(Reuters) - Spain and Croatia begin their Euro 2024 campaigns on Saturday with a rematch of last year's nervy UEFA Nations League final as they kick off the action in Group B, which also includes European champions Italy and surprise package Albania. After reaching the 2018 World Cup final and making the semi-finals four years later, having fought back to eliminate five-times champions Brazil on penalties at Qatar 2022, the Nations League final loss to Spain was a tough pill to swallow. The win gave Zlatko Dalic's side a boost for their Euro 2024 debut against old rivals Spain - one of the few elite teams giant-killers Croatia have regularly failed to slain. BLAME SPAINSpain are partly to blame for Croatia's failure to hit the same World Cup highs at the European Championship in which their best result has been reaching the quarter-finals twice. Croatia did, however, beat Spain 2-1 in the group stage at Euro 2016 to top the group ahead of them.

Source: Egypt Today June 14, 2024 08:22 UTC