Republic of Ireland vs Croatia

Republic of Ireland had to play additional play-off round against Estonia in order to find their path to EURO 2012. Firstly, they were in quite a tough group (at least tough for a team of their reputation) drawn with Russia, Slovakia, Armenia and FYR Macedonia as their biggest rivals in a group. They were quite lucky to get the second position as Slovakia and Armenia finished just behind them. Anyway, they were also very lucky at the play-off draw as they got the easiest possible opponent – Estonia, later on they were better with a 5:1 aggregate result. They played two friendlies before the EURO, winning against Bosnia 1:0 and drawing against Hungary 0:0. They can’t be too happy with the results they have as their attack didn’t work that well against two teams that didn’t get a spot at EURO 2012, neither have played at the final competition of EURO or World Cup recently.



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Croatia, on the other hand, also had to reach their EURO 2012 position with the play-off matches. They ended their qualification group just behind the Greeks, which was a bit unexpected as the Croats were the one who had the first place just before the end of the qualification rounds, but they lost the deciding game in Athens 2:0 to Greeks. Anyway, in a play-off round they outplayed the Turks in a first game in Istanbul 3:0 and deservedly went to Euro (the second game ended as a goalless draw). Only one friendly game for the Croats also, as they drew against Norway several days ago with a 1:1 result.



In comparison to the Croats, Irish team is just a good team with great fighting spirit and a few players that could be said that they are at the same level as Croatian starting eleven, but nothing more than that. Being in a group with Spain and Italy is tough enough for both, Irish and Croats and both of these know that, in order to continue having chances of progressing to quarter-finals, they will have to win this one. In a game where both of them can’t calculate too match, I rate the Croatian team as almost one class better and the one who will walk away with all three points.



Bet: Croatia to win @2.20 with Bet365