Croatia vs England Preview
Probably (easily?) the most interesting of tomorrow’s World Cup 2010 qualifiers is England’s visit to Croatia. For all kinds of reasons. For one thing it’s Fabio Capello’s first competitive game as England manager.
Yes, the Andorra game was a WC qualifier, but – even though England only managed a 2-0 win – it wasn’t what you’d call competitive. So this game against Croatia is the first big international managerial test for one of club football’s most decorated coaches.
For a game so early into a World Cup qualifying campaign, the stakes couln’t be higher. Both actually and symbolically. For one thing, here’s what happened the last time England visited Zagreb. Three words: Robinson, air and kick:
Croatia’s 2-0 win (Eduardo scored the other with an excellent header) and England’s comedy of errors were very much the beginning of the end for Steve McClaren, and a watershed moment for England’s reputation in world football. And for Croatia’s reputation too, only in a good way.
And of course Croatia followed that up with a final game 3-2 win at Wembley, which made sure England stayed home while Croatia and Russia went to Swissautria.
While England’s players watched on TV, Croatia’s attacking football won more than a few neutral hearts on their way to the Euro 2008 quarterfinals and that incredible last minute loss to Turkey.
Because I had a hard time being objective about this game I asked Chris for his take on it. He pointed out that Croatia are basically the team England should be.
Foe example, Ashley Cole is theoretically an excellent attacking left back, but he never really seems to get forward for England. Not even against Andorra on Saturday. Meanwhile Croatia’s not quite so richly rewarded Heerenveen left back Danijel Pranjić bombed forward like his defensive half was on fire at Euro 2008, and caused all kinds of trouble for opponents.
Likewise, Croatia should share England’s same attacking mid problem of Gerrard and Lampard canceling each other out. But somehow Slaven Bilić accommodates both Luka Modrić and Niko Kranjčar without anyone complaining.
And now the rematch. A few injuries to go around: Kranjčar is out for Croatia, as is Gerrard for England (so there’s that problem solved.) And of course Eduardo is still recovering from that whole Martin Taylor thing.
With both teams having played once (England beat Andorra 2-0, Croatia beat Kazakhstan 3-0) Croatia are top on goal differece. Here’s the table as it stands.
| Group 6 | P | W | D | L | GS | GA | GD | Pts |
| Croatia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| England | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Kazakhstan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Belarus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| Andorra | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 0 |
A draw wouldn’t be a huge surprise (odds of that at time of writing are 2/1) but would leave England in the very familiar position of staring up at Croatia. And with Ukraine going to Kazakhstan tomorrow, Group 6 could be about to get very interesting.
We’ll have a LiveBlog of England vs Croatia for you tomorrow, kick off in Zagreb is 9pm local time, 8pm GMT and 3pm US Eastern.
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Comments
By j | September 9th, 2008 at 3:07 pm 
Confusing match to me. The Andorra match was disappointing, Croatia is looks strong and it sounds like your comment of a “draw being a victory” is the goal. Can’t wait to see whats is store -
Posted from 
Bulgaria
By Alvira Khan | September 9th, 2008 at 5:49 pm The last time that Croatia played against England at Wembley, they were shockingly good. I originally thought that it was a one off performance by the Croats, but after watching the Euros, it is clear that they are a “team” in every sense of the word and are a formidable opponent. If only Eduardo was fit, they could have gone onto win the Euros. We will see what difference Capello has made for England.
Alvira Khan
Florida Atlantic University
FAU Alumna
Posted from 
United States
By Taylor | September 9th, 2008 at 6:09 pm I would respectfully disagree with the statement that it is the first “competitive” match under Capello… France and Italy, while not qualifiers, were pretty significant. Therefore, I would say it would be more accurate to say this is the first match where Capello will have no excuses. He’s had all the time to figure out what XI he should be playing (the wrong one, by my estimation) and now the pressure is on (he can’t simply laugh off a loss as “a meaningless friendly”). I wonder how long it will take into Ingerland’s inevitable 3-0 loss it will be before the tabloids start clammering for Don Fabio’s resignation. 5 minutes? 10 tops
Posted from United States
By Rob Enderle | September 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm I know the limeys only have eyes for themselves (explains all the beauties produced by centuries of in-breeding) but the France game is definitely more interesting.
France lost against Austria for pete’s sake. AUSTRIA. Everyone on the planet is going to want to know if theyre going to snap out of it. No one on the planet cares about the British national team or whatever its called. Im not sure who Serbia has but they were finalists in last summers Euro U-23 so they have to be much better than Austria.
The french have a lot of holes and questions marks and another loss could signify that a big change has to be made.
Posted from 
Canada
By nobobomo | September 9th, 2008 at 7:39 pm FUCKING PAUL ROBINSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By thesportsaffiliate | September 9th, 2008 at 8:03 pm Its a pickem game in terms of betting odds. its -145 for croatia and +125 for england. im hoping england puts up a fight. The over and under is 2. I agree a draw will be huge for england. But they really need a victory to prove that they are the real deal.
Posted from United States
By El Ya IL | September 9th, 2008 at 11:33 pm croatia will won again , i think.
By Sanja from Croatia | September 10th, 2008 at 5:15 am Be prepared cause Croatian team is the next world champion in football.
Goooooooo CROATIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
By qrodat | September 10th, 2008 at 5:49 am Croatia beat England twice in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, costing them a place in June’s finals in Switzerland and Austria and coach Steve McLaren his job.
By Mike | September 10th, 2008 at 9:03 am Talk about overblown hype; even if England loses today, we are 14 months away from the final 32 teams. This will be a blip on the radar screen a year from now–too much can happen. That said, Croatia probably comes away with the 3 points.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/09/conserve-energy-ignore-ho-hum-world-cup.html
Posted from United States
By Juliaa | September 10th, 2008 at 10:35 am You can watch the match live and for free on http://www.mmashare.com/free-live-stream/sport/football.html
Posted from 
Austria
By Mr Muppet | September 10th, 2008 at 10:57 am I use http://livetv.ru/en (all sports, not just football..) in english
There should be several options for this game. I suggest using the SopCast ones as they are usually the most reliable/fast/quality (download the program there) ..while tvAnts is mostly only Chinese channels
TVUplayer is the best but I doubt it will be there, except maybe on StarSports? (search the channel on that program)
Posted from United States
By anna | September 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm Croatia is better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!mi smo najboljiiii haha Hrvatska naprijed
Posted from 
Bosnia And Herzegovina
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