France vs Croatia

Stade de France is the venue as France and Croatia go head-to-head in the return leg of their UEFA Nations League semi-final tie. 

France boss Didier Deschamps stuttered in his 166th game in charge – the joint third-most by a manager for a single international team in football history – as he watched his side suffer a comprehensive 2-0 defeat to Croatia in Split on Thursday. That setback leaves Les Bleus battling to reach the final four of this Nations League edition, a competition they previously won in 2021. They’ll be eager to bounce back in this second leg, and H2H history offers a confidence boost, as Thursday’s loss marked just their second in 11 meetings with Croatia (W6, D3). Adding further belief, the last time France lost the first leg of a tie by two goals – a World Cup play-off against Ukraine in November 2013 – they roared back with a 3-0 home win to progress.

Meanwhile, Croatia will be determined to avoid that fate here, as they head to Paris in high spirits, aiming to claim another major scalp. Long-serving manager Zlatko Dalić knows the tie is far from settled. Encouragingly, the Croats have only once since December 2022 suffered an international defeat by a margin big enough that would see them eliminated in regulation time here. To secure back-to-back Nations League semi-final appearances, Croatia must drastically improve their recent away form, having failed to win any of their last three road games (D1, L2). Adding to their concerns, all those matches came in this competition, with Croatia conceding inside the first ten minutes in two of them.