Copenhagen plays host to the first last 16 tie of the day.

Croatia

On my 2015 Balkans train tour we found ourselves in Ploce.

Having left the delights of Split we were hoping for another version of the same to wile away a couple of hours before catching a train to Sarajevo.

Instead we found a dilapidated train station in the middle of nowhere. Not a great last impression of Croatia.

Here are a few lines from my book ‘Travelling By Train Across The Balkans’ – “We had ninety minutes left to kill, a good portion of which was spent trying to obtain local cash to buy our train tickets.

We had pared our Croatian currency down to a few beans as we were exiting for Bosnia, but unfortunately the tickets could not be bought with Euros or bank card.

When I discovered that the ATM was out of order, I started to fear a longer stay in Ploce.

I went to the station cafe to ask if they could change €30. They declined to help, but a businessman heard my predicament and agreed to help, albeit at an awful exchange rate.

Thankfully however we had our ticket out and gratefully slumped into our train seats that were more akin to armchairs than your standard variety.”

Spain

Valencia is a great city in southern Spain. Not only does it have an historic walled old town, but also a futuristic science park with buildings designed by Sir Norman Foster, and just to add to the mix some fine sandy beaches & interesting port area too.

When I went in 2007 it just happened to coincide with yachting’s blue ribband event the America’s Cup, which was being competed by ‘hosts’ and holders Switzerland and New Zealand. Apparently Lake Geneva wasn’t quite big enough to hold the jamboree!

The aquarium at the aforementioned science park was the best we have ever been to, capped by a brilliant dolphin display.

Score prediction – Croatia 1 Spain 2