Croatia vs Albania LIVE: Euro 2024 score and latest updates

We’re almost underway as the national anthems are wrapped up. Who’ll get the vital three points?

The anthems are over and we’re ready for kick-off, a must-win for Croatia, but Albania are confident they can build on their performance against Italy.

Croatia midfielder Nikola Vlasic has withdrawn from the European Championship because of a muscle injury.

The news was announced by the country’s soccer federation on Tuesday, a day before Croatia‘s group B match against Albania.

Vlasic was in doubt for Croatia‘s squad ahead of the Euros due to an injury while playing for Torino in Serie A. He was included anyway and came on as a substitute in a friendly against Portugal but remained on the bench in Croatia‘s Euro 2024 opener, a 3-0 loss against Spain.

The federation said he sustained a new injury that ruled him out of playing in the tournament.

“I’m extremely sorry that this new injury will prevent me from helping the team,” Vlasic said in the federation’s statement on X.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic confirmed Tuesday that Vlasic had left the team after an MRI. Dalic said all other players were fit for Tuesday’s match in Hamburg.

“We are always the dark horse. We are always not among the favourites. Nobody believed in us. In the past six years, we’ve won three medals,” Dalic told reporters.

“So I always keep saying that Croatia deserves greater respect from everyone else for what we’ve managed to do.”

Albania coach Sylvinho is eager to accentuate the positives of his side’s opening loss to the Italians, and not read too much into the Croatians’ opening defeat.

Sylvinho, who expects to be able to pick from a full squad, said: “Except for the first 15 minutes against Italy, we did really well. We are talking about Italy, one of the best teams in the competition.

“Croatia gave a good performance (against Spain), even in losing 3-0. If you see the stats from this match without seeing the result, you wouldn’t believe Croatia lost. But at this level of football, anything can happen.”

“It’s the vision of the manager,” Ten Hag said. “England will take a 1-0 lead, then he decides to start gambling with making his team compact and relying on moments for the remaining minutes of the game.”

Given that, and especially with how some of the words could apply to his own United displays, it was some brass neck from Ten Hag. His statement was maybe even bolder than anything any England player did on the night outside Bellingham.

Lukas Provod scored a stunning goal just after the hour mark, surprising Portugal and giving Czechia the advantage, and it was only levelled because of a fortunate own-goal equaliser.

However, Portugal made key substitutions, bringing on Diogo Jota, who had a goal of his own disallowed because Ronaldo was in an offside position when he headed the ball back across goal. They were eventually rewarded for their efforts, when Conceicao scored with almost his first touch on his competitive debut.

Croatia XI: Livakovic, Juranovic, Sutalo, Gvardiol, Perisic, Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic, Majer, Petkovic, Kramaric

Albania XI: Strakosha, Hysaj, Ajeti, Djimsiti, Mitaj, Ramadani, Asllani, Laçi, Asani, Manaj, Bajrami