Croatia wins. If Rakitic is well enough to play, Croatia has enough to beat a banged up and tired Turkish team. Olic, Srna and Modric will be enough to see Croatia through and their defense has been relatively tight.
Turkey has some major gaps to fill through injury and suspension. They will be without captain Emre Belozoglu because of a hamstring injury since their opening game, Emre Gungor is out for the rest of the tournament with a calf problem and Sevet Cetin and Tumer Metin will miss the Croatia game due to injury. Goalkeeper Volkan Demirel and Mehmet Aurelio are suspended, with Volkan potentially missing the semi final game as well.
Turkey does have enough firepower and desire with the front trio of Nihat, Tuncay and Turan. However, this is the match where I expect Niko Kranjcar to finally step up, much like Schweinsteiger did for Germany. He has great technique and a great shot – let’s see how Rustu deals with being the starter.
Pre-game prediction: Croatia 2 Turkey 0
It would set up a nice rematch with Germany in the semi finals…
