PREVIEW: De la Fuente’s Spain Chase 11th Consecutive Win with Croatia Up Next

Croatia host Spain in Split for the reverse fixture in the UEFA Nations League, with La Roja sitting top of Group A3 and the Vatreni coming off back-to-back defeats.

In their first meeting on 29 September, Spain secured a 4-1 win at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in Seville. Lamine Yamal gave the hosts an early lead before Dion Beljo drew the visitors level.

A few minutes later, Marc Pubill put his side back in front. Yamal struck again after the break, and Nico Williams wrapped up the victory with a late fourth.

Croatia made a decent start to their Nations League campaign with a 2-1 win over Czechia at the Fortuna Arena in Prague.

However, they then suffered two defeats to Spain and England. The Croatians conceded 11 goals and scored only one across the two games.

On 3 October, England dismantled Croatia 7-0 at HNK Rijeka Stadium Rujevica, the Vatreni’s biggest-ever defeat.

On the same day, La Roja maintained their perfect record in this campaign by beating Czechia 3-1 at Estadio Carlos Tartiere in Oviedo. For the third game in a row, Yamal opened the scoring early for Spain.

That result took the reigning world champions three points clear at the top of Group A3 and extended their winning streak to 10 matches.

Ivan Smolčić will miss the match after falling ill with a virus. Spain, meanwhile, will be without Fabián Ruiz, who left the camp to welcome his first child.

Croatia will be looking for a response when the teams meet again on Tuesday.

De la Fuente’s side, without defeat in their last 42 official matches, head into the fixture aiming to make it 43.

The match kicks off at Poljud Stadium on Tuesday 6 October at 19:45 BST.