Cyprus vs Croatia: The Blazers get a comfortable win

Croatia have beaten Cyprus in both head-to-head encounters in history. Will the Cypriots be able to create a sensation in their next meeting? We predict that the Blazers will win comfortably once again!

The Cypriot team is a team that has never qualified for major international tournaments and are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. However, they got off to a solid start to World Cup 2022 qualifying, when they drew with Slovakia 0-0, then lost to Croatia 0-1 with a narrow escape, before edging out Slovenia 1-0. It looked like a sensation, but they lost to Malta, Russia, and Slovakia 0-7 overall to drop to last place in Group H.

Before World Cup 2022 qualifiers, Croatia were seen as the Group H favourites to win a place in Qatar without too much trouble. Now they are in the second half of qualification, and they still lead Russia by as many as 13 points from six games, and their head-to-head encounter ended in a 0-0 draw. Apart from that failure, Zlatko Dalic’s side lost to Slovenia 0-1 in the first round, and the huge squad problems make it hard to believe that the Croats will now step up to the challenge of qualifying for the World Cup.

The national teams of Cyprus and Croatia have already met each other in the current qualifying tournament when the Blazers got a tough win - 1-0. It is important to note that at that time, the Cypriots were in incredible form and created one sensation after another, while the Croatians’ game was not going well. The situation has now completely changed, as Zlatko Dalic’s side are slowly gaining ground, while the hosts have failed in their previous three games in a row, losing them 0-7 on aggregate. As a result, we’re inclined to bet on Croatia’s victory with a handicap (-1.5) at the odds of about 1.86.

The Croatian national team has gained only two confident victories in the recent past that all have one thing in common. They were very active from the beginning of the game and were able to score quick goals and then take the lead when they took over. In the upcoming match, therefore, Zlatko Dalic’s charges will try to be as aggressive as possible in the opening stages of the encounter to open the scoring quickly. In this situation, the best option for the prediction seems to be a goal from 1 to 30 minutes, with the odds close to 1.73.

The Croatian national team has had serious problems due to their lack of a top-level center-forward. That’s why Zlatko Dalic has to look for options to strengthen the position. He has recently fielded Hajduk forward Marko Livaja, who previously played in Serie A, RPL, and even Spain. Now he is the top scorer in the Croatian league with seven goals in ten games this season, and in September, he scored for the Croatian national team. The 28-year-old is in great form now, so a bet on Marko Livaja’s goal is worth looking into for 2.40.