Croatia vs Republic of Ireland

Ireland will start their Euro campaign against an opponent who, on paper at least, seems the most accessible from this group. Trapattoni changed the face of this squad and, despite they don’t have any particular sparks, they are on a verge of a 14 games unbeaten run which they will try to extend today. They’ve had some injury problems before the tournament start but this shouldn’t be of a big importance since the squad is quite balanced. They will use the same squad tested against Hungary at the beginning of the week.

 

Croatia has some great individuals but they are far from being a reliable team. Olic was dropped due to injury so their attacking potential will be heavily diminished with only Mandzukic being a top solution up front. Vrsalko was also called to replace Ilicevic but, besides that, coach Bilic doesn’t have any important missing players.

 

Ireland is an ambitious side and they will surely try to neutralize to superior quality of the Croats. This could lead to a dull affair since the Croats can easily be dragged into a physical game. The Italian organization imposed by old Trap will surely prevent any attacking frenzy attempts from the islanders and the game has big chances to end as a draw which is worth betting a few pennies on.