These nations faced off in the group stages of the World Cup in a clash that produced six goals with England coming away 4-2 winners - but looking far from settled at the back.

Croatia’s xG of 0.70 probably doesn’t reflect the issues that Croatia caused England in that game, they were able to get behind England’s high line on multiple occasions and managed five shots on target in total.

They have a new manager at the helm in Slaven Bilic, and he has an exciting group of players to work with who may not be at the level of the Croatia side that reached the World Cup final in 2018, but certainly has promise to develop into another decent team.

Croatia have seen BTTS in both of their Nations League games so far, notably managing to breach Spain’s backline last time out - which is the best defensive unit in Europe.

Czechia actually looked like they could cause England some problems before Sulc’s early red card which changed the course of the game. England have scored in each of their last eight matches, so finding the back of the net shouldn’t be an issue. 

Harry Kane scored from two shots on target to secure England’s 2-0 win over Czechia last time out after Anthony Gordon had given the Three Lions the lead.

He’s an obvious choice in the shot on target market, and I’m a bit surprised at this price given how consistent Kane is for England and how big of a jump it is from backing Kane for a single effort on target (1.14).

Kane netted a brace from seven shots against Croatia when these nations met in the group stage of the World Cup, seeing three of those efforts find the target. 

Kane’s record at international level is simply exceptional, he’s netted 87 goals across 123 caps with six goals across seven starts at the most recent World Cup. He averaged 3.17 shots per 90 during the tournament, which is a healthy shot average when looking to back him for a couple of efforts on target here.

One of the more underrated parts of Kane’s game is how good he is at drawing contact from opponents when he drops into deeper pockets.

We know that Tuchel really wants Kane to do this often, he allowed him to come back into midfield areas all the time at Bayern - and has sculpted something similar with England, giving Kane runners like Gordon and Saka acting as outlets he can find with his impressive passing range.

Kane often drags a centre back with him when dropping into these pockets, which creates the perfect scenario for fouls as Kane can wait for the centre back to initiate contact and will go down even if it’s not a particularly ferocious challenge.

Kane drew nine fouls across his seven starts in the World Cup over the summer, including winning a foul against Croatia as England came away 4-2 winners. He also maintained an average of 1.21 fouls won per 90 in the Bundesliga last season, showing consistency in his game across club and country.

I really like Luka Vuskovic and I’m still struggling to work out why Tottenham sold him over the summer. He’s a really impressive centre back, but one of his main traits that stands out to me is his shot volume for a defender.

Vuskovic is such a threat from set pieces, he’s already scored one goal for Brighton in the Premier League this season from eight shots (1.64 per 90). That shot average is very rare for a centre back, even the most impressive aerial threats usually sit around 0.70 or 0.80 shots per 90 average.

Vuskovic played for Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga last season, scoring six goals across 27 starts - which is a return that you wouldn’t scoff at for a midfielder. He took 32 shots across those games, working out to an average of 1.18 shots per 90.

Vuskovic has also shown his shooting ability in the Nations League, taking two shots against Czechia as Croatia secured a 2-1 victory in their opening game.