I was pretty disappointed with both of these nations at the World Cup, I had them down to progress further than they did with Czechia crashing out in the Group Stages and Croatia exiting to Portugal in the Round of 32.
I feel as though Croatia are in a bit of a decline following on from the height of their golden generation, which battled all the way to the final of the World Cup in 2018. There’s also a change in the dugout for the away side, with long term coach Zlatko Dalic leaving after 9 years of service.
That’s a significant change, and one that may take time for this Croatia side to adapt to. Czechia scored in two of their three games at the World Cup despite their early exit, with both of their goals coming from set pieces.
This will be their main threat here again, they scored 18 goals across eight games during World Cup qualifying (2.25 per game). They actually played Croatia as part of the qualifying process, recording an xG of 1.39 as the away side.
