Croatia vs Albania LIVE: Euro 2024 team news and official line-ups as Luka Modric starts Group B match

Croatia XI: Livakovic, Juranovic, Sutalo, Gvardiol, Perisic, Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic, Majer, Petkovic, Kramaric

Albania XI: Strakosha, Hysaj, Ajeti, Djimsiti, Mitaj, Ramadani, Asllani, Laçi, Asani, Manaj, Bajrami

Lothar Matthaus is 63 now. And if that may depress those who remember him in his dominant prime, let alone those who conjure images of him as German football’s wunderkind of the early 1980s, it has an added pertinence. He played in the last European Championship that did not feature Cristiano Ronaldo.

There are other ways of illustrating Ronaldo’s age, of course: Francisco Conceicao, scored of the late winner in the first game of Ronaldo’s sixth such tournament, was one year old when played in his first and is the son of a rival for a berth on the flanks, in Sergio Conceicao. His first goal for his country came in a European Championship. So did Ronaldo’s, but they were separated by two decades.

Longevity can be an achievement in itself. Ronaldo’s feats are measured more in goals but the simple fact that, 20 years on, he is still there is a feat. He has become the great constant of tournament football, up to 11 in a row, with the possibility he may yet make it a dozen in the 2026 World Cup. There is a sense Ronaldo, with his chiselled physique, thinks ageing is for mere mortals.

Real Madrid may hope that all the chaos around Turkey vs Georgia, the sleeper hit of Euro 2024, serves as the perfect distraction.

Because when people talk about Tuesday’s game, their minds may first drift to the drenching of fans as storms swirled over the BVB Stadium. They may then ponder the violence between opposing fans, which threatened to overshadow the Group F fixture.

They may even focus on the pressure-cooker atmosphere in the stadium, the flares, drums and whistles, before they consider the action on the pitch. And even then, there were the many near misses, the improbability of Mert Muldur’s volleyed opener, the euphoria of Georges Mikautadze’s equaliser for Georgia, and the finality of Kerem Aktarkoglu’s finish on the counter.

In the moments after the FA Cup final, Kobbie Mainoo suddenly collected himself. He laughs now realising that it was one of the few times he “lost his sh**” – not his words. Otherwise, for a mere 19-year-old, Mainoo has an incredibly measured personality.

As sure of himself as that makes him, though, he does feel thankful to a few people for the fact he is sitting here in England’s base in Blankenhain for an international tournament. One is Erik ten Hag. The Manchester United manager was willing to put Mainoo in the team as a mere teenager, and also build the midfield around him.

“I am so grateful for him that he put his trust in me and believed in me to play in the team,” Mainoo says. “I can’t thank him enough.”

Euro 2024 is in full swing with 24 teams competing to win the Henri Delaunay Trophy this summer.

While the favourites all appeared fallible coming into this European Championship, they have got off to strong starts across the board. Germany were most impressive of all and thumped Scotland in the tournament’s curtain-raiser in Munich to send out a signal that the hosts are a serious prospect, powered by the talent of Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz.

England, France, Spain, Netherlands and Italy were all among the first-round winners, while Slovakia earned a surprise – and controversial – win over Belgium and Romania thrashed Ukraine.

Here, we assess how every Euro 2024 nation stacks up after the first round of group games (this article will be updated after each round of matches).

There’s been a great deal of talk around Scotland since the embarrassment of Munich – admirable displays of showing up, taking responsibility, being accountable. There have been meetings, discussions, discussions about meetings; post-match analysis, pre-match analysis, another two press conferences. Five days on from the opening humiliation against hosts Germany and Scotland were starting to struggle finding a new way to say they’d failed to show up on the opening night of Euro 2024. Finally, the captain Andy Robertson announced the time for talking was over. “We need action,” he declared.

As a result of their goal difference taking a battering against Germany, there is jeopardy ahead of facing Switzerland tonight. Steve Clarke’s side require four points from their remaining two games of Group A and will be all but out should they lose in Cologne; at the very least, it would require Scotland to beat Hungary in their final fixture of the group by five or six. It’s as simple as that, while the challenge of lifting the spirits of his players has been one of nuance for Clarke. The Scotland manager has been going around his squad “kicking backsides and giving cuddles” as he assesses what is needed ahead of facing a confident Switzerland team fresh off an impressive win over Hungary.

If the start to 2006 was a famous “summer fairytale” for Germany, this could be the beginning of an even better story. It doesn’t want for youthful joy, either, as witnessed by the standing ovation for Jamal Musiala. For Scotland, there was only grim reality. There were some familiarities to that, too.

They at least had something like a belated shot, and a goal, to at least make this 5-1. It could really have been so much worse. It couldn’t have gone much better for Germany. This opening game of Euro 2024 had the feel of a properly big event beforehand, as illustrated by Sir Alex Ferguson’s message before a raucous Flower of Scotland, but he had to witness an occasion that solely became about how big the defeat would be. Scotland were fortunate to escape with a mere four-goal loss. Everyone else was fortunate to witness Musiala.

There was a real symbolism to how he and the effervescent Florian Wirtz both scored to win the game in the opening 20 minutes, particularly with the sheer abandon of Musiala’s strike. The 21-year-old – to use head coach Julian Nagelsmann’s line before the game – certainly rocked. This was the impetuous arrival of a brilliant new German generation, but they were already away before the opposition even had time to think. That might be a common feeling by the end of this tournament, as Nagelsmann’s thrillingly synchronised team announced themselves as proper contenders.

Euro 2024 hosts Germany will look to build more momentum after their thumping opening win over Scotland as they take on Hungary in Group A.

Julian Nagelsmann’s side now head to Dortmund to take on Hungary, who beat Germany away from home in the Nations League two years ago.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Group A match.

It only took Luka Modric 18 years. In 2006, the summer before Lamine Yamal was born, he was an unused substitute against Brazil at Berlin’s Olympiastadion. He didn’t quite get on the pitch then – blame manager Zlatko Kranjcar for that one – but a remarkable longevity took him back to Berlin, into historic company. For the Croatia captain, playing in a ninth major tournament meant he joined only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lothar Matthaus among Europeans. A few months before his 39th birthday, he became the oldest ever player at European Championships; though perhaps only for a few days, until Ronaldo and Pepe go past him.

A day of record-breakers, however, became an advertisement for youth, rather than experience. Lamine Yamal, the youngest footballer ever at this level, some 22 years Modric’s junior, delivered a star turn. Croatia lost 3-0 to Spain. It wasn’t quite as dramatic a case of a glorious career ending at the Olympiastadion as Zinedine Zidane’s, later in the 2006 World Cup, but it was a day to prompt questions. Are Croatia, finally, too old? Will time eventually catch up with the timeless Modric, boyish as his physique remains, baggy as the shorts are?

A central-midfield trio with a combined 375 caps can still pass, but perhaps they can’t press. As Spain had less of the ball than in the past, Croatia did not get close enough to them. “We weren’t aggressive enough,” said manager Zlatko Dalic. “We were too slow and too far from the players.” He felt the problem was most apparent on the flanks, not his veteran midfield, but a product of ageing can be a reluctance to get closer to younger, faster players. A problem of ageing is that every defeat gets attributed to the possibility of decline. This might simply be “a bad day”, as Dalic said. Or it could prove something symbolic, the end of an era.