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Zlatko Dalic and his Croatian side will travel to the Estadio Do Algarve on Thursday to play in a friendly against the Euro 2016 winners. The World Cup runner-ups captured the hearts and caught the hearts of many football fans for their domineering performances before falling to France in the final.
Going into the game against Portugal, Croatia will be making the trip with all of its top guns in the side. La Liga pair Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric will be making a bow having received a call-up after playing active roles in their country's journey to the World Cup final.
Nonetheless, the two midfielders will be looking to find a different target man upfront with their passes following Mario Mandzukic retirement. Although the scenarios are different, Portugal will also be handicapped coming into Thursday's encounter.
The Seleccao's skipper Cristiano Ronaldo had his wishes of being exempted from the international break games honored by Coach Fernando Santos and will, as a result, play no role in the upcoming game. Youthful pair Andre Silva and Goncalo Guedes are expected to fill his boots and lead the front line accordingly.
Form-wise, Croatia may slightly edge their host in the upcoming international friendlies. Prior to falling to France in the final of last summer's World Cup, the Vatreni won all their matches from the group stage to knockout phase.
However, in friendly matches away from home, Dalic's men have showed some fragilities having won just one out of the last three. As a result, Portugal will hope to bounce back from a disappointing World Cup spell by worsening the plight of their visitors.
Their chances will be boosted by the fact that all the four meeting between them and their European counterpart have ended in wins for them.
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Информация о матче, результат и информация о трансляции
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Прямые теле- и онлайн-трансляции (United States)
Прямые теле- и онлайн-трансляции (United States)
