Portugal vs Croatia

Estádio Nacional do Jamor forms the backdrop for a mouth-watering international friendly between Portugal and Croatia.

Unfazed by a shock 2-0 loss to Slovenia in their last international friendly in March, Portugal returned to winning ways with a thumping 4-2 victory against Finland earlier this week, upholding Roberto Martinez’s near-perfect record in charge of the Euro 2016 winners (W12, L1). That triumph has solidified Portugal’s formidable run in friendlies on home turf, as they’ve not lost any of their last ten such fixtures since going down to the Netherlands in 2018 (W7, D3). However, Martinez’s backline has shown signs of vulnerability lately, conceding precisely two goals in three consecutive matches (W2, L1), which could harm their chances of posting a third successive H2H win against Croatia. On a positive note, they won their last encounter against this opposition 3-2 in November 2020.

In the meantime, Croatia embarked on the final set of their warm-up fixtures for Euro 2024 on the front foot, thrashing North Macedonia 3-0 earlier this week to extend their unbeaten run to five matches (W4, D1). With four of those five games seeing Zlatko Dalic’s side keep a clean sheet, the Blazers ought to be confident about beating Portugal for the first time after seven failed attempts (D2, L5). Moreover, Croatia’s free-scoring away form since a third-place finish at the 2022 World Cup boosts their lofty ambitions, with the visitors bagging 2+ goals on four of their six international travels since returning from Qatar (W4, D1, L1). Worryingly for Dalic, his men conceded precisely twice in three of those six matches.