Another season of the UEFA Nations League concludes on Sunday evening when a new name is guaranteed to be on the trophy when Croatia take on Spain in the final of the competition in Rotterdam.
These two teams are certainly no strangers to going deep in major competitions and now get the chance to reward themselves with silverware at the end of what has been a long campaign for both countries.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on Channel 4 and Viaplay Sports 1 in the UK. The build-up begins on the former at 7pm and 7.30pm on the latter. Kick off in Rotterdam is 7.45pm.
Croatia
I guess this final will be extra special for Croatia after they have reached the World Cup final and semi-final of the same tournament in the last five years. Their golden generation is coming to an end with the Euros next summer potentially the last chance of major glory so it will be a confidence boost if they can win this match and head to Germany, assuming they qualify successfully, knowing that they can get it done in the big matches.
Croatia have an obvious advantage going into this final. They played their semi-final first and although they were taken to extra time in it they have had the extra 24 hours to recover for this match. The other advantage they have is they played their semi-final in the same venue as this final so they won’t have had to travel in between games and will know all about the surroundings they are going to compete in.
Spain
After losing out to France in the final of this tournament a couple of years ago, Spain will be eager to go one better this time around. That probably wouldn’t make up for a disappointing World Cup campaign but it would give this transitional Spanish team the belief that they are immediately heading in the right direction and would be a good platform for them to build from with a year until they embark on a Euro 2024 campaign should they qualify.
The key for the Spanish in the next 12 months will be to solidify a forward line which currently looks a little on the light side and that might be a problem for them in this match. The other issue they are going to have is the 24 hours less to recover, which is more of an issue after a campaign that has been going on for 10-11 months, and the travelling in between. The positive for Spain is there are still players in and around their ranks who have had big tournament success.
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Team News
Croatia went into these finals without Josko Gvardiol and Marko Livaja and it will be interesting to see how they utilise the veteran players who were either involved in the Champions League final a week ago or did two hours on Wednesday night.
Spain brought Joselu off the bench in the semi-final to great success and it will be interesting if that is enough to earn him a starting berth in this final. There will be no Pedri for the Spanish as he was ruled out in advance.
Betting
Matches in these UEFA Nations League finals tend to be high scoring affairs in keeping with the trend of the World Cup where we have seen the last two finals seeing teams going out to win the prize on offer rather than sitting back and hoping it comes to them. I don’t really see that changing here because the last thing either side will need after the length of this campaign is extra time and penalties so I fancy we’ll see something of an open game.
We certainly saw that in the two semi-finals and I think it is fair to suggest that the Croatia defence probably isn’t to be trusted quite as much as if Gvardiol was around so if Spain can show a clinical edge to them then they are going to have the chances to score. Croatia are usually well drilled in attack though and if the Spanish defence is a little leggy they have the opportunity to take advantage. The goal line for this one is 2.25 and I like the over.
Tips
Back Over 2.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
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