Topic: ⚽UEFA Nations League 2024/2025⚽ - page 40. (Read 6644 times)

France were also poor in the summer. They got to the semi final against Italy that dropped in EURO group stage, but their overall performance was poor winning only one match all through the competition (in regular time). They will be looking to bounce back and show they are strong contenders for the next World Cup. I think France squeezes out a narrow victory.

- Jay -

Since I saw the performance of the Croatian national team at Euro 2024, after that I no longer expected this team to be as strong as in the last World Cup. Remember that Croatia even failed to get past the group stage at Euro 2024. But that doesn't mean I don't hope this team can get through the group stage. For the group phase, maybe I predict that Croatia, who is in League A Group 1, can qualify for the next stage along with Portugal. because in my opinion Poland and Scotland are below Croatia and Portugal in terms of quality and squad depth.

But for Croatia's match against Portugal, I will favorite Portugal. Because Portugal has proven and put on a very good performance at Euro 2024. And the depth of Portugal's squad, which also has many potential young players and several star players, can be expected to be at the top in League 1 Group 1. Cristiano Ronaldo will also still play. with the Portuguese national team so I can't wait to see this match.

Considering all the injuries, today we will see some new players on the field, which means that we could see a lot of problems in the coordination of these players, and in addition, I think that the middle of the field will be a weak point for us again, because Modric can realistically play good football for a maximum of some 30 minutes, while Kovacic is simply a much lower quality player and rarely takes responsibility on himself.

In addition, what has been circulating in the Croatian media practically since the end of the Euro is that the League of Nations will only be a "warm-up" for the qualifiers for the World Cup and that the goal is only to stay in this strong group. Given that I don't know how the Portuguese feel about this competition, it's hard to say whether both teams would be satisfied with a draw, but it seems to me that Portugal will still have more motivation to go for the win today.


Italy has not achieved any success in this competition so far, while on the other hand, France won this competition in the 2020/21 season. Something tells me that Italy will not focus on this competition, while the French will probably take advantage of their home field and achieve victory. Bookmakers give the French very similar odds as it is the case with Portugal.

Croatia can beat anyone on their good day so of course it can beat Portugal too. Having said that, historically Croatia performs poorly vs Portugal so if I had to put money on someoone it would be Portugal (which I can't since I am Croat and can't bet against my own team).

Another interesting game in this round is France vs Italy. Curious to see whether something changes with italians as they were shit this summer.

Perhaps, at least at the Euro, their game was very weak, they could not hold on to the victory in the match with Albania and the same thing happened with Italy, which by the way looked very weak at this tournament. And the match with Spain showed how big the difference is between these teams, so yes, it seems that until Croatia makes some significant changes, we should not expect results from them like in previous years.

Portugal is more stable, they often stick to a good game in defense, they can score a lot with weak opponents, but this does not happen often. By the way, Portugal is also expecting significant changes, Pepe has already finished his career for the national team, and now they will need to think about who can replace him. Ronaldo is not so young anymore, and gradually they will need to be replaced by someone. But although Croatia is weakened, we should not underestimate them, they can very well play another draw.

Croatia's golden generation has passed, the last time i was impressed with this team was at the 2022 World Cup, after that there was nothing there that could impress me with them. As you also said, the pillar players there are also getting older like Luka Modric & we can't expect him to be as good as before.

For Portugal, they are always on the side that has the advantage when they meet less strong teams, Cristiano will play in the match against Croatia, it can be seen from the low odds for Anytime Goalscorer that he gets. So, what are your projections for this match? can Croatia win this match?

This competition starts tomorrow and it is strange that none of the regular visitors to this board has already opened the topic, considering that this is a kind of European football championship. It should be noted that the format of the competition consists of 4 main groups (A, B, C, D) of which all but the last one (has 2 subgroups) have 4 subgroups.

Of course, the strongest main group is A, where the best teams of the old continent compete - Portugal, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Germany, France - and for those who are wondering where England is, it is in group B according to last year's results in this competition.

Although many do not consider this competition particularly interesting, it should be emphasized that it has an impact on the ranking that will determine the holders of the groups for the World Championship 2026 qualifiers, and that some teams will surely look for an easier way to these qualifications through this competition.

Considering the large number of subgroups, I will post a link to the official UEFA website where you can see all the details.

Groups, Matches, Teams...

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I would single out the match from League A - Group A1 between Portugal and Croatia for tomorrow. Portugal won this competition in the 2018/19 season, while Croatia played in the final in the 2022/23 season and won the silver medal.

As for Croatia, I can say that they are coming here after a big disappointment at the European Championship, and that Domagoj Vida and Marcelo Brozovic have said goodbye to the national team, while a large number of players are injured and will not play tomorrow (Stanisić, Juranovic, Erlic, Vlasic, Majer...). It should also be emphasized that Luka Modric continues to play for the national team, but it is increasingly clear that a man who is almost 40 years old can no longer be the one who should be the driving force in the team.

As for Portugal, it all boils down to whether Ronaldo will play or not, and if anyone has more information about the situation in their team, feel free to write. It is interesting that in a friendly match before Euro 2024, as a guest, Croatia beat Portugal (1-2), which was the first victory for Croatia at all - and there should be no doubt that Portugal will have more motivation in this match.

Bookmakers give the odds for Portugal to win around 1.6, and the odds for Croatia are 5.6

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