Iceland – Croatia
The teams of Iceland and Croatia face each other in an interesting clash from Group D of the FIFA World Cup. Here are our vip soccer predictions today for this game.
As many people actually expected, Croatia proved to be the best team in this group. The Balkan team is dominating the group so far, having won both of its games against Nigeria and Argentina. They have scored 5 goals in these two matches and conceded none. So far Croatia are proving that they are a dark horse for the title. In terms of quality, Croatia must be among the favourites to win the World Cup. They have incredible players in the team and they can beat anyone.
Iceland on the other hand are enjoying their first ever World Cup. The Vikings started their participation with a 1-1 draw against Argentina, which was followed by a 0-2 loss against Nigeria. Right now Iceland are in a pretty difficult situation, regarding the team’s chances to reach the knockout phase. Iceland are third in the group with just one point won so far. They have chances to qualify for the 1/8-finals, but they must win in a convincing way against Croatia and hope that Nigeria won’t beat Argentina in the other game.
But even if they don’t qualify for the next phase of the competition, Iceland would be happy to celebrate their first ever win at the World Cup. It won’t be easy against Croatia, but remember that Iceland already beat them once during the qualifiers. And even finished above them in the group standings.
Most likely Croatia’s manager Zlatko Dalic will make changes in his team for this match. How we said, Croatia already qualified for the 1/8-finals and most surely they are going to win the group. This gives Dalic a chance to rest his key players and give chance to other. Players like Ivan Rakitic, Ante Rabic, Sime Vrsaljko, Mario Mandzukic, Marcelo Brozovic and Vedran Corluka are currently booked once with yellow cards, so it’s logical Dalic to bench them against Iceland and keep them for the knockout phase.
Let’s see some team news before the match.
Iceland’s manager Heimir Hallgrimsson is facing problems with the condition of centre back Ragnar Sigurdsson and the winger Johann Gudmundsson. There’s a real danger that both of them will miss the match against Croatia, recovering from different types of injuries.
During his press conference Heimir Hallgrimsson reminded the same thing we said about these two teams – Iceland finished above Croatia during the qualifiers and they even beat them once. This means that the Vikings won’t be scared of their opponents. They know that they can beat them, because they have already did it once.
Despite of his team already being in the next phase of the competition, Croatia will play for the win against Iceland. This was promised by the team’s manager Zlatko Dalic. He reminded everyone that his team is always playing for the win, so it won’t be different this time as well. He confirmed that he could make some changes in his starting line-up for the match.
And here’s an interesting fact: if Croatia finish first in the group, it would be the first time when they win their group at the World Cup.
These are our vip soccer predictions for today for the World Cup clash between Iceland and Croatia. The Vikings are playing to win and they hope that they can qualify for the 1/8-finals. The Croats on the other hand will try to secure oficially the first place in the group.