Frogman
Home  »    »  World Cup 2014 Group A preview: Croatia v Mexico

World Cup 2014 Group A preview: Croatia v Mexico

| 23.06.2014
SPORTSBOOK ODDS

Mexico (8/1 to top the pool), who drew to current World Cup favourites Brazil (10/3), face Croatia (7/5 to qualify) in their final Group A game, needing just a point once more to confirm a place in the last 16. A share of the spoils again is priced at 23/10.

El Tri, largely thanks to free agent goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, came through that goalless draw with the hosts. The former Ajaccio stopper had an absolute stormer, saving left right and centre literally from the likes of Neymar and co, and his side are great shouts at 9/4 to get a clean sheet again, and 15/4 to win to nil.

Croatia (7/5 for victory), meanwhile, who sit one point behind Mexico on three, go into this final Group A game on the back of thrashing reckless Cameroon 4-0. While that scoreline is unlikely again, they are 21/10 to keep a cleansheet again.

Mario Madzukic returned for that match, after being suspended for the opener, and managed to impress, getting on the scoresheet twice. He is 7/1 to net two or more again, and 5/4 to get a goal anytime.

For the Mexicans, Oribe Peralta is their only scorer this tournament in Brazil so far, and he is 7/4 in the anytime market. Manchester United’s Javier Hernandez, meanwhile, has started both group games on the bench so far, and is a 6/1 chance to net last.

This will be the third meeting in history between the two sides, with the Blazers 2-1 up in wins. The most recent contest, though, and their only at a World Cup, was in 2002, with Mexico being 1-0 victors. Miguel Herrera’s men are 15/8 to win again, and 15/2 to repeat that scoreline.

Both bosses have spoken out before the crunch fixture to rally their troops, with Croatia’s Niko Kovac saying: “The match against Mexico will be like a final. Mexico are strong, but so are we.

“The Mexico players are very patriotic, just like us, and they have a great team spirit. They play some aggressive football with a lot of pressing. They are strong going forward, but also have some weaknesses in defence, like Brazil showed us.”

Aztecs manager Herrera stated: “We’re in the group and battling it out for a place [in the last 16] even with Brazil,” said Herrera.

“We’ve still got another group game to play and, like always, we’ll be going all out for the win.

“I told the lads that they did an excellent job [against Brazil], but we’ve still got to give everything to try and qualify.”

«
»

Author

Sam Barnard

Sam has been writing for Coral since January 2014, and is the assistant editor of the news site. As well as the main betting sports, football, tennis and cricket, he covers the likes of golf, F1 and darts too, the latter of which has become a particular favourite. Sam enjoys playing as much as writing about sports, but niggling injuries have limited his participation in recent years, so is happy to mainly watch the pros such as Manchester United, Yorkshire CCC, Raymond van Barneveld and even Gibraltar national football team instead.