Italy - Croatia tonight. Match has no great importance seeing as both teams are likely to qualify with ease. But one of the rare opportunities for these teams to test themselves against strong opposition. The match comes in a bad time for Italy, a lot of first team players are out injured, like Pirlo, Veratti, Bonucci, Barzagli, Ogbonna and Balotelli. So we're looking at unusually poor Italy team. Probable lineup for tonight Buffon De Sciglio - Darmian - Chiellini - Ranocchia - Pasquale Candreva - De Rossi - Marchisio Zaza - Immobile Not very impressive side. On the other hand, the match comes in a great time for Croatia. All our players are fit and playing in a rich vein of form. Except Dejan Lovren, who will forfeit his spot in the team to Domagoj Vida of Dynamo Kyiv, who will partner Vedran Ćorluka in the center of defense. Captain Darijo Srna and Danijel Pranjić will occupy the full back positions. Our greatest strength is our midfield. Creativity and imagination of Real's Luka Modrić and Barcelona's Rakitić will be supported by Dinamo Zagreb's Brozović doing the dirty work in midfield, which leaves Inter Milan's Kovačić out of the first team, a decision not very popular with the supporters, to say the least. Kovačić is a lot more talented than Brozović, but you can't have three playmakers in the first team, it would be too unbalanced. Even the famous midfield trio of '98's bronze winning team of Boban, Prosinečki and Asanović rarely played at the same time and had uninspiring Kruno Jurčić to watch their back. In the attack we have to wide attackers in Wolfsburg's Perišić and Olić, who are in a great form for thir club which sits second in the Bundesleague. In the center of attack is Mario Mandžukić. I would say a great time to stun Italy on San Siro. Our manager probably won't feel the same, he's a bit conservative in approach and will set us to draw.
We want him to have a good rest on international break, don't we? I only mentioned italian players which will, by all accounts, start the match , that's why he's overlooked in my little preview.
I've only seen the last ten minutes or so, but Wales digging in well. I didn't expect them to get a result in Belgium.
Says on Sky that we are assessing Morgan who has a hip injury...so not knee or ankle. Hopefully, that's good.
Croatia got all the ball here. And now here comes Pelle. I want him to score but I don't want Croatia to lose.
