Monday’s only European Championship team news comes from the climax of Group B, with Albania v Spain and Croatia v Italy occurring simultaneously at 20:00 BST.
Spain are guaranteed top spot and any of the other three can join them in the round of 16. Italy know even a defeat would likely see them progress as one of the better third-placed nations.
| Position | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 6 |
| 2 | Italy | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 3 | Albania | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 1 |
| 4 | Croatia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 1 |
That’s why Spain have been afforded the luxury of making 10 changes to their starting XI. Only Aymeric Laporte (€5.0m) remains, with the likes of Dani Olmo (€7.5m), Joselu (€7.0m), David Raya (€5.0m), Alejandro Grimaldo (€5.0m) and Mikel Oyarzabal (€7.5m) given a go. Some pretty impressive depth, there.
Opponents Albania are the opposite, removing just Elseid Hysaj (€4.5m) for Ivan Balliu (€4.5m) at right-back.
Meanwhile, Italy haven’t beaten Croatia in any of the eight matches since the latter gained independence in 1991. Luciano Spalletti switches to a 3-5-2 system, boosted by Federico Dimarco (€5.0m) passing a late fitness test.
Mateo Retegui (€6.0m), Giacomo Raspadori (€7.5m) and Matteo Darmian (€5.0m) come in for Federico Chiesa (€7.5m), Davide Frattesi (€6.5m) and Gianluca Scamacca (€7.0m).
There’ll be disappointment if the Croats don’t continue their good record in major tournaments. At least one point is needed here, so there are four changes.
Josko Gvardiol (€5.5m) moves to left-back as Ivan Perisic (€6.5m) and Josip Juranovic (€5.0m) make way for Marin Pongracic (€4.0m) and Josip Stanisic (€5.0m). In attack, Lovro Majer (€6.5m) and Bruno Petkovic (€6.0m) are out for Luka Sucic (€5.5m) and Mario Pasalic (€7.0m).
MATCHDAY 3 TEAM NEWS
Albania XI – Strakosha; Balliu, Ajeti, Djimsiti, Mitaj; Ramadani, Asllani; Asani, Bajrami, Laci; Manaj
Spain XI – Raya; Navas, Vivian, Laporte, Grimaldo; Zubimendi, Merino, Olmo; Ferran, Joselu, Oyarzabal
Croatia XI – Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Pongracic, Gvardiol; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Sucic, Kramaric, Pasalic
Italy XI – Donnarumma; Darmian, Bastoni, Calafiori; Di Lorenzo, Barella, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Dimarco; Raspadori, Retegui
9 months, 15 days agofeel great about not including any players from this match day now. though I am donald ducked if tomorrow goes wrong