Croatia dramatically snatched top spot in Euro 2016 Group D away from Spain yesterday with a last-gasp 2-1 defeat of the holders in Bordeaux.
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Croatia midfielder Luka Modric injured his groin against the Czech Republic and is very unlikely to be available, according to Croatia’s team doctor.
And that miss proved vital when Perisic snuck the ball home at David de Gea’s near post.
Croatia meet one of the best third-placed sides in Lens on Saturday.
World Champions, Germany eased through to the next round of the competition with a comfortable 1-0 win over Northern Ireland.
“When you play against the best team in the world, if you do not run as hard as you can, they will dance past you, as they did at times”, Rakitic said.
“We had spoken about Perisic and how risky he was in counter-attacks”, Del Bosque told Spanish television network Telecino when asked about the Inter Milan striker.
“We’ve been impressed by him”, he said. The ideal was to qualify in first, but we have to recover physically and mentally.
“It was time to get back on our feet and we had a good reaction after being heavily criticised”.
Morata’s return to European champions Real Madrid from Juventus had been confirmed earlier on Tuesday.
And he moved level with club teammate Gareth Bale on three goals in the fight for the golden boot by finishing off a slick Spanish move after seven minutes.
David Silva’s cute reverse pass picked out Cesc Fabregas’s run and the Chelsea midfielder’s cross was tapped into an empty net by Morata.
Spain had beat them up so badly in their last match that they’d pretty much quit on the game, putting themselves in desperate straits if they wanted to advance. But set up by Borek Dockal’s cross, his effort hit the post.
David Silva was at the heart of the move, threading a ideal reverse ball into Cesc Fabregas, who dinked the ball over Danijel Subasic and into the path of Morata for an easy finish.
Ivan Perisic was the tournament’s latest last-gasp hero, marking his 50th cap with a virtuoso performance and an 87th-minute victor that means double-defending champions Spain will play Italy in the next round, having fallen to their first defeat in this tournament since a 1-0 reverse to Portugal at Euro 2004. The match looked like it was heading for a stalemate until Ivan Perisic scored the winning goal to seal a momentous win for the Croatians and send them to the top of Group D.
Spain’s errors spilled into the second half too, Marko Pjaca sending an overhead kick wide after De Gea had flapped at a Darijo Srna cross.
Three points and a minus two goal difference may not be enough for Turkey to make the round of 16, but they will have to wait and see how the final two groups pan out on Wednesday night.
Del Bosque withdrew front two Nolito and Morata for the more physical presence of Bruno Soriano and Aritz Aduriz.
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And Subasic got lucky as his save was allowed to stand despite the fact he had encroached well before Ramos took aim. They had a counter-attack which ended up in a goal.
