Tuesday Football Tips: Business as usual for Armenia

Croatia v Armenia
Tuesday 1 June, 17:00
Live on Sky Sports Football and Main Event

With the domestic season over, attention turns towards Euro 2020 with international teams fine-tuning in warm-up games this coming week.

Qualifiers Croatia, who face England in their first game of the tournament on June 13, face improving minnows Armenia on Tuesday evening in a game which certainly has the potential to keep the referee busy.

Any cards bet in a friendly comes with a warning - it will surprise no-one to learn that history shows fewer cards are shown in these matches - but these are two teams with a strong reputation for troubling the referee.

Croatia have picked up 20+ booking points in 14 of their last 17 matches but the figures which deserve greater attention here are Armenia's.

They've had 20+ in 14 of their last 19 and 30+ in 12 of their last 19.

All of those matches have been competitive fixtures and it's now three years since they played a friendly - the Nations League has been a godsend in getting rid of these games - but one of the two they played prior to the 2018 World Cup saw them collect three cards, including one red.

They'll be the ones likely having to chase, harry and tackle in this contest against higher-quality opponents and so 6/5 about them seeing 20+ booking points looks worthy of consideration.

The chosen referee certainly has potential to help the bet on its way.

Bosnian Luka Bilbija is averaging over 60 booking points per game in his domestic league this season and while it's highly doubtful we'll be hitting that mark here, it does show he's penchant for a card.

It's hard to know how he'll react at this level - this is his first international appointment - but clearly the two teams are likely to at least give him some decisions to make.

On a day when props opportunities are limited, I'm happy to take a chance on the Armenians sticking to their ways.