• marius
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• 42

Latvia is on a horrible streak, being winless since October 2009, which is quite a long time, and in their last friendly game they got demolished by Czech Republic by 4:1. They are hoping to repeat their success from 2004. when they qualified for EURO, but I highly doubt it as their group consists of at least 3 much better teams than they are. The majority of their squad comes from the domestic sides Skonto and Ventspils, but there are a few players abroad, such as their main goalie playing for Swiss Sion, and his reserve for Russian Spartak Nalchik. They are a mediocre side and a definite underdog in this match.

Ready

The Croatian squad has started their preparations a few days ago, and from what I’ve read and seen, their players seem ready for the first win in the new qualifying campaign. Coach Bilic and Vukojevic were at the press conference before the trip to Latvia, stating they are sure about the triumph on the road in this game. They have excellent players on all positions, and I think they are strong enough to be the group leaders together with Greece, which is much weaker than in the past years. Eduardo will probably play as well as Rakitic, and there are also a lot of good players such as Pranjic, Petric for example, and the new Tottenham goalie Pletikosa will be on their goal. Modric might be out for this game, which is a big blow, but he’s not irreplaceable of course. The only thing that’s certain is the Croats are a much better team than Latvia.

The visitors are better

The Croatian side is clearly the better rival in this matchup and I expect them to put up a good performance at the start of their qualifying campaign. Latvia is a clear underdog even though they will play at home, due to a simple reason Croatia are better both individually and as a team. I think we shouldn’t be expecting either side to make many calculations, especially Croatia, and to see an offensive game where the visitors will go for all 3 points. My advice is to try with an away win with AH. Good luck!

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Prediction:

Tip: 2 AH (-1)
Odd: 2.19
Bookie: Canbet