Croatia v Wales preview: Dragons visit World Cup bronze medallists
They’ll aim to improve that next time around and are heavily fancied to seal qualification with ease, especially as they’re already assured of at least a play-off spot thanks to their performance in the Nations League.
Despite that, Zlatko Dalić’s men will want to secure their place with style, starting on home soil where they are protecting a proud record of never tasting defeat in a home Euro qualifying match (W27, D8).
Six H2H games without a loss against Wales will surely boost confidence that such a home record can be extended again here (W4, D2).
There’s a fresh feel to Wales coming into this new qualifying campaign, with Gareth Bale’s retirement opening the door for fresh blood to join the ranks and manager Robert Page has opted to name four uncapped players in his squad.
He’ll be hoping that can help spark a change in fortunes for the Dragons who are without a win in eight matches across all competitions (D2, L6).
While Wales’ first World Cup finals appearance in over 60 years ended with a disappointing exit at the group stage last year, showings at the Euro Championship have tended to be much stronger, reaching the round of 16 or beyond in each of their last two tournaments.
That solid form extends to qualifying too, and Wales will head to Croatia having lost only three of their last 20 Euro qualifiers (W12, D5).
Players to watch: Ivan Perišić scored what proved to be the decisive goal in the last home H2H meeting (2-1), and has been directly involved in four Croatia strikes across his last six international appearances (G1, A3).
Nathan Broadhead will be eyeing his first cap for Wales; he’s already netted two club goals this month for Ipswich.
Hot stat: Croatia have conceded one or no goals in seven of their nine home games since the start of 2021, as well as each of the last three H2Hs.
