Tuesday Football Tips: Back the Scots for shots against Croatia

Croatia v Scotland
Tuesday 22 June 20:00 BST kick-off
Live on ITV4

It's now or never for Scotland as they face Croatia in what essentially is a knockout decider in Group D with history in their sights.

The Scots have never made it beyond the first stage of a major tournament before, but having never lost to Croatia and Zlatko Dalic's side looking a bit beyond their best-by date it looks a great opportunity to make history.

And with both sides needing the victory it's off to Hampden Park for our Tuesday Bet Builder.

It's Czech Republic v England in the other game in Group D, which I've previewed in depth here, but with changes expected it's tougher to go for the player-based stats bets on that one.

Here, we know both sides will be at full strength and both sides will have to go for it at some stage, even if not right from the very off, although Steve Clarke will call for a fast start to put Croatia under instant pressure.

Neither of these sides back down from a scrap, and so it's to the cards market that's our first point of call, especially with Argentinian referee Fernando Rapallini taking charge of this one as part of the exchange program between Uefa and South America.

Rapallini gave two penalties and dished out three yellows in his previous Euro 2020 game between Ukraine and North Macedonia, but with a loud Hampden crowd and two teams in desperation mode the prospect for more yellow is even higher.

And Rapallini isn't scared to get his notebook out shall we say, having averaged almost seven bookings a game back in Argetina.....

Over 3.5 cards at 1.834/5 should be easy money with Rapallini in charge.

Next we move on to the shots, and perhaps surprisingly it's Scotland in particular that's our focus as, despite not yet managing to score in the tournament, they've been firing shots in left-right and centre - everywhere bar in the back of the net basically.

They've had 30 shots in their two games, and with just six of them hitting the target we can't really count on Scotland's accuracy to carry our money here.

Instead, it's a duo of Scots to take a shot that we're backing, as at some stage, regardless of how the game is going, there'll be a time when the hosts will have to just let the shots fly.

Che Adams was lively against England, having five shots at Wembley and although he didn't get any of them on target he'll be involved enough to get another two shots here.

One player lesser know for his shooting prowess but who had an effort against England is Kieran Tierney, who made a huge difference to the side after missing the Czech Republic defeat.

He strides forward from defence and with Croatia dropping deep to defend without the ball, he'll have space to gallop towards the box again and is not afraid to have a dig.

His price bumps up our Bet Builder to a healthy looking price at around 4.57/2 for a combination that looks incredibly doable.

Click here for our in-depth match preview for Croatia v Scotland.