Croatia vs Albania Preview

Croatia look to bounce back after a disappointing 3-0 loss to Spain as they take on Albania tomorrow at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg for their second fixture of Group B at EURO 2024.

Zlatko Dalic’s side put out a poor performance against a seamless Spanish team who look favourites to top the group. The Vatreni cannot afford to drop points again if they want a chance at getting through to the Round of 16.

FT | 🇪🇸 3:0 🇭🇷

Final whistle in Berlin, congratulations to @SEFutbol 🤝#EURO2024 | #ESPCRO | #PokažiSrce | #Family | #Vatreni❤️‍🔥 pic.twitter.com/5KcbnmEyZR
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) June 15, 2024

Not only has Croatia’s confidence been diminished by the previous match on Saturday, but also will have been detrimental further by the news that former West Ham man Nikola Vlasic has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament with a muscular injury. The midfielder was injured in training and will be heading home from Germany.

#Croatia international Nikola Vlašić will leave the national team basecamp and miss the rest of the #EURO2024 due to a muscle injury.

"Nikola invested a lot of effort to help the team at the EURO 2024, and he is an integral part of the squad. Unfortunately, this second injury… pic.twitter.com/E9uiA8GdL3
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) June 18, 2024

Despite being by far the favourites to finish bottom of Group B, Albania surprised many by scoring the fastest goal in the history of the European Championships against Italy on Saturday, when Nedim Bajrami netted an absolutely blasting shot into the top corner to stun the Azzurri, just 23 seconds into the match.

Bajrami makes Euros history by scoring the quickest goal in the tournaments history.

Just 23 seconds! 🔥#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/KzhXIwMYAx
— Euro 24 Hub (@Euro24Hub) June 15, 2024

The clash with the reigning champions proved to be a lot tighter than many expected and with the manner in which the Eagles played, it wouldn’t be a complete shock if they were able to take a point or even three against a lack-lustre Croatian side.

TEAM NEWS

The everpresent midfield three for Croatia of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic could be broken up as it has been rumoured that Brozovic could be left out in order to make way for someone like Mario Pasalic to change up the style in midfield.

With Ivan Perisic still not being back to full fitness despite coming on for the final half hour of the first game, and Bruno Petkovic missing his penalty, you would expect to see the same front three start for the Vatreni tomorrow.

Zlatko Dalić on Petković taking the pen:

"Petković shouldn't have taken the pen, as the rule is that the player who won the penalty shouldn't take it. If we from the bench didn't manage to resolve it, there's a hierarchy in the team. Perišić or Majer should have taken it." 🚨 pic.twitter.com/2vsPJTlXoi
— 🇭🇷 (@TheCroatianLad) June 16, 2024

There is no fresh injury news from the Albanian camp, and you would probably expect a similar line up to the one that faced Italy.