19:40 – PLAYERS ARE IN THE TUNNEL
Just five minutes until kickoff in this one!
Pepe’s retired and Roberto Martinez dropped Joao Cancelo, Danilo Pereira and Francisco Conceicao among others with some fresh faces in the squad including 17-year-old Geovany Quenda who’s made just four senior appearances. But it’s a pretty familiar starting XI:
(4-3-3): Costa, Dalot, Dias, Inacio, Mendes, Silva, Vitinha, Fernandes, Neto, Ronaldo, Leao.
Meanwhile injuries have left Zlatko Dalic short of full-back cover so he’s switched formation in Lisbon:
(3-5-2): Livakovic, Sutalo, Pongracic, Gvardiol, Jakic, Modric, Baturina, Kovacic, Sosa, Pasalic, Kramaric.
While we’re faffing around with the fight for qualification for the quarter-finals of this competition, San Marino have something much more important at stake tonight.
They face Liechtenstein with the very real possibility that they could be celebrating their second win of all time, first since 2004 and first ever competitive victory tonight. So keep an eye on that one too…
19:25 – AROUND THE GROUNDS
It’s a new season, and there’s two teams already on the board after four second-half goals in Baku earlier. Here’s tonight’s fixtures and a select look at the weekend ahead:
Azerbaijan 1-3 Sweden (Group C)
Serbia v Spain, Scotland v Poland, Denmark v Switzerland (A); Belarus v Bulgaria, Estonia v Slovakia, Northern Ireland v Luxembourg (C); San Marino v Liechtenstein (D) – all 19:45 KO.
Friday 6/9: Wales v Turkiye (B, 19:45); Saturday 7/9: Ireland v England (B, 17:00 – all UK times).
Not the players for the most part, as we’ve covered. Having heard concerns about player welfare, UEFA have sacrificed extra matchday revenue to reduce the number of ga- no only joking, they’ve added more playoffs to the rotation.
Teams who finish third in their pool will play a second-placed team from the group below over two legs, with the victor going into the higher group for the 2026/27 competition.
The exception is Group A, whose four runners up will face the pool winners in the Nations League quarter-finals, also over two legs in March 2025. The winners of those games then head to the semi-finals and final, hosted in one country like previously.
It also has implications for World Cup qualification but by the time things get to that stage you’ll have forgotten all the ins and outs anyway so we’ll save that explanation for now.
A general view as players of Spain celebrate as Irene Paredes of Spain lifts UEFA Women’s Nations League trophy after her team’s victory during the UEFA Women’s Nations League 2024 Final match between Spain and France at Estadio La Cartuja on February 28,
Image credit: Getty Images
WHAT FOOTBALL IS ON TNT SPORTS?
Any matches that fall within the Saturday blackout window in the UK cannot be shown live. The blackout window prohibits matches being shown on television between 14:45 and 17:15 in the UK.
19:10 – RONALDO LEADS THE LINE FOR PORTUGAL
Likewise Roberto Martinez names a familiar team for Portugal, with a familiar name up top.
19:05 – MODRIC CAPTAINS CROATIA
He turns 39 next week but Luka Modric is involved once again tonight in a side that sees just three changes from their Euro 2024 elimination.
19:00 – HELLO AND WELCOME
The Nations League is back, and bigger than ever! And with it, the dawn of a new cycle in European international football as the Euro 2024 slate is wiped clean and teams look ahead to the expanded World Cup in two years’ time. At least in theory.
But for Portugal and Croatia, today’s game feels more like business as usual. Nothing reinforces that more than Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo’s continued presence in their respective sides, with 77 years and more trophies than a Victorian big game hunter between them.
Portugal were the best team in Euros qualification and most of that nucleus is still entering or in their prime while Modric is joined by Ivan Perisic and Andrej Kramaric for Croatia, all veterans of the 2018 World Cup final.
So perhaps at least the next 12 months are more of a last hurrah and the chance to pick up some extra silverware – there’s double the chance of making the UEFA Nations League knockouts this time around, but more on that later. This one kicks off in 45 minutes!
Cristiano Ronaldo und Luka Modric
Image credit: Getty Images
TNT Sports will show over 500 matches from the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League across the 2024-25 season. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination.
Read the full article here
