Croatia – Bulgaria (10.10.2015)

Date: Saturday, 10 October, 2015

Start time: 19:45 GMT

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Croatia hosts Bulgaria in the game from ninth round of UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying. The match is on Saturday at 19:45 GMT at the stadium “Maksimir” in Zagreb.

Croatia:

Croatia is in third position in the standings with a 14 points, six more than Bulgaria. “The Blazers” behind two points of the second Norway and their goal is to win the battle with “Vikings” and qualify directly to Euro 2016.

Because punishment from UEFA meeting in Zagreb will be played without an audience. The match will be the debut of new coach Ante Cacic, who replaced the post of Niko Kovac. The Croatian Football Federation was unhappy with the performance of the team in the last two qualifiers, where the team won one point in his visit to Azerbaijan and losses from Norveriya 2:0 in Oslo.

Striker Mario Mandzukic dropped from the squad of Croatia for the last two games. He is suffering from a hamstring injury and will not recover for matches with Bulgaria and Malta.

Bulgaria:

Bulgaria have won only one of their last seven qualifiers. They still have minimal chances of qualifiyng of Euro 2016. In two victories of Bulgaria – against Croatia and Azerbaijan, and two defeats to the Croatians, “The Lions” will occupy the third position in the group which entitles the barrage.

In the upcoming match the coach Ivaylo Petev can’t rely on the player Palermo Yvaylo Chochev. Bivshtiyat midfielder CSKA suffers from stomach problems. The participation of the Russian midfielder CSKA (Moscow) Georgi Milanov did is questionable because of injury, received one of the training team before the game.

Out due to injuries goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov and Vladislav Stoyanov and Galabinov refused to play with the national team.

Croatia is better team and expect to record a second success over Bulgaria. A year ago in Sofia haravtite won with 1: 0 and now need victory to overtake Norway. As you have acknowledged three salts players cost more than the entire Bulgarian squad. So I think that Croatian players are obliged to show it on the pitch.

Bulgaria, however, has nothing to lose, because only a victory will leave them to dream. I expect offensive football from the visitors to score at least one goal, against Norway because it was obvious that Croatia has problems in defense.