Prediction: Croatia vs France

Verdict: Away win

Best odds: 1/1

Bookmaker: Unibet

Round two of the current edition of the UEFA’s Nations League is up and at the Poljud stadium in Split, Croatia will welcome France in what is obviously a repeat of the 2018 World Cup final.

Croatia

Croatia were considered strong favourites to win the opening match of the competition, played against Austria in Osijek, but led by the former Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick for the first time, the visitors put on a good show and took the World Cup runners-up by surprise as Marko Arnautovic, Michael Gregoritsch and Marcel Sabitzer all found a way past Ivica Ivusic in the home team’s goal, with no tangible reply at the other end. Given the quality of the remaining teams in the group, this was surely a must-win match gone horribly wrong for Zlatko Dalic’s team, and now they have a lot of catching up to do at the very start of the campaign.

Despite having the ball just 39% of the time in that match, Austria took more shots (14) than Croatia (13) as Rangnick found a way to discomfort Dalic’s team with what appeared as a defensive approach, but obviously very efficient at the other end. This is surely something Dalic will want to address while setting his tactics up from now on, but that particular task will probably be far more difficult now with France certain to play quite differently.

Team News

Real Madrid star Luka Modric is set to return to the starting lineup having come on from the bench against Austria. Forwards Mislav Orsic and Ante Budimir, of Dinamo Zagreb and Osasuna, respectively, could be given a shot here after Andrej Kramaric and Josip Brekalo proved ineffective in the first match.

France

Just like Croatia, France didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory in their opening match either. They were also beaten at home, at the hands of Denmark as Andreas Cornelius came on from the bench to score twice and overturn Karim Benzema’s opener for France.

This defeat came amid all the chaos that has engulfed France and brought their ability to organize a major sporting event into question, ensuing from the shambles surrounding the Champions League final last week, when Benzema’s Real Madrid emerged victorious over Liverpool to claim the European crown for the 14th time. Reports claim security issues around the Stade de France arose again as France played Denmark, and two of the country’s ministers face heavy scrutiny after their claims about Liverpool fans being to blame were blasted apart by overwhelming evidence of poor organization, needlessly violent policing and failure to prevent the supporters of either club being harassed and robbed by local gangs.

Back on the football pitch, France is surely the team with the most quality in this group and they will do whatever it takes to deliver the right result, from their perspective, after disappointing at the start.

Team News

Manchester United defender Raphael Varane, who left the pitch injured against Denmark, has left the squad, and Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate has been called up to step in. However, William Saliba, who actually replaced Varane in the match after enjoying a great season with Olympique Marseille on loan from Arsenal, is likely to get the nod ahead of the newcomer.

Forwards Christopher Nkunku of RB Leipzig and Moussa Diaby of Bayer Leverkusen came on to try and make France look more dangerous in the first match of the campaign, but it’s hard to imagine either starting ahead of Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain stars, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe.

Conclusion

Both teams were favourites to win their respective openers and both failed. There has to come a moment when quality comes above anything else to bring a result, and quality is this time with the visitors.

Verdict: Away win

Best odds: 1/1

Bookmaker: Unibet