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Aron Wright - June 5, 2018
Croatia vs Senegal
International Friendlies
Date: Friday, 8th June 2018
Kick-Off at 15:00 UK / 16:00 CET
Venue: Stadion Gradski vrt, Osijek.
Croatia and Senegal will make final tests to each other ahead of the World Cup challenges. The Lions of Teranga will be a copy of Nigeria who are about to take on Croatia in the Group D opener in Russia, while Senegal will kick off their World Cup campaign with the clash against the European opposition (Poland).
The Blades showed two completely opposite faces on Sunday when they took on one of the main contenders for the silverware in Russia. They were more than competitive against Brazil in the first 45 minutes of the match at Wembley, but the second half revealed way too many holes at the back proving how limited this Croatian side can be compared to the world’s heavyweights. Can they bounce back from a 2-0 defeat against the out-of-form Senegal here?
The two nations are about to take on each other for the first time ever in this friendly.
Zlatko Dalic has reasons to be worried with his team’s attacking displays ahead of the World Cup. Croatia have a decent firepower on display up front, but they have bagged just one goal in last four matches ever since the goalless draw with Greece in the reverse fixture of their play-offs tie.
Senegal are a side very tough to break down as they shipped just two goals in last six matches across competitions. It will thus be very interesting to see if Croatians will be able to break the deadlock and raise the spirits with a result against a tricky opposition here.
The good news for Dalic is that the Lions of Teranga have not been quite prolific in the final third themselves recently. Senegal will head into this off the back of consecutive goalless draws against the likes of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Luxembourg. Under 2.5 goals FT has to be the main betting option in such circumstances and we’ll back it at the 1.57 odds.
