Preview: Croatia vs Wales
On Saturday night, Wales will start their World Cup third-placed Croatia match without Gareth Bale.
Both countries aspire to finish at the top of the Euro 2024 qualifying group, with Turkey, Armenia and Latvia among them.
Match Preview:
There has been a feeling for some time that Wales is nearing the end of an era, a kind of rubber stamp when Bale hung up his boots after the World Cup.
In the short term, this is quite a blow to this team, but it will only encourage them to be more united as they cannot rely on the individual talent of the greatest players of all time.
Against the backdrop of eight matches, which ended fruitlessly and the World Cup was dismal, they had to do so if they did not want to fall in the international rankings.
While this group is more favorable than it could have been, it will be admitted that Robert Page's team are struggling to finish second, behind the incoming hosts.
Wales, in particular, have never won against Croatia, losing three consecutive away games since a 1-1 draw with Croatia in 2002.
Croatia also face the prospect of an era coming to an end after finishing third in Qatar, but when Dejan Lovren announced his retirement from the national team, players such as Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic were still active on the international stage.
Zlatko Dalic will be delighted that the pair will provide valuable experience to the rest of the squad as they attack again in an important game to try to cross the line.
The checkered team has lost just one of their last 13 matches, losing to eventual world champions Argentina in the semi-final stage.
Croatia have only lost once at home since the start of 2021, underscoring the enormity of Wales' task as they face the second-best performing European side in Qatar.
Result prediction: Croatia 2-0 Wales
Although Wales have other high-quality players to call up, none of them can match the quality players Bale provides. Against high-quality opponents, they can fall short, which makes us predict a relatively easy win for the home team.