Germany - Croatia ( Germania - Croatia)
The second round of matches in Group B gets underway with Croatia and Germany clashing in Klagenfurt. Both teams won their opening games, so the winner of this one will have gone a long way to clinching their place in the knock-out stage.
Croats Confident
Croatia got their Euro 2008 campaign off to a winning start against hosts Austria thanks to an early penalty from Luka Modric. They will want to continue that good start on Thursday as they face up to one of the tournament favourites Germany.
They are still regarded as one of the dark horses for the tournament and a positive result against the Germans will act as a huge confidence boost to Slaven Bilic’s men.
The Croats are not short on confidence and know that they can mix it with the big boys as their win at Wembley against England during qualification proves.
Striker Mladen Petric outlined the spirit in the side: "We're confident in ourselves, we know we're strong enough, and we have the quality to beat any team" he said.
Germany took the third place in 2006 World Cup as the host, while Croatia ended up with the same place in 1998 World Cup, during which Croatia beat Germany 3-0.
"We would love to be as successful as they were in 1998" Petric explained.
However, Germany has won five out of seven games against Croatia so far. "The Germans are always favourites - and not only in the group. It could be possible that our last game against Poland will decide who's going to the quarter-finals, but I hope we can secure our passage before that" the Dortmund striker added.
Germany beat the Croatians 2-1 in the last eight on their way to winning Euro 96 in England but suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat by them in the World Cup quarter-finals two years later.
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic remains confident midfielder Luka Modric will recover from an ankle injury to boost their hopes of a place in the last eight. Otherwise he is likely to stick with the line-up that overcame Austria.
Predicted Line-Up: Pletikosa, Simunic, R. Kovac, Corluka, N. Kovac, Srna, Modric, Pranjic, Kranjcar, Olic, Petric
Croats Confident
Croatia got their Euro 2008 campaign off to a winning start against hosts Austria thanks to an early penalty from Luka Modric. They will want to continue that good start on Thursday as they face up to one of the tournament favourites Germany.
They are still regarded as one of the dark horses for the tournament and a positive result against the Germans will act as a huge confidence boost to Slaven Bilic’s men.
The Croats are not short on confidence and know that they can mix it with the big boys as their win at Wembley against England during qualification proves.
Striker Mladen Petric outlined the spirit in the side: "We're confident in ourselves, we know we're strong enough, and we have the quality to beat any team" he said.
Germany took the third place in 2006 World Cup as the host, while Croatia ended up with the same place in 1998 World Cup, during which Croatia beat Germany 3-0.
"We would love to be as successful as they were in 1998" Petric explained.
However, Germany has won five out of seven games against Croatia so far. "The Germans are always favourites - and not only in the group. It could be possible that our last game against Poland will decide who's going to the quarter-finals, but I hope we can secure our passage before that" the Dortmund striker added.
Germany beat the Croatians 2-1 in the last eight on their way to winning Euro 96 in England but suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat by them in the World Cup quarter-finals two years later.
Croatia
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic remains confident midfielder Luka Modric will recover from an ankle injury to boost their hopes of a place in the last eight. Otherwise he is likely to stick with the line-up that overcame Austria.
Predicted Line-Up: Pletikosa, Simunic, R. Kovac, Corluka, N. Kovac, Srna, Modric, Pranjic, Kranjcar, Olic, Petric
Germany 
As both striker Gomez and midfielder Schweinsteiger performed well in the first match, it is widely believed that Jogi Löw will make a minor change to send both to the pitch, while putting speedy Podolski backward as a winger to create more scoring chances for team-mates. Clemens Fritz would drop to the bench
Predicted Line-Up: Lehmann, Lahm, Metzelder. Mertesacker, Jansen, Frings, Ballack, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Gomez, Klose
Predicted Line-Up: Lehmann, Lahm, Metzelder. Mertesacker, Jansen, Frings, Ballack, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Gomez, Klose
Over 2.5 or both team 2 score
posted by Midnight Sun @ 22:05,
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