Croatia vs Slovenia

Qatar’s Education City Stadium is the venue as Croatia and Slovenia go head-to-head in an exciting international friendly.

Croatia will get their preparations for the upcoming World Cup finals underway against a side they’ve defeated in three of their last four international H2Hs, friendlies included (L1). The 2018 World Cup runners-up finished top of 2022 World Cup qualifying Group H, a single point clear of second-placed Russia, who got banned from international football due to their invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the ‘Blazers’ are unbeaten in all seven international fixtures (W5, D2) since exiting Euro 2020, keeping five clean sheets in this period. Delivering action from the get-go, the Croatians have opened the scoring in seven of their last nine international outings. Hot favourites to maintain their eye-catching form, Croatia have only lost one of their last 16 meetings with nations ranked outside FIFA’s top-50 (W10, D5).

In the meantime, Slovenia, who are, in fact, the only side sitting outside the top 50 to beat Croatia during that 16-game sequence, will have to wait for another qualifying cycle to reach their first World Cup finals since 2010. But following a 1-0 home win over the Croatians in their opening Group H encounter, the Slovenians fell to a disastrous 3-0 defeat in Split. To Slovenia’s credit, though, they’ve only lost twice in their last nine internationals (W4, D3), suggesting Matjaz Kek’s men are moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, Slovenia’s lack of consistency has seen none of their last ten matches replicating the same result twice in a row, highlighting the unpredictability following this side. The visitors can find confidence in the fact they’ve scored 2+ goals in their last two fixtures on hostile turf, though.

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