Spain meet Group E winners Italy in the last 16 on Monday in Paris. We had the bad luck to miss it.
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“You have to happy that you are not playing against Croatia”, he said when asked why he wanted to avoid Italy, where he plays his club football with Inter Milan, by scoring a sensational late victor.
Although Croatia won two of their three group matches, it could easily have been a ideal three had they not blown a two-goal lead against Czech Republic in their second match.
“It’s not the best path for us, but you never know where the danger will be”, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said. We have to prepare for the game and see how it goes. “We have to move on and think already of our next opponent”.
He added: “Looking at the draw for the knockout stages, we are on the half where none of the favourites are and will play the victor of Switzerland vs Poland if we make the quarterfinals”.
“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.
“It’s an important victory because it is against the reigning champions and it paves the way more than if we finished in second place”.
The goal ensured that Germany topped Group C to play one of the third-place teams in the round of 16 in Lille on Sunday.
“I want to test young players and I changed five players today”. We’ll draw on this and I think we’ll be able to use some things during the qualifiers for the World Cup.
Both sides played at ease, showcasing high-level skills and tactics to please the fans. It also ended the team’s run of seven straight games without conceding a goal.
Spain’s first defeat in 15 European Championship matches was sealed with three minutes remaining as Perisic lashed a low effort past goalkeeper David de Gea at his near post. But the ball cannoned back off the crossbar, and the goal-line technology showed that the ball was just on the line.
But Nikola Kalinic equalized just before halftime when he steered a Perisic cross into the Spain net with a nice back-heel flick.
Spain had a chance to retake the lead, but defender Sergio Ramos saw his penalty saved by Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subasic in the 72nd minute.
They also scored in the last minute of the first half.
After persistence at the byline, Perisic’s unsafe ball found Kalinic, who had got ahead of Ramos in the six-yard box, before the former Blackburn man’s finish slipped past De Gea for 1-1.
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“Of course our goal was to qualify, unfortunately we didn’t manage it, so I won’t say our performance was any good”, he said.
