Croatia vs. Belgium Betting Tips: Back Tielemans To Score From Outside The Box

Croatia play Belgium in the final round of Group F fixtures Thursday afternoon, with the clash being shown live on BBC One. Our man Tipster J is on hand with his best bets for the action. 

Just one point separates these two sides heading in to match 3, with Croatia currently topping the group on 4 points. Nothing is yet guaranteed in Group F in regards to qualification, so a huge game between two heavyweights means it’s all to play for in the final group fixture. 

Croatia started their World Cup Campaign is disappointing fashion, as they were held to a 0-0 draw against Morocco, who sit 22nd in the FIFA World rankings. However, Zlatko Dalic’s side responded with an impressive 4-1 win over Canada on Sunday, putting them in pole position to qualify from the group. This win was enough to send Canada home, and another win here would confirm their place in the last 16 sending home the Red Devils in the process. 

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Belgium were very fortunate to come away with all 3 points in their opening game Vs Canada, but could not produce anything of note in the follow up game Vs Morocco as the Red Devils deservedly came away with 0 points in a 2-0 defeat. The spirit in the camp is at an all time low as for Martinez’ side. Captain Kevin De Bruyne was happy to dig out the squad and claim they are “too old” to win the World Cup in a recent interview. Jan Vertonghen has since hit back at his Captain in the media, criticising the poor attack Vs Morocco, sarcastically asking if they were “too old” as well. It’s not looking good for Martinez and his players as time is running out if they are to proceed to the last 16 of the tournament. 

This game is tough one to call but I’ll be putting my money on it to be a cagey affair Thursday afternoon. Backing under 24 match shots combined with under 5.5 Belgium shots on target gives us a nice odds-against bet builder which I’m happy to take as our NAP. 

Belgium have been far from what they are capable of in front of goal this campaign, but they don’t even seem to be creating the chances. They’ve had 19 shots across 2 games at the World Cup, with only 7 on target Vs much lesser opposition then Croatia.  

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I’m not expecting either team to come out flying here with so much on the line. The experience of this Croatian side I think will be too much for the Red Devils and contrary to what the bookies’ shot market suggests, we could see quite a flag game, but certainly more so in the first half. With this in mind and the lack of fluency in the Belgium attack, I’m happy to back Under in both these markets for a 21/20 bet builder. 

Tielemans should come into the side here as Onana is serving his suspension. The Leicester Midfielder certainly is not afraid to have a pop from range and at 25/1 I’m happy to have small change on that. 

Staggeringly, 19 of his 21 shots have come from outside of the box for Leicester this season with 2 of them finding the back of the net, with it unlucky not to be 3 after he smacked the crossbar Vs Man City from range. It’s always going to be a punt at 25/1, but considering it’s landed 2/15 for his club, I think it’s worth small change to see how close he can go this time for his country. 

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