Croatia v Spain (Group C)
18^th June 2012, 7.45pm, BBC1, at The PGE Arena, Gdańsk

The business end of Group C now with the penultimate match that pits reining European Champions Spain against a tough Croatia side at the PGE Arena.

A lot will depend on how results in the group have taken shape thus far but it is quite likely that the Spaniards could already have two victories to their credit and it may give Slaven Bilic’s men the opportunity to play a team with one eyes already on the knockout stage of the competition.

Tipsters Best Bet

Back The Draw @ 14/5 with bet365

We could well be in store for a very interesting encounter.

Croatia performed with much credit at the last European Championships in 2008. Their qualifying campaign was of the highest calibre and it saw them dump England out of the competition before it even go under way.

Slaven Bilic’s side haven’t quite managed to produce that level of form since but they are still ranked as high as eighth in the world by Fifa and are more than capable of reaching the latter stages of the 2012 European Championships.

The fact that Bilic decided to stay with Croatia rather than take a job in the Premier League speaks volumes and he has enough talent in the squad to put up another creditable run.

Current World Cup and European Championship holders, Spain are looking foor their third straight major trophy. The strength in depth they have throughout their squad is quite scary and they continued to impress throughout their qualifying campaign.

The Spanish aren’t unbeatable as we have seen in some of their friendly results in recent times, but they do produce the positive results when it matters. I think they could well have qualified for the next phase of the competition by this stage and may well settle for a draw here.

Croatia v Spain Odds (Prices from bet365)

Croatia 5/1
Spain 1/2
Draw 14/5

Collect a free £200 bet for this match over at bet365.com