Rotterdam: There is another international trophy to win in Europe this weekend and players from Manchester City and Inter Milan will be available at the four-team Nations League Finals in the Netherlands.
Netherlands defenders Nathan Ak 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 Brozovic.
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 Dalic said, “but we have a historic opportunity to win the first trophy.”
That lure of a first international title appeared to persuade Luka Modric to stay with the national team. Now 37, Modric 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.