Croatia close out a bruising run of four Nations League matches in 11 days on Tuesday night, when world champions Spain visit Poljud for a 20:45 kick-off. Head coach Slaven Bilić and captain Luka Modrić faced the media in Split on Monday.
The campaign began well. Croatia won 2-1 away to the Czech Republic on September 26th, but what followed has shaken the national team. Spain won 4-1 in Seville three days later, and on Saturday England won 7-0 in Rijeka, a historic defeat for which Bilić apologized to the nation. Croatia have now conceded 12 goals in three matches, the second-worst defensive record in the competition, and sit on three points in League A Group 3.
Two group matches remain in November, but Tuesday carries a weight of its own. Speculation has grown in the Croatian media that Bilić, only four competitive matches into his second spell in charge, could step down if his side fails to beat Spain.
Spain held their final training session at Las Rozas, outside Madrid, on Monday before flying to Split with a 24-man squad. Luis de la Fuente will be without three players at Poljud: midfielder Fabián Ruiz, who is in Paris for the birth of his son, and injured forwards Nico Williams and Ferran Torres.
The absences have done little to dent the mood. Spain lead Group A3 with a maximum nine points after beating England 3-2, Croatia 4-1 and Czechia 3-1, and the Spanish federation said the team wants to close this opening stretch of the season with a 100 percent record.
Those wins extended Spain’s unbeaten run to 41 matches over 90 minutes or extra time. Their only setback in that period came in the 2025 Nations League final, which Portugal won on penalties.
De la Fuente and Dani Olmo, the Barcelona attacking midfielder and former Dinamo Zagreb player, will address the media in Split on Monday evening. In Spain, the debate is whether 19-year-old winger Lamine Yamal will start. He scored in the second minute against both England and Croatia, and in the fifth against the Czech Republic.
Captain Luka Modrić was first to take questions, and was asked whether the squad had talked through Saturday’s defeat to England.
“We spoke, of course. We couldn’t pretend that nothing had happened,” Modrić said. “When something like this happens, you have to talk about it and look at what went wrong. Whatever was said will stay between us.
Of course we have more in us, and tomorrow we will show a very different Croatia for the fans, who deserve it. Tomorrow we will be completely different in every aspect of the game.”
“In football, as in life, you don’t have time to dwell. You have to move forward,” he said. “We have been in this position before. We lost 6-0 to Spain right after finishing second in the world. And what happened after that? We came out of it and figured things out. We will again.”
That defeat came in Elche in September 2018, two months after Croatia reached the World Cup final. They beat Spain 3-2 in Zagreb in the return fixture that November.
Modrić was then asked what the Split crowd can expect on Tuesday.
“Losing is not the problem. The problem is the way we lose. The way we lost against England was nothing to be proud of. We expect a positive reaction from the crowd and their support, as always. After the game, they can judge us. But we need the fans tomorrow.
We always talk about how much their support means to us. Of course we upset everyone, but nobody is hurting more than we are over what happened the other day. We are hoping for a positive crowd, and I believe we will be completely different tomorrow.”
Asked where he sees the room for improvement, Modrić pointed to the basics.
“In our togetherness, in the fight. That is where we need to fix the most as a team. Against the best team in the world, all of that has to change: the aggression and everything else. If we give Spain too much space, it is very tough to play that way. All of those things need to change, and I believe they will.”
Modrić, 41, was also asked about his own future with the national team.
“There is no greater pride than playing for Croatia and being with these boys. I still don’t know when I will retire. We will see. I am still enjoying it, which is the most important thing. It could be a month, three months, and so on. Right now, I am not thinking about that.”
Bilić spoke next and began with Saturday’s defeat.
“Nothing has changed in my mind about what happened two days ago. It was the worst defeat in our history, and that will stay written forever,” he said. “These are not games you forget. You have to remember them always, so that they don’t repeat themselves.
The one good thing is that when things get this bad, you have to react. There is no room to play around. There has to be a reaction.
On one hand, this is the toughest game imaginable for us. On the other, it is the best possible situation: the stadium, the atmosphere, the chance for the players to turn all of this around. I hope we will win; I believe we will win, but we need to show everything we did not have against England.
I am disappointed and upset that we came out the way we did against England, a team we knew could walk all over us. That is why I am angry,” Bilić said. “We always have to give our maximum in focus, concentration and quality. We have to play and give everything tomorrow. We know the opponent. But we know who we are.”
Asked about possible changes to the line-up, Bilić said nothing had been decided.
“We started the Nations League with a goal. We want to secure at least third place, and of course get a result against these teams,” he said. “Some players are not getting as many minutes at their clubs, and we have to be careful with that.
For tomorrow, the last game of this little cycle, we will see. We will see how training goes today and then think about the starting eleven. Everyone is available. We will do a light session today, and then see.”
Bilić, a Split native who played for and later coached Hajduk, was asked how it feels to be back at Poljud.
“It is my home. Of course I am happy to be here. It means everything. I am five minutes from home, at the club that gave me everything. There is nothing better. How could there be?
I had a plan ahead of the Nations League. The result is key, the most important thing,” Bilić said. “But the goal is the Euros, a good qualifying campaign, and seeing how we can become the best national team in the world. I can only find that out by us playing games. That was my plan. We are still third in the group. We have another game tomorrow, and at the end of all this we could still finish second.”
Croatia and Spain meet tomorrow at 20:45. Poljud is sold out.
