At 21 o'clock on June 19, Beijing time, Croatia vs Albania in Group B of the European Cup group stage. Croatia made a very bad impression on me in their last game against Spain, maybe I'm used to the resilience they showed in their previous games.
Friendly reminder: There is a probability of an upset in this game, and the score prediction is at the end of the article.
Croatia we've seen in the past are a well-rounded defensive team, but they have been sloppy defensively and have repeatedly broken through their defence in straight lines in Spain to allow them to score easily. In previous games it was absolutely impossible, Croatia would do their best for every possession and defence, but now it's very different.
Today's game is a very important game for them because they will definitely need to win this game against Albania to be ready for the last game against Italy. All it takes is one win and it's even enough for them to qualify as one of the best third teams, so it's important for them to get three points in this one.
On the Albanian side, against Italy, I saw the potential of the emerging teams, who are definitely a team with good individual skills and overall organisation. In their last game, they scored just 23 seconds after kick-off, disrupting their normal game schedule. In fact, it was obviously too late for them to come back to their senses, but in the remainder of the game we saw how well Albania coped with Italy and had chances to equalise.
Croatia could be out early today, and I predict a win for Albania.
Score prediction: Croatia 1:2 Albania