Croatia (0) - England (0)
England played very bad against Macedonia in their previous two meetings despite the fact that they took 4 points from those matches. I do not remember when England was so bad. Their midfield is looking like there is no midfield, the attack line is sharples, the wing backs are just an average. Only thing that is on necessary level is the central defense.
Croatia trashed 7:0 Andorra (which is an irrelevant fat) but the result 0:0 in Moscow before that is the thing that is making me taking this bet. Croatia played really good football there and they should’ve won all three points there. They had decent opportunities but the luck wasn’t on their side on that match. Now after their huge win against Andorra and bad performances of their opponent, player’s self-confidense is on high level.
What to say about McLaren’s men? Gary Neville was very slow and he was easily passed by in whole 90 minutes from Macedonian players, Gerrard was completely lost but he can produce danger situations no matter how good is his form but he is suspended for this match. I can say the same thing for Lampard, but he is playing very bad in the last few months. Downing - completely out of space, Carrick – that guy wouldn’t play even in my neighborhood, the weakest player that played for England, in my opinion. Rooney is not playing at his best also and he hasn’t scored a goal for while. The best players in the team in the match against Macedonia were Crouch, who can be matches well by tall Croatian defenders (Robert Kovac or Simunic) and King who won’t play because of injury, but he will probably be replaced from Ferdinand who is playing on high level also.
The English NT is very overrated and without Beckham, Lennon, Hargreaves and Gerrard in the middle they are not a team that can be rated as favorite here. Croatia is without loss in Zagreb for more than 15 years and they have solid and talented squad that can match every team in the world.
We have Croatian team playing at home with great home support, great home record, playing against out of form England and we have Croatia as underdog, so this is must bet situation.
Pick: H, Odds: 2.09, Stake: 5, Bookmaker: Pinnacle