It will take a lot of luck to qualify directly
It all comes down to this one game. After a very turbulent qualifying tournament, incidents with supporters, scandals in the National Football Federation and of course the selection of a new head coach and all out boycott by the fans, Croatian national football team will play against Malta for a chance to play in the final EURO 2016 tournament in France.
Even though a win is imperative, Croatian team does not depen on just this result to qualify. Everyone will be listening to what is going on the the game between Italy and Norway because Italy’s win will push us towards the tournament, a draw or Italy’s loss will push us in the additional qualifying round since we can no longer qualify as the best third placed team.
Players are already in Malta, and the head coach Ante Čačić cannot count on Mario Manđukić or Luka Modrić due to injuries sustained in previous matches. Luka will be replaced by Milan Badelj while the rest of the team will be more or less the same as against Bulgaria.
The game kicks off tonight at 20:45, you can watch it on HTV2.
