Croatia Vs Denmark World cup knockout
Croatia come into the knockout stage of the World Cup undefeated. Their impressive group stage performance saw them masterfully pick apart Argentina. They also enjoyed comfortable wins over both Nigeria and Iceland.
Denmark have been less impressive, scoring just two goals in the group stages. Their very average showing against Australia mean that they had to perform against France or they ran the risk of not qualifying.
Team news
Croatia make the trip to Nizhnly Novgorod of the back of a late 2-1 win over Iceland on Tuesday night. Front line players had been rested in the game to allow a fresh side to start the knockout stages.
Rakatic, Mandzukic and Lovren had all been left out but are expected to return to the side to face Denmark.
The side is confident and have only lost on 2 occasions out of the last 17 International games, great form at the right time.
Many see them as the dark horse of this World Cup and I would completely agree.
Denmark star man Christian Eriksen will be the key to the side at this stage. They do lack the presence of a goal scorer so they will be reliant on their world class player.
Denmark have a solid core and this is marshalled by Leicester city gloveman Kasper Schmeichel, the defence has been solid throughout and they will need to continue this if they are going to challenge in this game.
Both teams report that their isn’t any front line injuries in the camp so this will be a fair fight.
Lazy prediction
Predicting the World Cup knockout stage is about as easy as winning the lottery but here we go.
Denmark will need to be at their very best to unlock Croatia who posses all the raw talent.
Croatia should take charge in possession and will stretch the opposition, I think they will have too much for Eriksen’s men to handle.
Croatia to win 2-0
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