Greece 0-0 (1-4 on agg.) Croatia
Croatia have become strong football betting darlings ever since finishing third in the 1998 World Cup. Save the 2010 tournament held in South Africa, the Blazers have never missed participating in the World Cup finals.
They, unfortunately, missed out on automatic qualification to the 2018 tilt thanks to Iceland, the dark horse online betting fans are slowly learning to love. They came into their playoff with Greece full of determination to prove the betting odds right about them.
They pulled off a huge win at home and needed only a draw to secure their ticket to Russia. That’s exactly what Zlatko Dalic and his lads did today.
Croatia focused less on attack and just made sure that their backline did not have any holes that the second-leg hosts could capitalise on.
A good chunk of the game saw the Greeks holding the ball with little to no effect on the game. They did take more shots than their guests, but the defence made sure that there were at least two to three Croatian shirts surrounding the ball at all times.
Greece tried everything to at least snag a goal against Croatia, be it up front, from distance, or from lobbed balls from the wings. Dalic did a fantastic job in ensuring that there would be no holes in his defence.
With the result, Croatia are now headed to Russia next year. With talented players such as Rakitic, Perisic, Mandzukic and Kalinic donning the Croatian flag on their chests, fans can expect Croatia to make a lot of noise in the group stages next year.
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