STAR FOOTBALL PREVIEW Fri: Scotland v Croatia

Scotland will be looking for a rare international success when they face Croatia at Hampden Park this evening, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

Despite leading Scotland to back-to-back European Championships, manager Steve Clarke is under pressure after a run of eight internationals without success – indeed Scotland’s win over Gibraltar in June is their only victory in their last 16 games.

Whilst results will ultimately decide Clarke’s fate, the Scots should be cut some slack. They disappointed at the Euros with just one point from three games (key injuriries hampered their campaign and they did face Germany and Switzerland in 2 of their games), and whilst they’re bottom of their Nations League group, they’ve played respectably and have hardly put in dire performances.

Scotland have succumbed to late goals on three occasions – the winning goals against them in the Nations League have arrived in the 70th, 88th and 90th minutes – and this time they do have the returning Jack Hendry, John McGinn and Stuart Armstrong all add to their chances whilst in-form Napoli duo Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay are tearing up Serie A.

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Scotland v Croatia
UEFA Nations League Group Stage
19:45 Scotland National Team YouTube / Viaplay International YouTube

LAST FIVE STATS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
OCT 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Croatia 2-1 Scotland
JUN 2021 EURO 2024 Croatia 3-1 Scotland
OCT 2013 WORLD CUP QUALIFIYING Scotland 2-0 Croatia
JUN 2013 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING Croatia 0-1 Scotland
MAR 2008 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Scotland 1-1 Croatia

SCOTLAND
OCT 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Scotland 0-0 Portugal
OCT 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Croatia 2-1 Scotland
SEP 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Portugal 2-1 Scotland
SEP 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Scotland 2-3 Poland
JUN 2024 EURO 2024 Scotland 0-1 Hungary

CROATIA
OCT 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Poland 3-3 Croatia
OCT 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Croatia 2-1 Scotland
SEP 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Croatia 1-0 Poland
SEP 2024 NATIONS LEAGUE Portugal 2-1 Croatia
JUN 2024 EURO 2024 Croatia 1-1 Italy

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Croatia were a step away from the Nations League quarter-finals when leading Poland 3-1, but they slid to a 3-3 draw whilst first-choice keeper Dominik Livakovic sent off. Zlatko Dalic has enjoyed huge success, twice reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup and also qualifying for the final of the Nations League, but there were signs the golden run is coming to an end at Euro 2024 when they failed to win any of their group games.

They still pack a big punch going forward and have enjoyed a good Nations League campaign, although there wasn’t much in their 2-1 win against a Scotland side missing senior players at home in October and this could be a tight game between the pair. Scotland managed to frustrate a richly talented Portugal side to a 0-0 draw here and whilst goals look likely (Six of Croatia’s last seven games outside their home country) have featured at least three goals, and five of those saw both teams find the net), the draw at 23/10 with starsports.bet hould give backers a good run for their money.

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