Big day for Cucurella (2024)

Just a few months ago, not many would have tipped Cucurella to be starting today for Spain.

Seven different left-backs have had call-ups since Jordi Alba retired from international football on leaving Barcelona for Miami last summer. Cucurella got his call for March’s friendlies, after Valencia captain Jose Gaya was injured.

And he’s impressed De La Fuente enough to edge out Alejandro Grimaldo, despite his 12 goals and 20 assists from left-back for Bayer Leverkusen last season.

English referee Michael Oliver leads the two sets of players out onto the Olympiastadion pitch.

It looks an absolute carpet. What a glorious surface, and stage, to play on. A far cry from Powerleague Shoreditch (if you know, you know).

Here's how Spain line up (4-3-3): Simon; Carvajal, Le Normand, Nacho, Cucurella; Pedri, Rodri, Fabian Ruiz; Yamal, Morata, Williams.

And here's Croatia's XI (4-3-1-2): Livakovic; Stanisic, Pongracic, Sutalo, Gvardiol; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Majer; Kramaric, Budimir.

I reckon an alternative approach to the potential Croatia shape above is Majer and Kramaric in attacking midfield behind lone striker Budimir.

We shall see.

For Spain and Croatia, a potential weakness in both sides is their lack of a clinical striker, with goals having to be shared out across the team.

Spain have captain Alvaro Morata as their front man, a player who divides opinion like no other, while Osasuna striker Ante Budimir leads the line for Croatia.

Fans are flocking to have their picture taken with Croatian model Ivana Knoll.

Right, enough of that, onto the actual football...

Spain left-back Marc Cucurella, speaking just now on Spanish TV, said: “We've been many days together waiting for this moment.

“Now we just want to get out there, we know what we have to do. We know Croatia are a great team, it'll be an even game, but we've prepared well and can get the three points.”

Croatia striker Ante Budimir knows these Spain players very well - been in La Liga since 2019 with Mallorca and Osasuna.

Budimir also knows how to find the net - 17 goals in 33 La Liga games last season, while leading the line and winning third most headers per game of all players in the league.

VAR worked pretty well on Friday, yes?

It's been such a welcome change from the farce of the Premier League.

What's that? Who's on VAR tonight? Stuart Attwell. Oh.

As the teams are read out there is universal acclaim for one player; Luka Modric.

Booming cheers from the Croatia fans and respectful applause for the Real Madrid maestro from the relatively small, by comparison, block of Spanish supporters.

Lots of club links between the two teams and squads today.

Modric is a teammate of Carvajal, Nacho and Joselu at Real Madrid. Rodri, Gvardiol and Kovacic are together at Man City.

And going back further, Olmo played along with Livakovic and Bruno Petkovic during his time at Dinamo Zagreb…

Brilliant Barcelona midfielder Pedri has only featured twice for Spain since the 2022 World Cup, and the recurring muscle injuries meant that he only started 21 matches for Barcelona in the 2023-24 season.

His match fitness is a concern, but he is Spain’s best No 8.

And his performance against Northern Ireland ahead of the tournament should bring back some hope regarding the levels he could reach in Germany this summer. He starts in midfield today.

Zlatko Dalic is the third longest-serving international manager at Euro 2024.

In his seven years in charge, he has guided Croatia to the 2018 World Cup final (as if we needed reminding...) and then the semi final at Qatar in 2022.

However Croatia have never won a knockout match at the Euros, losing last time to Spain (5-3 after extra time) in 2020 in the round of 16.

Dalic recently signed a new contract with Croatia, taking him up until the 2026 World Cup.

Here is how Spain have got on at previous European Championships:

• 2020 (Various): Semi-finals
• 2016 (France): Round of 16
• 2012 (Poland/Ukraine): Champions
• 2008 (Austria/Switzerland): Champions
• 2004 (Portugal): Group stage
• 2000 (Belgium/Netherlands): Quarter-finals
• 1996 (England): Quarter-finals
• 1992 (Sweden): Did not qualify
• 1988 (Germany): Group stage
• 1984 (France): Runners-up
• 1980 (Italy): Group stage
• 1976 (Yugoslavia): Did not qualify
• 1972 (Belgium): Did not qualify
• 1968 (Italy) Did not qualify
• 1964 (Spain): Champions
• 1960 (France): Did not enter

It's full time in the early match between Switzerland and Hungary - Switzerland ended up winning that 3-1 thanks to goals from Kwadwo Duah, Michel Aebischer, and Breel Embolo, with Barnabas Varga netting for Hungary.

Follow reaction to that match with our live blog here, led by the esteemed Ed Mackey.

And you can also follow build-up to the late match, Italy vs Albania, here - that's being run by the brilliant Michael Dominski.

For now? It's a little more than half an hour until Spain vs Croatia. Aaaand it's live!

Some Spanish supporters joining the throng of Croatian fans in Berlin.

They're still outnumbered, though!

Spain and Croatia know each other very well - they have met at Euro 2012, Euro 2016, Nations League 2018, Euro 2020 and Nations League 2023. There’s been all kinds of results along the way.

Spain beat Croatia 1-0 in the Euro 2012 group due to a late Jesus Navas goal, four years later it went the other way with Ivan Perisic hitting the winner.

Spain beat Croatia 6-0 in a November 2018 Nations League game, Croatia then won 3-2 in the reverse fixture a month later.

It was 0-0 in last summer's Nations League final, before Spain won on penalties, a Dani Carvajal ‘panenka’ deciding the shoot-out.

Luka Modric plays for Croatia for the 176th time today — leaving just Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos ahead of him on the list of most-capped Europeans:

• Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal): 207
• Sergio Ramos (Spain): 180
• Luka Modric (Croatia): 176
• Gianluigi Buffon (Italy): 176

Croatia boast the most international experience at this summer’s European Championship - with more 100-plus caps than any other country.

Key to any success this tournament will, once again, be their trusted midfield trio of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic.

They have 372 caps between them.