We did not believe football pundits before round one, so this time, we are making the same mistake, hoping for the same result.
After a few days rest, talking about fans, about hashtags, and of course, politics, it is the day for Luka Modrić and company to hit the pitch on June 17, 2016, at 18.00 CET in Saint-Etienne against the Czech team. According to the Croatian football pundits, Ante Čačić will filed the same eleven as he did against Turkey.
As we have written that we do not believe in this kind of cautionary approach by the Croatian coach in a pre-match article, and he proved us wrong with a good performance by his team, we will once again write that we believe that Vrsaljko will start at left back, and Pjaca on the right wing. And leave it at that, hoping for the same result.
Bewitchment aside, this is the most important match for coach Čačić in his career so far. A great result from round one against what proved to be a weak Turkish team has to be confirmed today. Croatia is the slight favorite for the win, with the emphasis on the slight. The Czechs put up great resistance against Spain and lost the match in the dying minutes of the game.
Croatia can secure the playoff round with the win today and probably with the draw, but if they were to lose today, it would be the hard task in the last round of the group stage to look for the win against Spain. On the other hand, the Czechs are in an even more difficult position, as they need to avoid the defeat if they are to stay in the competition.
The most important news is that the Croatian camp say that they are injury-free, and captain Srna has come back after leaving for his father’s funeral. The Czech team is much stronger than the Turkish, and this time, the Croatian defence should have a much tougher task than in the last couple of matches.
As we wrote in the previous article about Croatians underestimating their today’s opponents, we hope that the feeling has not taken over the Croatian team and that they will play the match at the highest level, needed for the result today.
In the history of Croatian football, Czechs have made their mark, as in the early times, coaches came from Prague to teach Croatian ones about the game, so we hope that this evening, we will be able to write about students overcoming the teachers.
