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The Forgotten Europeans

Later tonight Croatia will go head to head with Denmark, in a Round of 16 game that actually should’ve been viewed as quite plausible prior to the tournament getting underway. Both teams are effective and organised throughout the core of their squad, and while they’re not viewed amongst the elite nations in the World Cup, they seem to have that special something that always plants a seed of doubt in your mind when they face some of the bigger sides.

They’ve both had pretty interesting routes to get here, with their success stories varying greatly between one another. The Croats looked like a threat from the word go, registering a 2-0 victory over Nigeria before tearing a hole through the Argentine defence in an emphatic 3-0 triumph. They rounded things off against Iceland with a narrow 2-1 win, which was almost as impressive as the first two considering that they rested several high profile stars in preparation for this encounter against Denmark.

The Danes, however, have hardly been the people’s team throughout the course of the group stages. Their narrow win against Peru came completely against the run of play, and while they did well to close them down, there was an element of good fortune to the win which painted them in a supervillain kind of light. They continued this trajectory with an uneven performance during their 1-1 draw against Australia, and then, they took part in probably the dullest game of the WC so far this year when they drew 0-0 with France.

Every team has a different style and we’re not knocking that, but either way, this game seems to be hidden away as one that people are sleeping on. At least with Sweden vs Switzerland people are talking about how one of them could actually get to the semi-finals, but because the winner of this game will probably play Spain, they’re already counting Croatia & Denmark out.

There’s an interesting dynamic in the air with Croatia having a squad full of name value, meanwhile, Denmark’s number one man is Christian Eriksen – and there’s nobody else who really comes close to him. All of their creative movements run through the Tottenham Hotspur star, and that could be Denmark’s biggest issue as they prepare for the biggest game in their recent history. Nobody can ever be counted out on paper because we always have to wait and see how things transpire, but one thing we can guarantee is that today’s set of RO16 fixtures could get very interesting.

World Cup Betting

Luka Modric is one of those footballers who always seems to go about his own business is a calm and sensible manner, and because he’s not someone who will be hitting the headlines every single week, his work rate often goes unnoticed. This time around, though, the only way forward will be to respect him – especially seeing as he’s the clear favourite to be Croatia’s top goalscorer in Russia. If they get off to a hot start, then Modric could end up running the show in this one.