Subasic saved a Sergio Ramos penalty and Perisic’s late victor gave Croatia, who finished top of the group, a tie against a third-placed qualifier.
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But with Croatia now in the last 16 and set to play one of the third-placed teams from Group B, E or F, Plazibat reckons his countrymen can go far in the competition.
Spain will play Italy in the last 16 of Euro 2016 after a late Croatia victor condemned them to second in Group D.
Croatia manager Cacic made five changes ahead of the game and was pleased with the way his players refused to be overawed by the Spanish but knows topping the group does not guarantee an easy last-16 tie.
Turkey coach Fatih Terim stuck by striker Burak Yilmaz, despite his disappointing performances in earlier matches, and the act of faith paid off.
Euro 2012 winners Spain found it hard after the break, as the hard-working Croatia contained Del Bosque’s side, hitting them on the counter-attack. But Turkey didn’t let the Czech or goalkeeper Petr Cech have any breaks in this one and beat them for two goals – eliminating them in the process. “When you play against the best team in the world, you have to play like this”, he said. “It’s been a good night and a good goal for me”.
“We can not think about which draw is better and that we are playing not so strong teams”.
As the Czechs pushed forward, they also opened up their defense for the Turkish attack.
Croatia equalised on the stroke of half-time through Nikola Kalinic, who superbly flicked home Perisic’s left-wing cross from close range. “We won against a really strong team”, Cacic said.
Cheers as well as tears as the group stages of Euro 2016 near completion. He didn’t immediately comment on it Tuesday.
“This was a really special evening for us”, he said.
Defeat means that Spain will now meet Italy in the round of 16, in a potentially mouth-watering match at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Monday – a repeat of the 2012 final that Spain won 4-0. “The team spirit helped us and we were fighting until the last minute. We must face this situation with the appropriate confidence, because I believe that if we play at our level then we have some good chances of passing”. “But now we are really optimistic”. It was quite a odd game. “He made his presence felt”.
Andres Iniesta has revealed he wanted to take the penalty that Sergio Ramos missed in Spain’s 2-1 Euro 2016 loss to Croatia on Tuesday.
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The Czechs clearly missed their creative force, injured captain and playmaker Tomas Rosicky, and squandered their chances.
