FULL PREVIEW: Spain vs. Croatia in EURO 2024 👀 'I like Spain's new style of play!' - Juls | ESPN FC

Three matches for you on Saturday. The one that catches the eye certainly is Spain against Croatia. Let's go for the fourth is the front page of Ask, the sports newspaper in Spain. You take a look at the odds. Spain, obviously big favorites to advance. It's a really intriguing group, though, isn't it? Alongside Italy, Croatia and Albania. The late game is Italy against Albania. Jules remains with us. Jules, overall, this is an intriguing tie, isn't it? Because you kind of got all that young talent talent from Spain against the old guard, if you like, of Croatia. Yeah, very much so. And two teams that know each other really well, they face each other in the Nations League final that Spain won on penalty, which was the first trophy for Rui de la Fuente, the new head coach, who for him, you talked about the opposition of style and age. It's also two managers, two head coaches, one in de la Fuente, who has experience at youth level. Great. And the last Olympics. It's not the same than a tournament like this. And Dalic on the other side, on the Croatian bench, who's taken this team to World Cup finals, to World Cup semifinals, etc. So two teams that know each other well, two different styles, of course. And I like this new Spain style, in a way, less possession, maybe a bit sterile that we saw in the recent Riqui or previous managers. A bit more direct, a bit more verticality. We think this is probably how they will set up. I mean, Yamal and Nico Williams with a lot of pace and skills on the wing. Morata, you never really know. He can score a worldie and then miss some sitters. So we will have to see that Madrid, that midfield is solid. It could be Fabian Ruiz instead of Daniel Mo on the left hand side. But apart from the two centre backs that look a bit meh, the rest is potentially great. Grimaldo as well. So very interesting, I think, in terms of how the two teams approach this game. A lot of exciting players there. I mean, Yamal, of course, one wing, Williams, the other. And what Spain really need is a fit Pedri, don't they? Throughout this tournament, which we haven't seen for a while. No, and he's been very frustrated with it, hasn't he? The young the young man. I mean, he's played a lot of football in his career. Remember, he went to the Olympics a few years ago and Barcelona were adamant that, you know, he had to get an amount of rest after it. And he just every season he seems to just be picking up these injuries. This was against Athletic Club when he ended up in tears. And it wasn't because the injury was like career threat. I think it was just a combination of the frustration of this young man. And his mate, Gavi, was out the side as well for the season. And so Aren't stands funny? You look at that, you know, it's not that, but it's Pedri. It's you know, I think it's like we always talk these days, you know, there's a big topic these days is the amount of games. Yeah. And this FIFA Club World Cup and all the other stuff that thrown at these players. And we're seeing youngsters and this one in particular who has struggled to get a run of continuous games to show us that form. Remember, we went to the Supercopa in Saudi Arabia. Yeah. When him and Gavi and Lewandowski, they destroyed Real Madrid. Fantastic. And they won the title that year. And then this year it's just been stop, start, stop, start. And it's so frustrating for the young guy. And maybe he's going to have a terrific Euro Championships. But in terms of longevity, he's got to find just that fitness and that right amount of rest. But if he's on form and he stays fit and Spain get him in the right position, he's as good as anybody. Meanwhile, what a year for Laminia Mares. Teenager, of course, arguably Barcelona's best player throughout the season and now very much eyes on him. And expectations are high going into this tournament. And they should be. And I would suggest that he's actually ready for it as well. He seems crazy. A teenager and he's carrying the hopes of the nation on his back. But he's capable. You know, if you can go and play at Barcelona at his age and produce what he's producing, scoring goals, making opportunities for others. But the biggest thing for me is the fact that he almost always seems to make the right decision, whether it's to finish yourself or, as I said, play that pass for somebody else, which is incredible for somebody his age. So, listen, if they can get him the ball, if they can get Williams on the other side of the ball, then Marat has got to score those two. Either side of him. He's still 16, right? He's still young. Yeah, it's 16. Yeah, 16. When we went to the when when we went to Scotland to the European Championships in 96 and that World Cup in France 98, we took 16 and 17 year olds and 18 year olds. But that was this is I'm being serious. But that was to help with all the kit and join in training and get some experience. I'm part of the experience. It was part of there were apprentices at whatever club they were at, Rangers, Celtics and Johnston or in England. And they were selected to go to these major championships to see what it was like behind the scenes and to maybe join in training now and again to help out with the boots, help with the kit, get the general gist of what it's like. Try to think about those youngsters, even try to step in to a match. It was unthinkable. And yet here we have these guys these days, these boys these days playing for club and country. And on top of playing for club and country, looking super confident. Yeah, he never looks fazed. I always say that about the youngsters these days, Don. I don't know what you think. Do you think now some of these youngsters, they're more confident than ever? I think they're media trained and I think that helps on the pitch. Yeah, I mean, on the pitch. Yeah, yeah. But I think that I think you can. What does media train? Are you media trained? I think you can transfer that if you're confident enough to talk. You're confident enough as a 16 year old to take that onto. I could be media trained. I'm a journalist. I can't do it on the pitch. No, I think it's taken through that mentality, 16 years of age. I can't even imagine. It's unthinkable that a 16 year old can be this good and have such an impact. I think Jules nailed it. I think for me, my the biggest thing I'm looking forward to to watching Spain in this tournament is I was bored of Spain about six years ago. I remember the like a thousand passes one game. Yeah, it was a nil nil game and I was gone. So predictable. It's so boring. It's just possession for possession's sake. That's what I'm looking forward to. If that shift is gone and they've got people like Danny Olmo, who is effective. They've got the wide players that you said. And, you know, Morata, who can always score goals if he's got the service and Williams and et cetera, et cetera. But I think it's dependent on what their attitude is going to be like. If it's a bit more directive, it's better. If it's not easier on the eye in terms of keeping a million passes, then so be it. As long as you're more effective in games, it depends what it depends, what Mr. Morata turns up. Oh, yeah, that's it. Is it the Alvaro Morata that falls over the ball, gets caught offside twenty five times in a game or is it the Alvaro Morata who is holding it up, who's linking the play up and what and the guy that in the first six months of the season was getting on pretty much everything that Atleti slung into the box. If it's that Morata, Spain have half a chance. Yeah, we're going to say something. I was just going to say that I think the craziest thing about Yamal is that if he's not fantastic, I think most of us will be surprised. Yeah, which is mental. Yes, that's crazy. Yeah, it's definitely what we expect from Croatia. Meanwhile, Jules, it's interesting because they were very good against Portugal or be in a friendly pre-tournament. And we know too well now not to take too much away from those kind of games. But they were really outstanding. They moved the ball great. They were a threat going forwards. And when you look at this front three, I mean, Lovromaier for a lot, maybe a lot of the people watching the show really never heard of him before. He was in front and he moved to Wolfsburg in Germany. They didn't have a great season with the Stiga. But he's a really good, technically talented player. Boutimier, we saw him in La Liga on ESPN. He scored a few goals with Osasuna, a good amount of goals. But this is not, you know, this is not Cristiano Ronaldo. And yet collectively, again, this is where the strength is. They know exactly what to do. They know that Modric will dictate the pace a bit like what we saw with Toni Kroos tonight. He will also be the creativity. And they're going to be hard to play against. And then in the knockout stages, this Croatia team takes you to penalties and Ljivakovic saves too, and they win and they go through. This is what they do, really. The one thing is the Euros and the World Cups for them are two different competitions. World Cups, they're always great. They always go far. The Euros, they always struggle historically. And you see, you see it there. This is the perfect graphic for it. So maybe this is a Euros where they will get better. And again, it's a tough, tough group for them with Italy and Spain. So we'll have to see. But if they play against Portugal, keeping the ball well, being a threat wide with Kramaric and Maia, they will cause problems to the Spanish team because the one the other thing about this Spanish team to finish off Le Normand and Nacho are center backs. Not for me. So let's see under pressure by Boudimir and others what they can, how much they can hold on tomorrow. If Scotland were a layup, the exact team you want in your opener, Croatia is definitely not, is it? Because you know they've been there. You know what you're going to get from them. Let's take a look at the prediction, shall we? And what everyone thinks is going to happen on Saturday when these two teams meet? Well, it may be a draw. Myself, Craig, Don, Jules. Stevie, you've gone for Spain. You're the only one out. Well, because I think Croatia are a team that will stick to you and then they can get an opportunity and beat you 1-0. I don't see Croatia as a team that's going to go out and blast anybody. And Spain's going to have the ball. And as I've already said it, Yamal and Williams either side. If Morata's on his game like Craig said, then Spain has to be the favorite. If that's the 11, I'd change mine. If that's Croatia's 11, I'd change my prediction. Oh, OK. No, just because I look at that midfield, I think Modric's doing that. Did you not do any research before? I didn't know what the expected 11 would be. Well, if only you could find it somewhere. What team played against Portugal? What 11? Did you even know for a fact that's the 11? Well, I don't know for a fact, no. So what I'm looking at is a 30-year-old Modric, 38-year-old, a 30-year-old Kovacic and Brozovic, who I've seen a lot of, who's been outstanding, played in the Saudi league. I tell you what, Don, why don't we come back in an hour before kick-off? All right. Well, I'm changing my prediction. I don't know. Drop everything I'm doing. OK. So what's your prediction now? The Spain win. Spain will win because they were old. Yes. Right. OK. Brozovic has been playing in Saudi and his standards have dropped massively. You knew that before you started, don't you? I did not know he was going to start, did I? I'm relying on my man Choolz for the 11. Only Choolz knows. That's it.