The Czechs were incredibly unlucky not to pick up a point against Spain after their heroic defending for 90 minutes. However, they seemed to lack ambition going forward and if a team sits as deep as they did for an entire match, they are bound to concede eventually.
Croatia on the other hand were arguably the most impressive of all 24 teams at the tournament in the first round, putting in a convincing display to overturn Turkey 1-0.
Turkey will have been seen as Croatia’s main rivals for second spot behind Spain going into the tournament but the Croats will now feel they have an excellent chance of claiming first ahead of Spain if they can dispose of Pavel Vrba’s men.
However, Czech Republic know that they must pick up at least a point against Ante Cacic’s side if they are to have any chance of qualifying from the group. Therefore we can expect them to be more expansive against Croatia than they were against the Spaniards.
There seems to be no value in backing Croatia for a straight win but I really cannot see the Czech’s pulling off an upset against this Croatian golden generation of players. Furthermore I cannot see Croatia’s strong defence, epitomised by warrior Vedran Corluka, having any trouble keeping the Czech forwards at bay and therefore have gone with ‘Only Croatia to score’ at 15/8