Croatia vs Portugal: EURO 2016 Round of 16 Preview & Prediction

Croatia will be aiming to beat Portugal for the first time in their history and equal their best European Championship finish record, by reaching the quarter-finals.

Whilst, Portugal will hope to win their first match at this year’s tournament, after failing to do so in the group stages.

Croatia’s heroics in the group stage looked to have earned them, in theory, an easier opponent after topping Group D, ahead of current champions Spain, but will now face Fernando Santos’ side and are hoping to overturn their dreadful record against them.

Perisic netted Croatia’s late winner against defending European champions Spain on Tuesday night – Photo: Presse Sports / Offside

Cristiano Ronaldo will be Portugal’s centre-piece again for the Portuguese and their all-time record goal scorer will be hoping to add to the two goals he scored in the 3-3 draw with Hungary to lead his country through to the last-eight.

Meanwhile, Croatia are now many pundits’ dark horses to reach the final and will heavily rely on the midfield trio of Ivan Rakitic, Ivan Perisic and Luka Modric who were influential in the Blazers’ dominant performances so far this summer.

Croatia topped Group D with relative ease by beating Turkey and Spain, with the only minor blip on their record coming in their 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic after succumbing a two-goal lead.

Although arguably the Croats were affected by the terrible scenes of their fans throwing flares onto the pitch and fighting in the stands, which caused the match to be stopped in the 86th minute, before they let in a late equaliser.

Meanwhile; Portugal are yet to hit top gear, having drawn all three of their fixtures in Group F against the likes of Iceland, Austria and Hungary and are the only side that has qualified for the last-16 without winning a single match.

The two nations have only ever met three times, before Saturday’s crunch match in Lens, with Portugal winning on all three occasions and are yet to concede a goal. Whilst two of those were friendlies in recent years, they first played each other in the 1996 European Championships, with Portugal running out 3-0 winners.

Yet, Croatia have now gone ten matches unbeaten, in which they have won eight of those fixtures. The Croats have fond memories of playing in Lens, after beating Jamaica 3-1 in their first match at the 1998 World Cup and current manager Ante Cacic will be looking for the current generation to replicate the country’s previous feat in the French city.

This is the seventh time that Portugal have competed at the European Championships, with the best performance at the 2004 finals, when they lost in the final 1-0 to shock winners Greece on home soil.

Finishing third in Group F was below the huge expectations on Ronaldo and his teammates and were it not for the new 24-team format, they would have failed to qualify for the knockout round for the first time in their history.

Better news for the Portuguese though is that star man Ronaldo became the first player to score at four different Euro’s and has the all-time finals appearance record, which he set against Hungary when he competed in his 17th match.

Portugal’s Ronaldo is the first player to score at four European Championship finals – Photo: Presse Sports / Offside

Team News:

Croatia could still be without Modric, who missed the 2-1 victory over Spain after picking up a groin injury in the 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic, with Marko Rog the favourite to replace the Real Madrid midfielder, should he miss out. Forward Mario Mandzukic is also a doubt.

Portugal have minor injury concerns ahead of the tie with Raphael Gurreiro and Andre Gomes facing late fitness tests.

However they will look to field the same team that started against Hungary, as boss Santos will hope to outscore his opponents, whilst relying on veteran centre-backs Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho to keep a clean sheet.

Forward Nani will be hoping to add to his two goals so far in the tournament in what will be his 100th cap.

FIFA World Ranking: Croatia – 27th; Portugal – 8th
Best European Championship Finish: Croatia – Quarter-Finals (1996, 2008); Portugal – Runners-Up (2004)
Previous Meeting: Portugal 1-0 Croatia (June 10, 2013 – International Friendly)
Form: Croatia – DWWWDW; Portugal – WLWDDD
Key Men: Croatia – Ivan Perisic; Portugal – Cristiano Ronaldo
Shoot Says: Croatia 2-1 Portugal