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Croatia vs Sweden Prediction & Betting tips
Vice world champions Croatia and Sweden have started the Nations League with two defeats, leaving the countries in worse shape than was hoped before. The only thing that can ease the pain of this weak start is a three-pointer.
Croatia:
The Croats did not have a very difficult qualifying series in the run-up to the European Championship in 2021. In a group with Wales, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan, the selection of Zlatko Dalic did not have too much trouble. Only five of the eight games were won, but as the other countries had even more problems, Croatia simply qualified for the European Championship. The Nations League was coming again and for Croatia this was an opportunity to retaliate for the first edition. The Croats then took only four points from four games in a group with England and Spain, making Dalic’s squad last in the group. Due to the changed concept of the Nations League, Croatia again entered Division A this season. Portugal, France and thus Sweden became the opponents. Group A3 could be described as the pool of death.
In the opening game, there were opportunities for Croatia, because on a visit to Portugal, Fernando Santos would play without star player Cristiano Ronaldo. The high-scoring attacker was missing due to an injury, but even without Ronaldo it turned out to be a hell of a job. After just over an hour, Vatreni faced a 3-0 deficit and in injury time this increased to 4-1. A small bright spot was the goal of Dinamo Zagreb striker Bruno Petkovic, who scored his sixth international goal in ten games. A week later, the world champion hit France and here the Croats had to get their gram for the lost World Cup final. This was certainly evident from the attacking intentions. Dejan Lovren scored a beautiful goal, but the French came back on the same level. France took the lead via an own goal from goalkeeper Livakovic, but a few minutes later Josip Brekalo brought the game back into balance. In the end, Dayot Upamecano and Olivier Giroud scored for the French, meaning Croatia lost. Croatia appeared attractive and fierce, but was still lost in the second half.
Sweden:
The Scandinavians had a more difficult qualifying series for the European Championship in 2021. In a group with Spain, Norway, Romania, the Faroe Islands and Malta, it came second. Nipt kept Norway – from Erling Haaland and Alexander Sorloth, among others – behind. The Norwegians are now out of the race for the European Championship spots after a defeat against Serbia and the Swedes should be happy about that because they would undoubtedly have had trouble otherwise in the midweek qualifying match.
Nevertheless, Sweden also started the Nations League with difficulty. The first match was a draw against world champions France and Jan Andersson’s team performed well. They created a lot of opportunities, but the attack line of Marcus Berge and Robin Quaison failed to get past Hugo Lloris. Kylian Mbappé did hit Roma goalkeeper Robin Olsen’s goal, making France 0-1 against Sweden. The match after that came to Portugal – now with Ronaldo – to visit. Seattle Sounders defender Gustav Svensson took two yellow shots in the first half within half an hour and was able to take an early shower. He was still on his way to the locker room when Ronaldo scored. In the second half, the Juventus attacker doubled that lead and with ten men there was no start against Portugal.
Midweek, Andersson’s squad played another exhibition game, in which the 58-year-old national coach gave the B-internationals a chance to show themselves against Russia. Former Willem II striker Alexander Isak opened the score after twenty minutes with a header from a free kick from Sebastian Larsson, while Mattias Johansson later doubled this lead. Sweden won with nice (ex-) Eredivisionists from the Russians.
Croatia vs Sweden head to head matches
29.02.12 FI Croatia Sweden 1 : 3
08.10.05 WC Croatia Sweden 1 : 0
08.09.04 WC Sweden Croatia 0 : 1
30.04.03 FI Sweden Croatia 1 : 2
Betting tips we recommend:
| Prediction: | Croatia to win |
| Selection odds: | 1,90 |
| Bookmaker: |  |
| Free Stream: | |
