One key player from every UEFA Nations League quarterfinal

In 10 years, I am not sure that anyone will know or care who won the various editions of the UEFA Nations League. But the competition has produced 4 pretty high profile matchups with historically successful teams, so let’s pretend it’s important just for fun. It’s still good players playing football, after all.

Croatia vs. France — Luka Modrić

Anyone got a prediction for how long Luka Modrić keeps playing? Can he keep making a positive impact for Real Madrid until he’s 45? Will he do his best King Kazu impression and play for Dinamo Zagreb into his 50s after that?

Modrić is still Madrid’s best passer and Croatia’s best player, period. He’s a bit defensively and athletically limited at this point in his career, as you’d expect for a 39-year-old, but he hasn’t lost any of his ability on the ball. Modrić remains one of the world’s best deep-lying playmakers.

But his teammates are going to need to do a lot of work to carry him defensively against France. The most athletic of midfields would struggle to slow down Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise on the counter.

Denmark vs. Portugal — Morten Hjulmand

Modrić’s replacement when he left Tottenham, Christen Eriksen, plays a similar role for Denmark as the most important playmaker and slight defensive liability. Sporting CP captain Morten Hjulmand is the man who will be tasked with doing the running, and I’m actually surprised his numbers don’t look a bit better.

When I’ve seen Hjulmand, he’s an all-action, ball-winning monster, and I expected to see higher pressures and defensive OBV. Admittedly, I’ve only watched Sporting’s games against top opponents, and I’m not familiar with how his role might be changing against teams outside of Portugal’s top 4.

In any event, keep an eye on him if your favorite big league team is in need of an all-around box-to-box midfielder with 3 lungs.

Italy vs. Germany — Moise Kean

First choice striker Mateo Retegui will be unavailable for Italy, and it’s not entirely clear who will start in his place. The player most commonly predicted to get the nod across Italian media seems to be Moise Kean, who’s having a breakout season for Fiorentina.

The noted Everton and Juventus flop is finally figuring it out at age 25, scoring 15 goals for the Viola in Serie A this campaign. However, Kean doesn’t offer his team much more than sticking the ball in the net. That is a striker’s main job, but you’d love to see him be able to press, assist, dribble, win the ball in the air… basically do any second thing other than shoot.

If Kean scores, well, selection justified. But I wonder if having a striker who doesn’t do anything but try to poach goals will lead to Germany dominating the game.

Netherlands vs. Spain — Xavi Simons

This might sound like a crazy thing to say about a team as historically successful as the Netherlands, but they feel like the biggest underdog across these games. Their win condition against Spain is getting big performances out of some higher variance youngsters, and Xavi Simons fits that description better than anyone else.

Leipzig have been a bit disappointing this season, and Simons has been caught up in that. He’s certainly not been poor, he’s fine, but everyone was expecting a lot better than “just fine” this season. And RBL obviously still are, since they spent €50m potentially rising to €80m to sign him permanently this January.

Despite Leipzig and Simons’ average performances for much of the season, his best games are still some of the most sensational you’re going to see from any player in the world. Just take 9 minutes out of your day to watch this highlight comp, I don’t know if anyone creates goals and assists out of absolutely nothing quite like him.

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