Spain demolished Croatia
The Spanish football team convincingly defeated the Croatian team with a score of 3:0 (3:0) in the first match of Group B at this year’s European Championship.
The “Red Fury” already ensured the victory of Malta in the first half, since it had a three-goal advantage after 45 minutes of play. During the first part of the match, Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz, and Dani Carvajal managed to checkmate Dominika Livaković.
The opening period of the match did not bring much excitement, so in the first 20 minutes, the Spaniards had only two attempts. However, Morata’s and Jamal’s shots were harmless for the “Vatreni” goal. On the other hand, the first situation worth mentioning in front of Unaj Simon’s goal was seen in the 22nd minute, when Ante Budimir shot with a header, but it was very imprecise.
Morata opened the net for Croatia in the 29th minute, when Fabijan Ruiz “threw” him with a great ball into the space in front of Livaković, and such a gift is not missed by an experienced goal scorer of his caliber.
Only a minute later, Simon recorded his first save, when he stopped Mateo Kovačić’s attempt from a very good position.
The Spaniards took a 2:0 lead in the 32nd minute, when Fabian Ruiz spread magic on the pitch of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. The midfielder of Paris Saint-Germain mixed up the defense of “Vatreni”, after which he hit the far corner of the goal with a precise shot where the helpless Livaković was standing.
Although many would think that such a blitzkrieg of the “Red Furies” would shake the self-confidence of Zlatko Dalić, that did not happen. On the contrary… In the period that followed, they had three excellent opportunities, but the ball simply did not want to go into the goal. First, Simon saved Marcelo Brozović’s attempt, and Lovro Majer ran into the rebound, hitting only the outer part of the net. Then Josko Guardiol put the ball in front of Spain’s goal, but Ante Budimir was a fraction of a second late and failed to put it into the empty net, and in the end, Andrej Kramarić’s shot flew over the crossbar.
All those misses were followed by an instant penalty, as Dani Carvajal, in the second minute of stoppage time in the first half, brilliantly cleared Lamin Jamal’s cross and easily put the ball into the net from the box.
At the start of the second half, Jamal had another great chance, and Livaković prevented the Spaniards from taking a 4:0 lead with an extraordinary intervention. The young ace of Barcelona was connected with a goal by his teammate Pedri, but Lamin’s shot was stopped by the “Fire” net keeper.
It was the 55th minute when the Croatians shot several times from the penalty area towards Simon’s goal in just a few seconds, but to no avail. The closest they got to scoring their first in the tournament was when Mark Kukurelja finally managed to clear the ball from the goal line.
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić took Luka Modrić and Mateo Kovačić out of the game ten minutes later, which were the changes that indicated that he accepted the defeat.
The excitement in Berlin was absent until the 80th minute, when the Croats got a penalty literally out of nowhere as Rodri brought down Bruno Petković in the penalty area. However, the Dinamo striker tried to override the old football rule and shoot from the penalty spot, but he failed. Bruno put the ball on the penalty spot, but his shot was saved by Unaj Simon. Ivan Perišić ran onto the deflected ball and played past Petković, who then put the ball into the net. However, it was established in the VAR room that Perišić entered the penalty area earlier, so it was awarded indirectly in favor of Spain, and the result remained unchanged.
In the next round, Spain will meet Italy, while Croatia will face Albania.