Croatia will host Armenia on Tuesday knowing a win will guarantee them a place at Euro 2024. The home team simply needs to replicate the Wales result to guarantee their place in Germany.
Preview (Croatia vs. Armenia)
Croatia overtook Rob Page’s Dragons in the Group D standings on Saturday night. They taking back control of their qualification fate with a 2-0 victory in Latvia. It was due to Armenia’s tie with Wales earlier in the day. At Riga’s Skonto Stadion, Lovro Majer and Andrej Kramaric both scored goals in the opening twenty minutes. Shortly after, the World Cup bronze medalists from last year easily defeated their Welsh counterparts. Wales were only able to muster one point in Armenia. After making two mistakes last month, losing back-to-back games against Wales and the group winners Turkey, Croatia can now guarantee their spot in the European Championship for next summer if they win Wednesday and earn a maximum of points, or even if they lose and Turkey denies Wales a victory.
However, veteran coach Zlatko Dalic will be well aware that the runners-up in the UEFA Nations League cannot afford to be complacent after leading his country to such near-unprecedented glory in recent years. Should Croatia be unable to enter Germany through the front door, they will have to travel a longer and more arduous path to a sixth consecutive European Championship final, where their goal will be to finally win some silverware before more players from the ‘golden generation’ retire. Lucas Zelarayan’s opening goal against Wales at the weekend raised hopes for an unlikely late charge. Even though he also struck the woodwork later on, the home team could only draw 1-1.
For the country ranked 95th in FIFA’s world rankings, who had defeated Wales in Cardiff during the summer to advance, things could have turned out quite differently: in three consecutive games, they added just one point to their total, most notably losing shockingly to Latvia. The wait for a significant finals debut continues as a result, with Ukrainian coach Oleksandr Petrakov and his varied team comprised of members of the Armenian diaspora missing out on next year’s finals. Petrakov’s position may also be in peril after their previous five games consisting of two draws and three losses.
Team News
Mateo Kovacic is becoming more and more prone to injuries. He was left off of Zlatko Dalic’s squad last week due to another setback with his recurrent quad ailment. First-choice striker Andrej Kramaric and Feyenoord winger Luka Ivanusec both returned to action. Kramaric has four goals from five Group D outings so far. Given Dalic’s discontent with the other choices, Kovacic’s Manchester teammate Josko Gvardiol should start. The starting lineup on Tuesday should be identical to the one that began in Riga.
Varazdat Haroyan, the captain of Armenia, will be sidelined on Wednesday due to a third booking of the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign. Taron Voskanyan may be asked to fill in as the center defender for Astana due to the player’s ban. This would require Oleksandr Petrakov to make at least one change from the squad that faced Wales. Borussia Monchengladbach attacker Grant-Leon Ranos, who was born and reared in Germany but changed allegiance earlier this year, and Argentina-born Lucas Zelarayan ought to be in the final third.
Croatia 2 – 1 Armenia
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