republic