Croatia v Greece preview: Mario Mandzukic an injury doubt for hosts

Mario Mandzukic is an injury doubt for Croatia as they host Greece in Thursday's World Cup play-off first leg, live on Sky Sports.

The striker has picked up an hamstring injury and could be sidelined for the match at the Maksimir Stadium as Croatia aim to make it a fifth play-off success, having made it to a World Cup or a European Championships through the same route on four previous occasions.

Defensive midfielder Milan Badelj has also been ruled out for Croatia with a rib injury as they look to maintain their unbeaten home record from the qualifiers which saw them finish in second spot in Group I behind Iceland.

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They will still have Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Marcelo Brozovic in the side along with Ivan Perisic, who believes that home advantage can help them take a lead in the tie.

"The Greeks will certainly be defensive and try as hard as they can to keep a clean sheet, but we have enough up our sleeve up front in an effort to swing the tie our way here in Zagreb," he told the Croatian Football Association website.

Greece finished second behind Belgium in Group H, but will not have any away fans present in Zagreb after serious crowd trouble in 2011 saw any travelling fans banned from the play-off fixtures, with Croatia facing the same situation for Sunday's return leg.

In terms of injuries, Greece will be hoping that Vasilis Torosidis and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are fit, although Roma defender Kostas Manolas is suspended for the first leg for supposedly trying to pick up a booking.

His omission is something that Greece coach Michael Skibbe is not too pleased with, and took aim at FIFA over the decision ahead of the crucial trip to Croatia.

"What FIFA did was not right. FIFA sometimes takes some 'special' decisions. And this is 'special'," he said in quotes carried by AFP. "I do not know how that was decided. We were ahead of Cyprus 2-1 and in the last few minutes every team around the world lets some players get a yellow card for delaying.

"So Manolas got a yellow card and did not play against Gibraltar. And now FIFA has decided four weeks later to punish him for something that all players do.

"We will be ready, we have been working for the last two years to go to Russia. Croatia has a good team but we will do our best with the players we have to qualify."

Watch Croatia v Greece live on Sky Sports Mix from 7.40pm on Thursday and the return leg on Sky Sports Football also from 7.40pm on Sunday 12 November.