Croatia vs France prediction: EUROPE: UEFA Nations League – League A – Play Offs betting tips on match 2025-03-19 19:45.
[p]Despite failing to win any of their final three matches (D2, L1), Croatia joined group winners Portugal in advancing from Group A1 to set up this first leg of their UEFA Nations League (UNL) quarter-final tie against France. And although they failed to win any of November’s internationals, no home defeat in four matches in this competition should inspire confidence (W3, D1). [/p]
[p]Having gone all the way to the final of the last UNL edition, Zlatko Dalić’s side have experience at this stage of the competition. Their poor H2H record against France is a sizeable psychological hurdle to overcome, with just one of the past ten H2H meetings delivering a win (D3, L6), but it’s worth noting that the sole victory did come in the last meeting back in March 2022. [/p]
[p]France secured top spot in Group A2 thanks to an impressive 3-1 away win against Italy in November which extended their own UNL record to no defeat in five (W4, D1). Each of their last three wins in that run came on the road and with opening goals scored in the first half of each, don’t be surprised to see another quick start from Les Bleus here. [/p]
[p]Didier Deschamps’ men have already performed significantly better than they did in the last edition of this competition when they failed to progress beyond the group stage. They can now target becoming the first side to win the UNL crown twice, and a good omen from that 2020/21 triumphant run is the fact they did the double over Croatia via an aggregate 6-3 victory. [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Midfielder Luka Modrić scored the decisive goal in the last H2H between these two, and the veteran also netted in September’s home win over Poland. His Real Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappé returns to the fold for France after being omitted during the last international break, and he does so having netted three goals across his last three Madrid matches. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: Outside their own country, France are without a clean sheet in eight UNL matches. [/p]
[p][i]Written by David H[/i][/p]