Kick-off: 1945, 25/09/2022
Stadium: Ernst-Happel Stadion
Croatia began their Nations League campaign with a 3-0 home loss to Austria but have since battled their way to the top of the Group A1 table.
Das Team are now facing relegation after picking up just one more point and we fully expect the Blazers to exact revenge in Vienna.
Punters can get 7/5 for an away win and that is our opening Austria vs Croatia prediction.
Austria Odds
Patrick Pentz helped Austria to hold France to a goalless stalemate in the first half on Thursday, pulling off a superb double save.
Jonathan Clauss then missed a good chance for Les Bleus after the break but Das Team were undone by a fine solo effort from Kylian Mbappe on 55 minutes.
Olivier Giroud headed in a second for France 10 minutes later to climb above their opponents at the foot of the table.
Head coach Ralf Rangnick said: “We could already have been behind at half-time, but how we conceded the first goal was extremely annoying.
“In such games, it’s always about who scores the first goal. On Sunday, we’ll give everything to win the game and hope that France don’t win against Denmark.”
The fear is that some of Austria’s key men are not getting any younger and the supporting cast lacks quality.
Marko Arnautovic barely had a sniff of a chance up front in Paris and Rangnick felt the need to bring him off early, along with Marcel Sabitzer and David Alaba.
Looking at the Austria vs Croatia odds, we like 29/10 for the visitors to prevail by any one-goal margin.
Croatia Odds
Croatia looked down and out after following up that drubbing by Austria with a 1-1 home draw against France.
However, after 1-0 wins over Denmark and Les Bleus, they completed a hat-trick of victories by beating the Danes 2-1 in midweek.
Stuttgart defender Borna Sosa slid in a 49th-minute shot from the edge of the area before Christian Eriksen struck a superb equaliser.
Rennes midfielder Lovro Majer restored Croatia’s lead when finishing off some neat build-up play with another accurate 20-yard effort.
Manager Zlatko Dalic commented: “Denmark are a very good team. Defeating them twice in three months is a great achievement. Only big teams can do that.
“We made it possible to decide our fate in the last game. The defeat in Osijek still hurts us. We will go for the victory.”
As we said in our midweek match preview, which featured two successful selections, 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia often step up a level when they have something serious to play for.
With so much at stake at both ends of the table, this could be a cagey contest early on, but we’re backing the Blazers to get there in the end.
Let’s add 19/4 for Draw HT/Croatia FT to our Austria vs Croatia betting tips.
Additional stats
Last result:
France 2-0 AUSTRIA
CROATIA 2-1 Denmark – Borna Sosa, Lovro Majer
Head-to-head: Croatia 0-3 Austria, Austria 0-1 Croatia, Austria 0-1 Croatia, Austria 1-4 Croatia
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