Croatia v Italy LIVE: Team news and line-ups ahead of pivotal Group B clash at Euro 2024 as Federico Chiesa dropped

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.

Zinedine Zidane didn’t get this before dominating Euro 2000, when he was 28. Despite that gap, Musiala is being seen in similar terms to the French great then, at least as far as an individual European Championships goes. That is as the potential player of the tournament.

Luciano Spalletti has made three changes to the Italy side that was dominated by Spain last week.

He has switched to a three (or five) at the back, with Davide Frattesi losing his place in midfield and Matteo Darmian taking his place as a right wing-back.

In attack, Federico Chiesa is replaced by Giacomo Raspadori, while Gianluca Scamacca comes out for Mateo Retegui.

Plenty of change for both sides.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic has made four changes to the side that drew to Albania.

In defence, Josip Juranović is replaced at right-back by Josip Stanišić, while Ivan Perisic loses his place to Marin Pongracic, with Gvardiol shifting to left-back.

The midfield stays the same as expected, but in attack Andrej Kramarić moves to centre-forward while Lovro Majer moves out for Luka Sucic on the right and Bruno Petković is replaced by Mario Pasalic.

Croatia XI: Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Pongracic, Gvardiol; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Sucic, Kramaric, Pasalic.

Italy XI: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Darmian; Jorginho, Barella; Raspadori, Pellegrini, Dimarco; Retegui.

The announcement of tonuight’s starting elevens is imminent.

Will we see changes to an Italy side that has seen the same starting line-ups for both games? Could we see Scamacca changed up front, or Jorginho hooked in midfield, as happened against Spain in the second half?

Will Croatia persist with Ivan Perisic at full-back? Will Ante Budimir start in place of Petkovic after his positive contribution against Albania?

Briefly taking the focus away from tonight’s game…

The big news for those in the UK last night was Scotland’s exit from Euro 2024 after a last-minute 1-0 loss to Hungary.

If hosts Germany and Euro 2024 will miss the Tartan Army and the atmosphere the travelling fans brought to the tournament, the same cannot be said of Scotland on the pitch. If three games brought one point and an early exit, the same as three years ago at Euro 2020, Scotland can hardly pretend to be hard done by. Their 17 shots at Euro 2024 is the joint-lowest ever recorded in a group stage – only Northern Ireland, in 2016, showed less attacking threat and even they managed what Scotland could not and reached the knockouts.

And here’s a bit of fun before we get back to the serious stuff!

Every kit at Euro 2024 ranked, from Croatia’s eyesore of a home effort to France’s beautiful home shirt.

And below is a list of all the results so far at euro 2024, plus The Independent’s reports and reaction.

With the last 16 ownethe horizon, here’s a rundown of the fixture schedule for the remaining group games and the dates and times for the round of 16 games (and onwards).

Here is the full schedule for Euro 2024, plus below you can see day-by-day fixtures and times (BST) in text form, with the knockout games and reports to be included as the tournament progresses.