Croatia vs Scotland

Stadio Maksimir is the venue as Croatia and Scotland lock horns in a must-win UEFA Nations League encounter.

With Portugal likely to qualify for the Nations League finals as one of the two best-ranked sides in Group A1, Croatia’s bid to replicate last cycle’s appearance in the grand final faces a potentially must-win task. After a 2-1 loss at Portugal, the Blazers squeezed past Poland 1-0 last time out to move second in the second ahead of the visit of the group’s only pointless team. Despite reaching the Nations League finals only once across the three previous editions, Zlatko Dalic’s men have fared impressively in the group stages, racking up five wins in their last six group outings (L1). However, as four of those five victories came by a single-goal margin, Croatia’s potential triumph in this fixture could be hard-fought.

On the other hand, Scotland proved slow to recover from an underwhelming Euro 2024 campaign, where they bowed out in group stages with a single point (D1, L2). Steve Clarke’s men have experienced an awful start to their maiden League A appearance, losing their opening two games against Portugal and Poland despite finding the net on each occasion. Scotland’s disappointing Nations League start has extended their winless run to six matches (D2, L4), heightening the pressure on Clarke ahead of the Tartan Army’s first meeting with Croatia since a 3-1 defeat at Euro 2020. Perhaps encouragingly, that loss was Scotland’s first after holding the ex-Yugoslavia Republic winless in their first five H2Hs (W2, D3).