Key events
Teams in full: Denmark
Denmark (probable 3-4-1-2) Schmeichel; Andersen, Christensen, Vestergaard; Bah, Hjulmand, Højbjerg, Kristiansen; Eriksen; Wind, Højlund.
Subs: Ronnow, Hermansen, Kjær, Kristensen, Zanka, Mæhle, Jensen, Damsgaard, Norgaard, Delaney, Dolberg, Bruun Larsen, Skov Olsen, Dreyer, Poulsen.
Teams in full: Slovenia
Slovenia (probable 4-4-2) Oblak; Karnicnik, Drkusic, Bijol, Janza; Stojanovic, Elsnik, Gnezda Cerin, Mlakar; Sporar, Sesko.
Subs: Belec, Vekic, Balkovec, Blazic, Brekalo, Kurtic, Horvat, Ilicic, Zeljkovic, Gorenc Stankovic, Verbic, Lovric, Zugelj, Vipotnik, Celar.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the smallest game of the day. It’s No 21 in the world against No 57, and it doesn’t even have any rarity value as Denmark and Slovenia know each other well from the group stage. But it should still be interesting.
If you like young meteors, it’s Rasmus Højlund against Benjamin Sesko. If you prefer old soldiers, it’s Christian Eriksen against Jan Oblak, who is playing in his first big tournament. If you like the smaller nations, here are two with only 8m people between them – 5.9m in Denmark, 2.1m in Slovenia.
If you’re a Brentford fan, you could be in for a feast in the final half-hour. And if you’re an England fan, you’ve got a certain amount of skin in this game. Either a draw or a Slovenia win will do nicely.
In qualifying, these teams collected the same number of points (22 from ten games). Denmark topped the group because they had the better of the head-to-heads, but not by much – they drew 1-1 away and won 2-1 at home. If the tie-break had been goal difference, Slovenia would have come top.
So although the Danes are firm favourites today, there’s a decent chance of an upset. Kick-off is at 6pm in Stuttgart, 5pm BST, and I’ll be back soon with the teams.