Netherlands defenders Nathan
Aké and Denzel Dumfries are teammates again after facing each other down in Man
City’s 1-0 win over Inter on Saturday in the Champions League final.
The Nations League host team
will play in the first semifinal match on Wednesday in Rotterdam against a
Croatia team with Inter midfielder Marcelo Brozović.
Spain can call on midfielder
Rodri, whose goal made Man City champions of Europe for the first time, for the
second semifinal match against Italy on Thursday. That game will be played in
Enschede.
The final will be played on
Sunday in Rotterdam, with the third-place game in Enschede on the same day.
Italy coach Roberto Mancini
has called up five Inter players, including the entire central defensive line —
Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni, Matteo Darmian — that kept striker Erling
Haaland mostly in check last weekend.
This year’s long European
season was split in two by the World Cup in Qatar. Croatia finished third at
that tournament, four years after reaching the final and losing to France.
“At the end of the season,
there is the issue of fatigue,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić said, “but we have a
historic opportunity to win the first trophy.”
That lure of a first
international title appeared to persuade Luka Modrić to stay with the national
team. Now 37, Modrić has played 164 times for his country said after captaining
Croatia to victory over Morocco in the third-place game in Qatar he wanted to
“continue until at least the Nations League and after we will see.”
It is the third Nations
League Final Four tournament, which teams reach by winning a top-tier group.
The promise of a 10.5 million euro ($11.3 million) prize from UEFA adds to the
attraction.
NETHERLANDS
The Dutch are without two key players as they bid to win the
country’s first international title since the 1988 European Championship.
Memphis Depay’s latest injury issue — a calf problem sustained in May — keeps
the Netherlands’ most important forward out of the squad. Depay averages a goal
every two games in his 88 internationals.
Matthijs de Ligt picked up a similar injury in training for
the Croatia match. Daley Blind, a teammate at Bayern Munich, came in as a
replacement.
The Netherlands were runners-up in the inaugural Final Four,
losing to Portugal in the 2019 final after beating England in the semifinals.
CROATIA
The Nations League gives Modrić and his teammates another,
if not last, chance to win a trophy. Thirty-four-year-old Ivan Perišić and the
30-year-old Brozović still feature in a consistently star-studded midfield.
Croatia qualified from a tough Nations League group that
included World Cup finalist France and Denmark. Modrić’s penalty kick at Stade
de France last June lifted Croatia to its first victory over France at the 10th
attempt.
Leipzig defender Joško Gvardiol is not available this week
because of a stomach muscle injury. Augsburg forward Dion Drena Beljo was added
to the squad.
ITALY
Inter players can quickly shake off their Champions League
disappointment as the backbone of European champion Italy’s squad. Nicolò
Barella and Federico Dimarco also linked up with the squad on Monday.
This will be Italy’s third semifinal match against Spain in
two years. The Azzurri won on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Euro 2020
semifinals in London. Spain then won 2-1 in Milan in the 2021 Nations League
final four.
SPAIN
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente will be put to the test after
a lackluster start. He replaced Luis Enrique following the national team’s poor
World Cup campaign, showing some of the same problems from the past — lots of
possession and few scoring chances.
In March, Spain needed two late goals in a hard-fought 3-0
win over a Norway team missing Haaland to open its qualifying campaign for the
2024 European Championship, then fell 2-0 at Scotland. It leaves the coach
under pressure to show significant improvement at the Final Four, where Spain
reached the final in 2021 but lost to France.
“We should learn from the past, correct what wasn’t done
well,” Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón said Monday. “But we shouldn’t be held back
by what happened then.”
Spain has injury problems with Nico Williams, David García
and Juan Bernat unable to travel to the Netherlands. Ansu Fati, Nacho Fernández
and Fran García are their replacements.