Portugal vs Croatia

Benfica’s Estadio da Luz is the venue as Portugal and Croatia go head-to-head in a mouth-watering UEFA Nations League match-up.

Despite bowing out of the quarter-finals against France at Euro 2024, superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo refuses to give up on his international career. The Al-Nassr ace will captain Portugal in their opening Group A/1 fixture against Croatia, with the Selecao seeking their second Nations League title after conquering the competition in the first edition. However, it’s worth noting that the Iberian giants haven’t made it out of the group stages since their triumphant 2018/19 campaign. It’s up to Spanish boss Roberto Martinez to buck that negative trend as he looks to preserve Portugal’s 100% win ratio in competitive matches against Croatia (W4) at the beginning of this journey. Encouragingly for the Selecao faithful, two of those four victories came in this competition, including a scintillating 4-1 win on home soil.

In the meantime, after several standout results at major tournaments, Croatia failed to make it out of the group stages at Euro 2024, going winless in all three matches (D2, L1). Though their unceremonious exit in Germany led many to believe the 178-capped megastar Luka Modric would call time on his international career, the Real Madrid talisman remains part of Zlatko Dalic’s squad. Croatia went the distance in the 2022/23 Nations League campaign, slumping to a penalty shootout loss to Spain in the title-deciding fixture. The Blazers will look to replicate that result this year and will turn to their form resurgence on the road for inspiration. After losing their first five away matches in the Nations League, they’ve won their last four on foreign soil.