Portugal vs Croatia Preview

Portugal will begin their fourth edition of the Nations League with a home game against Croatia this Thursday.

Portugal won the inaugural edition of this tournament, beating the Netherlands 1-0 in 2019. But since then, Roberto Martinez’s men have enjoyed little success on the international stage.

Since winning the Nations League, they have not gone beyond the group stage and they also suffered disappointment at this summer’s European Championships, with Portugal eliminated in the quarter-finals by France.

So head coach Martínez will be looking to guide Portugal beyond the group stage of this competition for the first time since the 2018/19 season. The home fans ought to be confident, given they’ve never lost a competitive H2H (W4), with two of those wins coming in the  Nations League, including a thumping 4-1 home victory.

Meanwhile, like Portugal, Croatia also had a poor outing in the European Championship, failing to win any of their group games (D2, L1) but Zlatko Dalić’s squad have enjoyed a better recent Nations League campaign than Portugal as they at least reached the final in the 2022/23 season, before eventually losing to Spain on penalties.

However, Croatia’s away form in this competition has been mixed. After losing their first five away matches in this tournament, they’ve since won each of the next four so they should be expected to put up a fight on the road here.