The first of Monday's European Championship Round of 16 matches comes from Copenhagen where Croatia start as underdogs for their clash with Spain
Croatia
Croatia finished as runners up in Group D, 3 points behind England, ahead of Czech Republic on goal difference and Scotland were the team to miss out. Their results steadily improved with a 1-0 defeat to England at Wembley first time out followed by a 1-1 draw with the Czech's and a 3-1 win over Scotland in Glasgow.
Perisic equalized for Croatia in their match with the Czech's and he was on target again in the Scotland game along with Vlasic and Modric. The margin of victory in that final group match saw Croatia overhaul the Czech's in the group standings.
If Croatia can win this game they will face either France or Switzerland in the quarter finals and in the outright betting to win the tournament they can be backed at around 70/1 and they are 25/1 to reach the final.
Spain
Coming into these finals Spain were 3/10 favourites to finish top of Group E which included Sweden, Poland and Slovakia. They made it through but only as the runners up after drawing their first two matches and then thrashing Slovakia.
All their group matches were staged in Seville and first up Spain had to settle for a 0-0 draw with Sweden in a game where they boasted an incredible 85% of possession. Next up they played out a 1-1 draw with Poland. Morata gave Spain the lead midway through the first half but Poland equalized early in the second period and Spain then missed a penalty.
In their final group match against Slovakia Morata missed an early penalty before an own goal and a header from Laporte put them 2-0 up at half time. Further goals in the second half from Sarabia and Torres plus another own goal followed as Spain ran out winners 5-0.
In the outright betting to win the tournament Spain can be backed at around 8/1 and they are 4/1 to reach the final
Recent Head to Head
The teams met in the Nations League in 2018 with Spain cruising to a 6-0 win in their home game but Croatia won the return 3-2.
In the Euro 2016 finals Croatia beat Spain 2-1 in a group stage match and both sides were knocked out in the last 16.
The Betting
90 minutes: Croatia are trading at around 11/2 to win the game in regulation time with the draw at 11/4 and Spain can be backed at around 6/10
A game of 3 goals or more is priced at 21/20 and it's the same price for both teams to score.
To qualify for the next round under any means of victory Croatia are priced at around 2.55/1 and Spain are 1 / 4
Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict:
Spain let favourite backers down twice before they thrashed a weak Slovakia side in their final group match and whether that sole win warrants such a short price in the matcb result market I'm not so sure. Meanwhile Croatia don't look at the same level as they were in the last World Cup when they reached the final but they could still be competitive.
Poland managed 1 goal against Spain and despite seeing so little of the ball Sweden hit the woodwork and missed a golden chance so I don't think a Spain clean sheet is a given.
I'm going to go with Croatia to score 1 goal exactly in 90 minutes.
Bets: (90 mins) Croatia to score 1 goal exactly at 16/10
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Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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