The 2026 World Cup is off to an interesting start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It feels like Draw and Under has been the theme so far. A lot of these matches have been tight and lower scoring, which makes sense with teams still trying to feel their way into the tournament.<\/p>\n
From a betting standpoint, if you don\u2019t know these teams well, the simplest strategy has been to blindly bet Under 2.5 and the draw.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean you should blindly bet that every match, but early in the group stage, teams know how valuable one point will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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When England takes on Croatia on Wednesday, I like the Under and I expect another low-scoring match. I think there is value in fading this Croatian attack. Sure, you can take England to win, but with draws being so prevalent so far in this World Cup, that\u2019s a dangerous wager.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, I think you\u2019re better off fading Croatia\u2019s age, lack of transitional speed, and the lack of a consistent goal threat.<\/p>\n
The bet I like is Croatia team total Under 0.5 goals (+110). While there haven\u2019t been many 0-0 draws, and there haven\u2019t been many teams shut out so far, this is a trustworthy England defense under Thomas Tuchel.<\/p>\n
England defends well, controls possession and doesn’t get stretched often.<\/p>\n
England did not concede a single goal throughout World Cup qualification. It brings to the table one of the best defenses in Europe, and structurally, this is a tough matchup for Croatia.<\/p>\n
One thing that could break England down is a counterattack, but Croatia doesn’t really have the transitional speed to punish Three Lions. It also doesn’t showcase much firepower individually.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From a structural standpoint, England should be able to keep its shape, control the match, and avoid feeling truly threatened for long stretches. From a wagering standpoint, while it\u2019s not a pleasant way to watch and enjoy a match, I will play Croatia to be shut out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY The 2026 World Cup is off to an interesting start.\u00a0 It feels like Draw and Under has been the theme so far. A lot of these matches have been tight and lower scoring, which makes sense with teams still trying to feel their way into the tournament. From a betting standpoint, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}