Croatia lost 7-0 without their fans, and now they face Spain’s 41-game unbeaten run back in front of them in Split
Croatia’s supporters return at the Poljud on Tuesday night after a one-match UEFA ban, three days after the heaviest defeat in the country’s history. A draw would secure Spain’s quarter-final place.
Oct 5, 2026
Croatia lost 7-0 to England on Saturday with almost none of their own supporters in the ground. On Tuesday night the fans are let back in, at the Poljud in Split, and the team they come to watch is Spain, who have gone 41 games unbeaten and have already beaten Croatia once in this group.
Kick-off is 8.45pm local time on Tuesday, 6 October, which is 12.15am IST on Wednesday. It is Croatia’s fourth Nations League game in 11 days and the last of the window.
What the 7-0 did
The Rijeka game was played under a one-match UEFA ban on Croatia’s supporters, so the crowd was mostly schoolchildren and academy players. They watched Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka score twice each in the heaviest defeat in Croatia’s history. The old record was 6-0, to Spain, in September 2018. It was also Croatia’s first competitive defeat in Rijeka.
Luka Modric, 41 and winning his 205th cap, was taken off in the 57th minute with his side 5-0 down. He did not soften it afterwards. “No duels, no aggression, no fouls, no unity,” he said. “I’ve been here for 20 years and I have to say that for the first time I feel ashamed after a game.”
Slaven Bilic, back in the job since the summer, called it “a nightmare of a night for us, the heaviest defeat in our history”. The trouble for him is that he had made the same complaint four days earlier. After the 4-1 loss in Seville he said his side could find excuses in Spain being world champions and his team being new, “but we cannot play with such a lack of aggression”. Against England it got worse.
Croatia have now conceded 12 goals in three group games. They won the first, 2-1 against Czechia in Prague, with Modric scoring, and have lost the two since by a combined 11-1.
Spain have rotated and kept winning
Luis de la Fuente has been able to rest people. He left Pau Cubarsi out against Czechia on Saturday and took Lamine Yamal and Alex Baena off at half-time, and Spain still won 3-1 in Oviedo. Cubarsi was not injured, and he is expected back in Split.
The players Spain are missing left during the window. Ferran Torres went home with an ankle problem, Nico Williams with a thigh injury picked up against Croatia last week, and left-back Alex Grimaldo has also left the camp.
None of that has slowed Yamal. He has scored in all three of Spain’s Nations League games, four goals in total, and two of them came against Croatia in Seville, where Croatia had pulled level at 1-1 and lost by three anyway.
Where it leaves the group
Spain lead League A Group 3 with nine points, England have six, Croatia three and Czechia none. England host Czechia at Wembley the same night. A draw in Split would be enough to make Spain’s quarter-final place mathematically safe.
For Croatia the table matters less than the reaction. Modric is in line for his 206th cap, and a home crowd at the Poljud is about the only thing in Bilic’s favour this week. If the duels and the aggression Modric found missing in Rijeka turn up, Croatia could make a game of it. If they do not, Spain have shown twice in a week that they can punish a side that sits off them.