Group D analysis - Croatia is ready to ride to Paris

1^st Croatia (=FIL’s Prediction)

 Once again they slipped under the cracks, without anyone really paying attention to them, but Croatia showed, once again, they are a very good team and can beat anyone, in a good day.
 We had expected that Croatia would surprise Europe by doing more points than Spain and they did confirm that, even if they still tried to outdone themselves, with the draw conceded so late with Czech Republic.

 In the last game of the group, they faced Spain and Cacic decided to rest his squad for the knockout stage. With devastating results for the European Champions, as Croatia dominated the match and got the rewarding late goal that put them where we, and very few others, expected.

2^nd Spain (=FIL’s prediction)

Rollercoaster of emotions for Spain, which is something they surely don’t relish. After all, inconsistency was the main issue with La Roja until Guardiola created the system that most fitted the Spanish team. Now, with teams learning how to counter it, Spain seems to be regressing emotionally.

 They had a frustrating game against Czech Republic, a game that should’ve been won much sooner that they were able to, but were great with Turkey. In that game it looked like Del Bosque’s team was completely back to their old form, Morata showed he’s ready to be a proper striker, not a false nine.

 But the problems were just coming, as with Croatia – a rotated but well-oiled Croatia – Spain was not able to guarantee the first place they had in the beginning of the match. Ramos missed a penalty and Croatia was able to pierce through Spanish defense too often, in a game that put Spain in a very tricky part of the draw of the knockouts.

3^rd Turkey (>FIL’s Prediction)

 Very disappointing performance for Turkey, in part because of Barcelona’s inability to use Turan until January. It sounds weird, but the two were definitely related, as Turkey’s main star always seemed out of the game, much focused on what was going outside the pitch of play, even stopping counter attacks to reach to being booed.

 Turkey did not scratch both Spain and Croatia, but they still believed in a miraculous qualification, which they couldn’t get. But they did show they could’ve done much more, had they played like in the last game.

4^th Czech Rep. (<FIL’s Prediction)

 Pavel Vrba was one of the main disappointments for us at FIL, especially with his strategy to play Spain. Instead of trying to play the game, just like they did in the qualification stage, Czech Republic went to play with four full-backs, opted to never attack and try to get the point.

 It almost worked, though, with Piqué’s goal coming in the 87^th minute of the game, after Cech made a number of world-class saves. This result made Czechs were obliged to win at least one of the two next games, but they were almost destroyed by Croatia, surviving by Vida’s lack of sense. And when they needed to win and achieve the 3^rd place, but they were overrun by Turkey, making sure Czech Rep was going out with nothing good to remember