Two title favourites collide at Parken Stadium as Croatia meet Spain in Copenhagen, Denmark in their Round of 16 tie at Euro 2020.
Croatia overcame a sluggish start to qualify as Group D runners-up whereas Spain likewise finished Group E runners-up with a dominant final group match performance.
Team News
Ivan Perisic is ruled out for Croatia after testing positive for Coronavirus in the team’s latest round of testing, although no other player or staff need to self-isolate.
Manager, Zlatko Dalic is therefore not expected to make any changes to his starting eleven apart from up front with Ante Rebic and Andrej Kramaric in contention to replace Perisic.
Spain have no fresh injury concerns to report with Luis Enrique set to name an unchanged line-up.
Stat Attack
- This is Croatia’s third clash against Spain in three consecutive Euros, having met in 2012 & 16 tournaments – albeit in Group Stage rather than Round of 16.
- Croatia have won one of two previous meetings against Spain at Euros (W1, L1), losing 1-0 in 2012 before winning 2-1 in 2016.
- Spain have won just one of four ‘away’ clashes against Croatia in all competitions (W1, D1, L2).
- Bruno Petkovic has been caught offside on more occasions than any other Croatia player, having found himself offside on three separate occasions in three appearances at Euro 2020.
- Aymeric Laporte has completed more passes than any other Spanish player at Euro 2020, completing 270 of his 274 passes in three appearances.
Prediction
Having delivered a dominant performance which oozed of their maximum quality and control against Scotland last Tuesday, Croatia will definitely feel the pressure here without Perisic’ presence as their best goalscorer but Luka Modric should help minimise the damage if he can dictate from midfield.
Spain though finally clicked with a complete all-round performance in which they simply didn’t give Slovakia any space to impose their game, yet this will be a tough test of whether that was a fluke result given their earlier struggles or a proper step forward.
On that note, this game feels like one which will provide more answers than questions as to the current state of both teams, although if Spain start like they did on Wednesday then I can see them having the edge but the first goal will be key given Croatia’s defensive ability.
Prediction: Croatia 1-2 Spain
Result: Croatia 3-5 Spain (AET)