Spain wins Nations League final - Fans disagree on Spain's role as favourites at the European Championships

The wait is over for the Spaniards: Luis de la Fuente's team have won another title after eleven years. Croatia with superstar Luka Modric, on the other hand, still have to wait for their first major international success. The Croatians were beaten 4:5 in a penalty shoot-out, after regular time and extra time the score was 0:0. In this context, FanQ wanted to know from fans in Germany whether they now see Spain as favourites for the 2024 European Championship.

Croatia with more playing time

The Croatians were in the driving seat at the start of the game and started the encounter highly motivated, which was certainly also due to the 35,000 Croatian fans who had travelled with them to support their team loudly. Spain were unimpressed by the crowd, however, as the Iberians kept their cool and played their usual game. The Spanish team also had the first chance, but Gavi's shot went wide. Andrej Kramaric from TSG Hoffenheim had the most promising scoring opportunity for the Croatians, but his shot was blocked by Spain's defence chief Aymeric Laporte. The Croatians continued to press in the second half, but Spain held firm in defence and were never really in danger of conceding a goal. The Spaniards took control of the game in the closing stages and had a good chance through Ansu Fati, but Ivan Perisic was able to scrape his effort off the line at the last moment and Marco Asensio's shot in the final minute also narrowly missed the opposing goal. The game therefore went into extra time, in which the Spaniards had two more good chances through Leipzig's Dani Olmo, but without success. The game ultimately had to be decided in a penalty shoot-out, where the Iberians narrowly prevailed.

Luka Modric will still not be able to crown his career with a national team title. The 37-year-old Real Madrid player has so far left open the question of whether he will continue to be part of the Croatian national team in the future. The match for third place was played between Italy and the Netherlands, with the Italians coming out on top 3:2. However, this success will probably only be a small consolation when thinking back to the missed participation in the upcoming European Championship. For the host nation, the Netherlands, the Nations Tournament thus ended in disappointment, with "Oranje" coming away empty-handed after two defeats. The German national team was eliminated early on and failed to qualify for the final round of the Nations League at the third attempt. Instead, a number of test matches were played, and the mood around the DHB team is in a low ebb after recent winless matches against Ukraine (3:3), Poland (0:1) and Colombia (0:2).

With this in mind, FanQ asked fans in Germany whether Spain is now one of the favourites for the 2024 European Championship in Germany. Respondents were divided in their opinion, with 51.47% of those surveyed saying that Spain is definitely one of the favourites after its success. However, 41.91% of fans are of the opinion that there are still some teams that are currently the favourites.