Nations League | League A

Nov 18, 2024 at 7.45pm UK

Stadion Poljud

Croatiavs.Portugal

Match preview

At the age of 39, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo is still making history. He scored two of the Selecao's five goals in Friday's 5-1 win against Poland, including an impressive overhead kick to bring his international tally to 132.

No other male player has been involved in more victories for their country than Ronaldo. He left 131-win Sergio Ramos in his wake on 15 November, with Rafael Leao, Bruno Fernandes and Pedro Neto also striking before Dominik Marczuk at least managed to wipe out Portugal's clean sheet.

Roberto Martínez and his team won't be losing sleep over failing to secure a shut-out on Friday. They've already swept aside the Group 1 competition and booked their spot in the quarter-finals as section winners.

Scotland are the only team to have taken points off the 2016 European champions in this tournament. And in the Selecao's previous 10 Nations League matches away from home, only one of them has ended in defeat.

That reversal occurred in June 2022, when Switzerland took the lead. Since then, in fact, not once have Martinez's men conceded more than one goal in a competitive or non-competitive fixture. The only question is, who did they come up against?

Croatia had a disappointing run at Euro 2024, but they warmed up for it with a 2-1 win over Portugal in a summer friendly. Martinez's men then avenged that loss by the same scoreline in their first Nations League showdown of the year back in September. That's when Ronaldo bagged his 900th career goal.

Since then, Zlatko Dalic's side have had a mixed run of results. After taking seven points from nine between 8 September and 15 October, the Chequered Ones missed out on the chance to secure second place in Glasgow.

After 85 minutes without a goal at Hampden Park, Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn made the winning contribution in a 1-0 victory for Scotland. This means that Scotland can still overtake Croatia and get the final spot in the finals if Dalic's team loses on Monday.

The 2018 World Cup runners-up are three points ahead of both Scotland and Poland, but they can't be relegated automatically because they've beaten Poland more times than they've lost to them. If they win in Split by just one point, it'll be clear that they're through to the next round.

If Poland beats Scotland or if there's no winner in the other Group 1 match, Croatia's result will also be insignificant. Croatia lost to Portugal in September, which was their seventh defeat from nine previous matches against the Euro 2016 winners. However, the visitors may not go all out to make it eight from 10.

Recent Performance

Croatia Nations League form:LWWDL

Croatia form (all competitions):DLWWDL

Portugal Nations League form:WWWDW

Portugal form (all competitions):LWWWDW

Team News

With the top spot in the group already secured, Martinez has allowed some of his key players, including Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Neto and Fernandes (who is suspended for Monday's game anyway), to head back to their clubs early. This is a significant boost for Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea.

To fill the gaps, Martinez has brought Fabio Silva and Sporting Lisbon full-back Geovany Quenda up from the Under-21s, and Tiago Djalo is expected to be involved too, having been unlucky to miss out on the 23-player squad against Poland.

It's likely that the Portugal boss will make plenty of changes for Monday's game. We could see the likes of João Félix, João Cancelo and Vitinha in the Portugal XI, while Rui Silva and José Sa will compete to replace Diogo Costa in goal.

Similarly, Croatia's own number 10, Petar Sucic, is suspended for Monday's match after being sent off for two bookable offences in the loss to Scotland. Either Mario Pasalic or Nikola Vlasic should replace him here.

On a more positive note, Ante Budimir and first-choice goalkeeper Dominik Livaković are back from their own bans. It looks like the latter will displace Dominik Kotarski in between the posts, but Andrej Kramarić should hold his place in the final third over Budimir.

There might be an enforced change in defence too, as Kristijan Jakic came off with an injury in the dying embers of the loss to Scotland. This could mean that Marin Pongracic may be shoehorned into a right-back role.

Possible starting lineup

Croatia possible starting lineup:

Livakovic; Pongracic, Caleta-Car, Sutalo, Gvardiol; Modric, Kovacic; L. Sucic, Pasalic, Perisic; Kramaric

Portugal possible starting lineup:

R. Silva; Cancelo, Djalo, Araujo, Tavares; Vitinha, Neves; Conceicao, Felix, Trincao; F. Silva