Croatia vs Czech Republic preview: Little and large's battle to be decisive

Group D: Croatia vs Czech Republic, kick-off 5pm (UK time, BBC)

Croatia and the Czech Republic meet on matchday two with both sides in need of three points despite differing fortunes so far.

A 1-0 defeat to England at Wembley means Zlatko Dalic’s Croatia cannot really afford another loss while the Czech Republic could virtually book their last-16 place with a point after edging past a spirited Scotland 2-0 at Hampden Park.

The Czechs could count themselves a little fortunate to leave their Group D opener with three points after Steve Clarke’s side spurned the better chances on the day — not to mention Patrik Schick’s long-range stunner.

With England to come in their final fixture, they’ll want to be assured of progress in advance.

Story so far

Croatia kicked off Group D by going down 1-0 to England as the Three Lions gained a measure of revenge for their World Cup semi-final defeat three years ago.

England were on top for much of the first half and made the breakthrough just before the hour when Raheem Sterling finished off Kalvin Phillips' precise through ball.

Croatia rallied but couldn't truly test Jordan Pickford in the England goal.

The Czech Republic began their campaign 24 hours later with what, on paper at least, looked like a fairly routine 2-0 win over Scotland.

Schick headed home three minutes before half time, but the best was yet to come

Shortly after the restart, the Bayer Leverkusen forward spotted Scotland keeper David Marshall off his line and thumped home an instinctive first-time effort from near the halfway line — a certain contender for goal of the tournament.

Showing their age

Croatia’s squad still contains a number of players from their 2018 World Cup campaign where they were beaten by France in the final.

That can be viewed as a positive, as they have the experience and the know-how — but it can also be a problem.

For a start, those players are all three years older. Nine members of the squad are 29 or above.

Luka Modric, 35, Domagoj Vida, 32, and Ivan Perisic, 32 are no spring chickens — and it showed against the Three Lions.

Mason Mount, Phillips and Declan Rice all had too much energy for them in the middle third while Sterling and Phil Foden petrified the backline.

Somehow, Croatia boss Dalic needs to address that issue.

Schick hot

The Bayer Leverkusen forward was short of form coming into Euro 2020.

Since the turn of the year, he’d scored just five times in the Bundesliga and was without a goal in his final seven appearances of the season.

Although he netted in the friendly win over Albania prior to the tournament, few would’ve backed him to be leading the goalscoring charts after matchday one.

Yet that’s exactly where he is, alongside Romelu Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo.

His header was expertly guided into the corner and his second goal was an audacious attempt from just inside Scotland’s half.

The former RB Leipzig loanee isn’t lacking confidence and the Czechs must make the most of that.

A blunt attack

Croatia mustered just one shot on target against England

Captain Modric saw a lot of the ball, attempting 66 passes against the Three Lions and finishing the game with a pass accuracy of 92%.

The issue was that he was unable to progress the ball. Only eight of those passes were into the final third.

The Real Madrid metronome is the man tasked with getting the ball into dangerous areas, and he couldn’t. That goes a long way to explaining why Croatia created nothing of real note.

Repeating that will be the blueprint for the Czech Republic against Croatia today.

The midfield battle

West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek will be key to proceedings at Hampden Park.

He did a number on Scott McTominay on Monday and prevented him from influencing the game. He could well do the same against Modric.

If he can deny the Croatian pass master space, he stops them playing.

It is no coincidence Dalic’s side are at their most impressive when the veteran playmaker gets on the ball with greater regularity.

No-one attempted (66) or completed (61) more passes against England than the diminutive midfielder and the battle between Modric and Soucek, little and large, will decide this potentially vital shoot-out in Group D.