Euro 2012 action Sunday night comes from the Stadion Miejski, Poznan featuring Republic of Ireland v Croatia.
The whole game is being shown Live on ITV 1 High Definition, with a scheduled 19:45pm (BST) Kick Off Time.
Hello and thanks for stopping by to view our Republic of Ireland v Croatia Betting Preview from Group C of Euro 2012, where we have provided you with the very latest team news, head to head statistics, best betting odds markets and our free betting tips predictions on the match.
Republic of Ireland are very much the wild card nation of the tournament as although they will have plenty of support and belief from fans back home, the general consensus is that they are just a side to make up the numbers.
However, coach Giovanni Trapattoni has in my opinion a squad that could cause a few major shocks in this tournament as the whole team has chemistry in an abundance and history proves that you don’t necessarily have to be the best team in the world to win this tournament as Greece showed back in Euro 2004.
Croatia are currently ranked ten places above Republic of Ireland in the offical Fifa World Rankings and many will expect Slaven Bilić’s side to have little trouble in recording the victory.
Croatia finished runners up during the qualification stage, but comfortably beat Turkey 3-0 on aggregate in the play off to book their place at these finals and with players like Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar they do have some very talented individuals in their squad.
Republic of Ireland v Croatia Team News
Republic of Ireland Team News : Irish fans will be relieved to hear that both Shay Given and John O’Shea have recovered from their injuries and have been passed fit to start which is a major boost for the whole squad.
Probable Lineup : Given, O’Shea, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, Damien Duff, Whelan, Andrews, McGeady, Long, Robbie Keane.
Croatia Team News : Croatia won’t be full strength during this tournament as influential striker Ivica Olic has been ruled out of taking part due to a thigh strain. Also missing for the duration of the competition are both Ivi Illicevic and Dejan Lovren who are out with respective injury problems.
Probable Lineup : Pletikosa, Corluka, Schildenfeld, Simunic, Strinic, Srna, Modric, Rakitic, Pranjic, Mandzukic, Jelavic.
Republic of Ireland v Croatia Head to Head Statistics
Sunday night’s match will become the 7th meeting between the two nations over the years and all the results of those games can be seen in our head to head statistics table shown below.
- Republic of Ireland Victories : 2
- Draws : 3
- Croatia Victories : 1
The last time the two sides met was back in August 2011 during a friendly match at the Aviva Stadium where the score finished 0-0 after 90 minutes.
Republic of Ireland v Croatia Best Match Betting Odds
Probably the most difficult game to call so far as with the head to head statistics showing there is very little between these two sides and three of the six previous matches have all ended in a draw.
The online bookmakers make Croatia the current favourites to win this game, probably based on their official fifa ranking and the fact that they managed to reach the quarter finals during Euro 2008.
