Italy vs Croatia Prediction: Croats are underestimated

The Italian national team has lost two games in a row and now needs a victory over Croatia to not put themselves on the brink of elimination from EuroBasket. Will the Italians be able to handle this difficult task? We will choose several bets at once.

In the first round, Gianmarco Pozzecco's team confidently defeated Estonia (83-62). But then the Italians suffered two defeats in a row. If their loss to Greece (81-85) was expected, then defeat by Ukraine was a real disappointment for Italy, 73-84. With Estonia and Great Britain in Group C, qualifying for the playoffs was out of the question for Italy. But a good seeding in the playoffs, especially if Italy also fails to beat Croatia, should be forgotten.

Just like Italy, the Croats had already played against group favorite Greece and, of course, lost to Dimitris Itoudis' team, 85-89. Croatia won the other two games, but that's no surprise either: Estonia (86-65) and Great Britain (73-70) were their opponents. Now, in case of victory in the upcoming game against Italy, Damir Mulaomerovic's team can even claim first place in the group before the final round.

Croatia won three of their last five head-to-head encounters against Italy.

The Croats have a pretty good team scored by NBA players. Saric, Zubac, Bojan Bogdanovic – these basketball players are not playing the second fiddle in the world's premier league. It will be extremely difficult for the Italians to outplay them, so the bookmakers' odds on Italy being the favorite in the upcoming game don't seem quite right. Croatia has at least as good a chance of success here.

Prediction: Croatia will win.

Betting options:

• H2 (+3.5) for 1.90;
• W2 for 2.336;
• W2+TU (160.5) for 4.54.

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