Croatia midfielder Nikola Vlasic has withdrawn from the European Championship because of a muscle injury.

The news was announced by the country’s soccer federation on Tuesday, a day before Croatia‘s group B match against Albania.

Vlasic was in doubt for Croatia‘s squad ahead of the Euros due to an injury while playing for Torino in Serie A. He was included anyway and came on as a substitute in a friendly against Portugal but remained on the bench in Croatia‘s Euro 2024 opener, a 3-0 loss against Spain.

The federation said he sustained a new injury that ruled him out of playing in the tournament.

“I’m extremely sorry that this new injury will prevent me from helping the team,” Vlasic said in the federation’s statement on X.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic confirmed Tuesday that Vlasic had left the team after an MRI. Dalic said all other players were fit for Tuesday’s match in Hamburg.

“We are always the dark horse. We are always not among the favourites. Nobody believed in us. In the past six years, we’ve won three medals,” Dalic told reporters.

“So I always keep saying that Croatia deserves greater respect from everyone else for what we’ve managed to do.”

Albania coach Sylvinho is eager to accentuate the positives of his side’s opening loss to the Italians, and not read too much into the Croatians’ opening defeat.

Sylvinho, who expects to be able to pick from a full squad, said: “Except for the first 15 minutes against Italy, we did really well. We are talking about Italy, one of the best teams in the competition.

“Croatia gave a good performance (against Spain), even in losing 3-0. If you see the stats from this match without seeing the result, you wouldn’t believe Croatia lost. But at this level of football, anything can happen.”

“It’s the vision of the manager,” Ten Hag said. “England will take a 1-0 lead, then he decides to start gambling with making his team compact and relying on moments for the remaining minutes of the game.”

Given that, and especially with how some of the words could apply to his own United displays, it was some brass neck from Ten Hag. His statement was maybe even bolder than anything any England player did on the night outside Bellingham.

Lukas Provod scored a stunning goal just after the hour mark, surprising Portugal and giving Czechia the advantage, and it was only levelled because of a fortunate own-goal equaliser.

However, Portugal made key substitutions, bringing on Diogo Jota, who had a goal of his own disallowed because Ronaldo was in an offside position when he headed the ball back across goal. They were eventually rewarded for their efforts, when Conceicao scored with almost his first touch on his competitive debut.

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.”