Croatia: The home side are without a host of first-team players due to injury, with Lovre Kalinic, Sime Vrsaljko, Borna Barisic, Marcelo Brozovic and Duje Cop all dropping out of the initial squad.
England: The visitors have also been hit by a spate of withdrawals, with James Tarkowski, Alex McCarthy, Danny Rose and Luke Shaw all dropping out of the original squad. That means one-cap defender Ben Chilwell is expected to start at left wing-back, whilst Harry Winks and Ross Barkley could be handed starts in midfield after their respective recalls. Harry Kane should lead the line alongside Raheem Sterling, despite growing concerns about the Tottenham man potentially suffering from fatigue.
Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic on the UEFA Nations League:
"Not a bad idea, not a bad competition. But I think they didn't count in that it's being played shortly after the World Cup, that the players are worn out and didn't have enough time to rest.
"They are not robots, they need at least a month-long vacation. And all of them who came pretty late to their clubs were under a great deal of workload and couldn't prepare for the season properly."
England boss Gareth Southgate:
"We are here to try and get a result so the team we play will be a team we believe in.
"There is nobody in the squad that is here that we are not thinking of putting into the team.
"It is not experimentation. They are players we believe in. Okay, they are relatively inexperienced at the highest level but players we have enjoyed working with and they have shown in training this week they can handle this level.
"We will pick the team that we think is the best one to win the game."
Form:
Did you know?
England just hold the bragging rights since the turn of the century, recording four winsin games between the pair to Croatia's three.
The 'Three Lions' have only failed to score against Croatia in one of the last seven meetings between the two sides.
England's last win over Croatia came back on September 9, 2009 as braces from Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard and a late goal from Wayne Rooney helped them to a 5-1 victory at Wembley in World Cup qualifying. Emile Heskey and Aaron Lennon both started for England that day.
Possible lineups:
Croatia: Livakovic; Jedvaj, Lovren, Vida, Pivaric; Modric, Rakitic, Kovacic; Rebic, Kramaric, Perisic.
England: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Henderson, Winks, Barkley, Chilwell; Sterling, Kane.