After a relatively smooth qualifying campaign, Croatia begin their preparations for Euro 2024 against a tough North Macedonian outfit before taking on Portugal ahead of departing for the continental showpiece in Germany. FIFA’s #10 ranked team qualified for a sixth successive European Championship by finishing second in their group behind Turkey, and that was a campaign built on solid defensive foundations, after conceding just four goals in their eight qualifying matches.
Croatia will be looking to maintain their rock-solid base as they find themselves in a tough-looking Euro 2024 Group B, which features the likes of former champions Spain and defending champions Italy, with the outlier being Albania. All those teams will equally respect Croatia’s threat since manager Zlatko Dalić has turned the Blazers into genuine contenders, highlighted by their runners-up and third-placed finishes at the last two World Cups under his tutelage.
One of the headlines of the last European Championships was the qualification for a first major tournament by opponents North Macedonia, but they won’t be on the plane to Germany this time around. Blagoja Milevski’s side couldn’t navigate a way through a challenging Group C in qualifying, but they do have this match and a game against the Czech Republic coming up to start getting back on track.
Their qualifying campaign did feature glimpses of their strength after registering marquee results such as a set of 1-1 draws against both England and Italy. Both those games were at home though, and the Lions have been severely tamed when hitting the road, losing six of their last seven away games while failing to score on five occasions.
Players to watch: Croatia’s Josko Gvardiol had an amazing season with Manchester City and will be looking to continue that form while on international duty – he’s never lost when scoring for club or country (W13, D2). He’ll also be kept busy in defence by North Macedonia’s Bojan Miovski who scored 26 goals for his club Aberdeen this season, of which eight of the last 11 were the match opener.
Hot stat: Only one of the eight previous H2Hs has seen a winning margin of 2+ goals (CRO: W5, D2, L1).
Thanks for this.