The UEFA Nations League is back with an exciting quarter-final clash as Croatia takes on reigning world champions France at the iconic Stade de France this Sunday. With both teams boasting immense quality and a point to prove, this high-stakes encounter promises to be a thrilling battle between two European football powerhouses.<\/p>\n
Croatia, known for their resilience and tactical discipline, secured a crucial 2-0 victory in the first leg, putting themselves in a favorable position ahead of the return fixture. Zlatko Dalic\u2019s men finished second in Group 1 of the UEFA Nations League standings and have demonstrated their ability to compete at the highest level. With experienced stalwarts like Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic in midfield, Croatia will be determined to pull off another strong performance.<\/p>\n
France, on the other hand, topped Group 2 and have been in formidable form throughout the tournament. However, Les Bleus suffered an unexpected setback in the first leg, leaving Didier Deschamps\u2019 side under pressure to turn the tie around at home. With attacking stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele leading the charge, France has the firepower to mount a strong comeback.<\/p>\n
France and Croatia have faced each other multiple times, including the famous 2018 FIFA World Cup final, where France triumphed 4-2. Historically, France has enjoyed the upper hand in this fixture, but Croatia\u2019s recent win has added an element of unpredictability to this quarter-final showdown.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper:<\/em> Mike Maignan Goalkeeper:<\/em> Dominik Livakovic France, playing at home, will be highly motivated to overturn their first-leg deficit. While Croatia has already proven they can outplay the French, Deschamps\u2019 men possess the quality and depth to stage a comeback. Expect a high-intensity contest with France pushing forward aggressively, but Croatia\u2019s defensive resilience could make things tricky.<\/p>\n Prediction: France 2-1 Croatia (Aggregate: 2-3)<\/strong> \u2013 Croatia advances to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UEFA Nations League is back with an exciting quarter-final clash as Croatia takes on reigning world champions France at\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":36463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[706],"class_list":["post-15070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-uefa-nations-league"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDefenders:<\/em> Jules Kounde, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba, Theo Hernandez
\nMidfielders:<\/em> Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga
\nForwards:<\/em> Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise, Kylian Mbappe
\nStriker:<\/em> Randal Kolo Muani<\/p>\nCroatia (4-2-3-1)<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nDefenders:<\/em> Josip Stanisic, Josip Sutalo, Duje Caleta-Car, Josko Gvardiol
\nMidfielders:<\/em> Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic
\nForwards:<\/em> Ivan Perisic, Martin Baturina, Andrej Kramaric
\nStriker:<\/em> Ante Budimir<\/p>\nPrediction: Who Will Win?<\/strong><\/h3>\n