Croatia U20 vs New Zealand U20 Match Preview: FIFA Under 20 World Cup

Coratia under 20’s meet New Zealand under 20’s this Saturday afternoon at the Atatürk Stadium in Turkey with New Zealand searching for their first goal and win of the tournament.

Croatia started the tournament with a 1:0 victory over Uruguay followed by a 1:1 draw against Uzbekistan.

New Zealand lost their opening match 3:0 against Uzbekistan followed by a 2:0 defeat at the hands of Uruguay.

Recent form:

Croatia U20 – D W W L L L L

New Zealand U20 – L L L D D L L 

Group F looks like this:

Uzbekistan face Uruguay at the same time and a win for either side will almost certainly put them through to the knockout stages of the FIFA Under 20 World Cup.

New Zealand still have an outside chance of qualifying in third place but in order to do so they will have to defeat Croatia by 6 or more goals and hope that Uzbekistan can defeat Uruguay.

Uruguay are currently favourites with bookmakers to defeat Uzbekistan and with New Zealands record of 0 goals in 2 games, it’s unlikely we’re going to see a 6:0 win for New Zealand.

These two sides haven’t met at under 20 level in recent history so there is no form to go on.

Bookmakers side strongly with Croatia.

Current betting odds: Croatia U20 (1/7) Draw (6/1) New Zealand U20 (20/1)

Gamingtips Prediction – Croatia U20 5:1 New Zealand U20

It’s going to be very difficult for even the most Patriotic New Zealander to back their team given their recent performances and lack of goal scoring threat but stranger things have happened and there has already been multiple upsets in this competition to date.

Croatia have scored twice in two games and New Zealand may feel they can fend Croatia off and snatch a goal on the counter attack but in reality we should expect a comfortable and potentially dominant Croatian display given the fact that they need to win to guarantee a place in the knockout stages and due to the fact we haven’t seen an expressive Croatian side as of yet, we may see them to best effect on Saturday afternoon.

1/7 odds are impossible to take seriously about Croatia and so a value bet of Over 4.5 goals at odds of 5/2 seems reasonable given New Zealand’s shaky defending and the fact that Croatia must win to have a chance of topping the group and progressing to the knockout stages of competition.

This game gets underway at 16:00 CET and can be viewed live on Eurosport.

Alternatively you can keep up to date at the bottom of our livescores page