Second Round: Romania v Croatia

Two of the two World Cup's less fancied sides look to slip virtually unnoticed into the last eight of the competition this afternoon with, in our neck of the woods at least, the Romanians starting as slight favourites on the basis of their 2-1 defeat of England last week.

That win is certainly the best result by some way that either of these two sides have achieved so far with the Croatians, in their game with chief group rivals Argentina, looking subdued in midfield and uncharacteristically tame up front.

Winning that game, though, meant nothing to Miroslav Blazevic's side while this one means everything and even without the suspended Zvonimir Soldo the Group H runners-up should be a very different team on their return to the Stade Lescure in Bordeaux.

In Soldo's absence, Blazevic is believed to be considering making some positional changes at the back with, chief amongst them, Igor Stimac switching from central defence to libero and Igor Tudor getting the opportunity to add to the two minutes he has played so far in this tournament with a place in the starting line-up. Goran Juric could still come in, however, in a straight swap for the big centre back.

At the other end striker Gordan Vlaovic remains an injury doubt, but should be available by kick-off time.

Romania, meanwhile, will be more or less back to full strength after resting five players for their final group match against Tunisia. Dan Petrescu, scorer of the winner against the English, may not feature this time because of injury, but Adrian Ilie is more certain to shrug off a muscle strain in time to start.

Probable Teams:

Romania: Bogdan Stelea; Dan Petrescu, Liviu Cibotariu, Gheorghe Popescu, Iulian Filipescu; Dorinel Munteanu, Gheorghe Hagi, Constantin Galca, Gabriel Popescu; Viorel Moldovan, Adrian Ilie.

Croatia: Drazen Ladic, Igor Stimac, Slaven Bilic, Igor Tudor, Dario Simic, Robert Jarni; Robert Prosinecki, Zvonimir Boban, Aljosa Asanovic; Davor Suker, Mario Stanic.

Referee: Javier Castrilli (Argentina).