On 16th November at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy plays Croatia for Group H of the qualifying round on the European Championship 2016.
Two yet undefeated sides will battle it out for the top spot of the group. These two were the favorites to qualify to begin with, with a slight question mark whether Norway could become the deciding team.
Italy are a tough proposition to defeat at a home match for any team in the world. No matter in what shape they are, they will always give it the best they have in front of the tifosies. And for this fixture they are both in good shape and with a motive to pursue, which makes things especially difficult for the Croatians.
On the other hand there is a side that have kept clean sheets in all their matches so far, they have scored an impressive number of 9 goals and they too have the same motive as the Italians. The Croatians are undoubtedly looking very strong and this would make for a great battle in the field.
A most interesting concept is that in the only previous game played in a qualifying round between the two sides Croatia won 1-2. Furthermore, in a total of seven games played, the Croats have 3 victories, 3 games ended in a draw and Italy has won only one. To make it even more enticing, both teams have scored eight times against their opponents.
The result with the best chances of occurrence is a draw with both teams scoring at least once which is based on the very effective offensive plays of both teams. Italy has the home court advantage, Croatia has the best offense and defense advantage. The expectation is that both sides will come out on the field looking primarily not to concede a goal with scoring one as a secondary objective.