England vs Croatia Head-To-Head: Euro 2020 | H2H Results | Tactical Analysis | Lineup | Prediction

Tournament favourites, England renew their international rivalry with familiar foes, Croatia, in the Group D opening match at Wembley. 

Match details:

Group D: England vs Croatia 
Date: 13th June 2021
Location: Wembley Stadium, London 
Kick-off: 2 pm Central European Time (CET) 

England vs Croatia: Head-to-head Results

Below are the head-to-head results between England and Croatia in competitive fixtures

England has been a dominating force in their last five head-to-head games, and they would replicate the same performance on Sunday. Gareth Southgate’s team brimming with talented young players are full of attacking prowess. 

England vs Croatia: Trivia

✦ England have never won their opening group game at a European Championship in eight previous attempts 

✦ Croatia have never lost a game when Luka Modric has scored.

✦ This is England's tenth appearance in the UEFA European Championship. However, the best they could manage so far at the Euros is a third-place finish back in 1968.

✦ Croatia are unbeaten in their opening group game in all their previous European Championships (W4 D1)

✦ Harry Kane finished as the overall top scorer in the Euro 2020 qualifying group stage with 12 goals

England vs Croatia: Euro Flashback

A star-studded English squad played Croatia at the Euro 2004 in Portugal. Croatia opened the scoring through Niko Kovac. 

However, Paul Scholes was running the strings for England from midfield who also equalized before a certain Wayne Rooney strike from distance gave England a 2-1 lead at half-time against Croatia. 

The second half saw a similar theme in front of goal, as Rooney scored his second with a side-footed finished past the keeper to make it 3-1. Croatia did pull one back from another set-piece but Frank Lampard sealed the 3 points for England by scoring the fourth to make it 4-2.  

England's form guide: W-W-W-W-W

Croatia’s form guide: L-D-W-W-L   

England vs Croatia: Tactical analysis

Croatia

Croatia usually deploys 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-1-2 structure; they play a conventional diamond formation. Luca Modric, who is the mainstay of the team, leads the midfield along with Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic. 

Ivan Perisic, who marshal the team in the forward line, likes creating space for midfielders to stretch out the opponent’s defence. Croatia mainly plays a high pressing game; once they recover the ball, they will hit the opposition with a spontaneous counter-attack.

Besides Luka Modric, Andrej Kramaric could be the one to watch after his finest season with Hoffenheim, scoring 20 goals. He will cause a threat to England's defence.

England

England had one of their best runs in FIFA World Cup 2018, reaching the semi-final. Since then, the three lions have become one of the powerhouses in Europe, brimmed with young players England will be a force to be reckoned with in Euro 2020. 

Gareth Southgate has made a slew of changes from an earlier 3-5-2 formation to a 4-3-3 structure ahead of Euro 2020. 

Fluid in attacking, England attackers will create catastrophe on opponent’s defence, with Harry Kane leading the team in attacking line. There are countless no. of young talents in England’s squad who will spearhead the team in the tournament.

England vs Croatia: Predicted Line-ups   

England XI (4-3-3): Pickford; Walker, Stones, Mings, Chilwell; Phillips, Rice, Mount; Sancho, Kane, Foden

Croatia XI (4-3-1-2): Livakovic; Vrsaljko, Vida, Caleta-Car, Barisic; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Rebic, Petkovic, Perisic.    

Croatia vs England: Predictions 

Since their FIFA World Cup clash, both the teams have moved in slightly contrasting directions.

Expectations were low from England in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, now they go into the Euro 2020 being one of the favourites, whilst Croatia would find it difficult to emulate their 2018 FIFA World Cup performance, after being weakened by the loss of quality of players.  

Having a home advantage, England is likely to start their Euro 2020 journey with a win against Croatia.