Croatia vs Albania: Preview, predictions and lineups

Grit meets technical mastery in Hamburg on Wednesday afternoon as Croatia and Albania, both defeated in their opening Euro 2024 matches, face off in Group B.

2018 World Cup finalists Croatia were brought back down to earth by a majestic Spain performance in their first game, with Luis de la Fuente’s side blowing the ageing Vatreni away in the first half on their way to a 3-0 victory.

Croatia’s improvement after Zlatko Dalic rang the changes offers room for optimism heading into match two, but Albania proved against Italy that they haven’t arrived in Germany to merely make up the numbers.

Sylvinho’s men gave the holders an almighty score to open up the tournament as Nedim Bajrami pounced on Federico Dimarco’s loose throw-in to net the fastest goal in the competition’s history. Italy then settled, though; taking a 2-1 lead before managing the contest down the stretch.

Thus, defeats for these two sides on Matchday 1 renders Wednesday’s duel a seismic one in terms of group qualification. With Spain and Italy now likely to advance as the top two, Croatia and Albania could be fighting to progress as one of the four best performing third-place finishers.

Here is 90min’s guide to Croatia vs Albania at Euro 2024.

Croatia vs Albania H2H record

This is the first competitive meeting between these two nations.

Current form (all competitions)

Dalic could reshuffle his defence and return Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol to the centre of it with Borna Sosa coming in at left-back. The Ajax man featured heavily at the 2022 World Cup.

Marcelo Brozovic’s place in the XI is also in doubt, with the manager potentially adding Atalanta’s Mario Pasalic to his engine room. He could join Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic in the middle of the park.

Ivan Perisic isn’t quite up to full fitness following his lengthy injury layoff.

Croatia predicted lineup (4-3-3): Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Gvardiol, Sosa; Modric,…