Both sides have won one and lost one so far in the Nations League, with both beating Czechia and both losing to Spain over the last week. With Spain in such good form, neither side can afford another slip-up, which makes for a fascinating encounter between two teams that know each other well. Here's the analysis and tips.
- Starts: Saturday 3rd October, 17:00
- Venue: Rijeka Stadium, Croatia
- TV Channel: ITV One
Betting Tip: England Should Be Good for at Least Two Goals
These two met at the World Cup in the summer, England eventually winning 4-2 and with the two before that also resulting in wins for the Three Lions: 1-0 at the 2021 Euros and 2-1 in the Nations League back in 2018, so they’ve had the better of it in the last few years.
And they’re a fair price to win this one again, but we can do better than that.
- Bet: Back England to score over 1.5 goals
- Odds: 1.8 (at the time of writing)
England have now scored at least twice in nine of their last 11 matches, stretching back to a friendly just before the start of the World Cup when they beat Costa Rica 3-0.
They scored two or more in six of their eight World Cup games and again against Spain and Czechia over the last week, so scoring hasn’t been a problem. They also managed two or more in two of their last three meetings against Croatia.
Croatia - England: Analysis
England had an eventful game against Spain, going a goal behind early, going 2-1 up in response, then throwing away all their good work through defensive errors to lose 3-2.
But at least they did their best to make up for it with a comfortable win over Czechia, though it needs some context: Czechia’s most dangerous player, Pavel Sulc, was sent off after just 25 minutes, so they were up against it from that point on.
Goals from the in-form Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane were enough to sink the Czechs, but they can’t afford any more slip-ups here with Spain now two from two.
Croatia did it the other way round; first winning 2-1 against Czechia before losing 4-1 in Spain on Tuesday night. Incredibly, Luka Modric is still going at 41 and will be adding to his 204 caps for Croatia here, though we’ll have to see whether that’s from the start or from the bench.
Though Gordon is yet to score for Barcelona, he went back-to-back against Spain and Czechia, but we have a suspicion he may not start this one as Tomas Tuchel manages the workload of his key players. But 3.75 is a perfectly good price on him scoring if he does start.
Even if there’s no Gordon in the line-up, there may well be Kane, Bukayo Saka, Morgan Rogers and plenty of others who can come up with goals, and we’re pretty confident that between them, they can get two or more.
Did You Know?
Luka Modric is one of only four players in history with 200 or more international caps.
Modric has 204, two more than Kuwait’s Bader Al-Mutawa and three short of Lionel Messi, who Modric should catch up with soon, given Messi is unlikely to play for Argentina other than in a one-off farewell match.
But Modric is still 30 behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
Fun Fact: Croatia beat England in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup after extra time. Of England’s starting eleven that day, the only one likely to start for them on Friday night is skipper Harry Kane.
