New Delhi: UEFA’s second International tournament of the year begins tonight where 54 teams compete to be crowned the UEFA Nations League 2024-25 winners. The tournament’s third edition will see the teams divided into four separate leagues and then further divided into four groups. Group A1 of League A sees Scotland, Poland, Croatia and the winners of the first UEFA Nations League, Portugal, clubbed together.
Portugal and Croatia kick off Group A1 tonight as they take on each other at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Lisbon, Portugal. Both these sides were involved in this summer’s UEFA Euro tournament in Germany where they both faced disappointment in their campaigns. Portugal made it out of their group as winners but suffered a humiliating 2-0 loss to Georgia in the process before being eliminated by France on penalties.
Croatia had an even more disappointing UEFA Euro campaign as they finished behind both, Spain and Italy. They didn’t even do enough to secure one of the four third-place spots that can guarantee qualification to the knockouts as they failed to make it out of their group. Both these sides would be hoping for a better showing at this UEFA International tournament than they had at the previous one.
Team News
Portugal National Team during the training session of the Portuguese National Team at the Cidade do Futebol (City of Football) on September 04, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Sylvain Dionisio ATPImages/Getty Images)
Manager Roberto Martinez has a full squad to choose his Portugal XI tonight as his squad is free of any injuries and all players are raring to go. Sporting CP’s Geovany Quenda, LOSC Lille’s Tiago Santos and Chelsea’s new signing Renato Veiga have received their first call-up to the national squad while Joao Cancelo, Danilo Pereira and Francisco Conceicao, all of whom were a part of Portugal’s UEFA Euro 2024 squad have been dropped. The trio of Pedro Goncalves, Francisco Trincao, and Rui Silva have been recalled into the national team set-up.
Croatia’s Zlatco Dalic, on the other hand, has a few selection headaches heading into this game as iconic Croatian players like Marcelo Brozovic and Domagoj Vida have announced their retirement. Adding to that, Lovro Majer, Josip Stanisic and Martin Erlic are all ruled out for this game and centre-back Duje Caleta-Car also remains a doubt after picking up a knock last weekend. The defence will be the key area to address for Dalic in his preparation for this clash.
Predicted Lineup
Portugal XI (4-2-3-1): D.Costa, D.Dalot, R.Dias, A.Silva, N.Mendes, J.Palhina, Vitinha, B.Silva, B. Fernandes, R.Leao, C.Ronaldo
Croatia XI (4-3-3): D.Livakovic, M.Pongracic, J.Sutalo, J.Gvardiol, B.Sosa, M.Kovacic, L.Modric, L.Sucic, M.Pasalic, B.Petković, A.Kramaric
Where to watch in India?
Portugal vs Croatia will be broadcast live on the Sony Sports Network on TV at 00:15 hrs on August 6, 2024. For fans who want to watch the game online, it will also be streamed live on the Sony LIV app/website.
Match Prediction
All signs point towards Portugal claiming all three points. (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images)
While this promises to be an entertaining match, it can also be one that can go either way as Roberto Martinez is known to be a bit pragmatic in his approach at times. However, the quality of players that are present at his disposal is capable of changing the game at any given moment. Conversely, Croatia have a lot of players who have been ruled out of the game due to injury and they also have to deal with the retirement of key players which can see them struggle. Keeping all that into account, all signs point towards a comfortable victory for Cristiano Ronaldo’s men.
Final Score: Portugal 3-0 Croatia
Winners of the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League kick off their 2024/25 campaign on matchday one against the 2018 FIFA World Cup finalists Croatia Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
