11th Day of EURO 2024
Squadra Azzurra eliminated Croatia most painfully;Spain’s reserves unsurprisingly clipped the wings of the Albanian eagle.
A goal in the 98th minute sent the current champions to the round of 16 against Switzerland, with La Furia winning the group with a full tally of points.
Croatia suffered one of its most painful eliminations in a major tournament after a 1-1 draw against the previous European Championship winners, Italy. The dramatic outcome in Group “B” came with an equalizing goal by Mattia Zaccagni in the 98th minute, which allowed the Squadra Azzurra to retain second place in the group and qualify for the round of 16.
Without this goal, Croatia would have been there, but instead, they are out of the competition with two points, which will not be enough to qualify among the best third-placed teams.
The match was going perfectly for Zlatko Dalic’s “chess players” after Luka Modric scored a goal in the 55th minute, just seconds after he missed a penalty.
Italy didn’t seem to know how to equalize, but fate smiled on them in the last minute of the added eight. Thus, Luciano Spalletti’s team will play Switzerland in the round of 16.
In the event of a loss, the Italians would have been anxious about whether they would be among the best third-placed teams. With today’s draw, they finished the group stage with four points, although they achieved unconvincingly.
The third-placed team in the world from the last World Cup was equalized in the last minute for the second consecutive match after the one against Albania (2:2), confirming their tendency to play weaker in European championships.
Today’s collapse is especially painful for captain Luka Modric, who wanted to finish his career in the national team specially, but that won’t happen.
Croatia started the match and didn’t give away the ball in the first five minutes. Luka Sucic took a fantastic long shot in the last of them, but Gianluigi Donnarumma was also impressed with his save.
A strong period followed for the Italians, who quickly processed the ball and troubled their opponent with speed. However, their first good chance came in the 21st minute when Matteo Retegui headed wide after a cross from the left flank.
In the 27th minute, Dominik Livakovic made one of the tournament’s best saves.
The Italians executed a corner, followed by a second phase with a cross from Nicolo Barella. The ball landed on Alessandro Bastoni’s head, and the Fenerbahce goalkeeper wonderfully saved his powerful header.
By the end of the first half, the Italians continued to be slightly more dangerous, but their opponent stole the ball several times in advanced positions. However, the subsequent plays often were mistakes, even by the most experienced players – Brozovic and Modric. The draw at halftime was logical, as both goalkeepers made one superb save each.
Croatia started the second half actively and reached a penalty after a nice attack. Pongracic shot, and the halftime substitute Davide Frattesi blocked the ball with his hand. After a VAR review, referee Danny Makkelie pointed to the spot. Modric’s shot was saved, but in the following attack,
The Croatians scored through their captain. He made a successful follow-up after Donnarumma saved Budimir’s shot.
In the 61st minute, Italy was again close to an equalizer through central defender Bastoni. He was unmarked at a corner and again headed dangerously, but this time, the ball went inches over the crossbar.
After that, the European champions pressed their opponent hard and found themselves in shooting positions several times, with the best chance coming to Matteo Darmian, but his ground shot was blocked.
After the 80th minute, the Squadra began to play very riskily and opened up significantly in defense, while the Croatians needed to be in a better position, which was quite the opposite. They began to press their opponent and looked for a second goal but lacked a quality final pass.
Italy controversially received an eight-minute stoppage time but failed to create anything dangerous in front positions.
Everything changed in the last seconds when Calafiori made a magical run through the center and passed to Mattia Zaccagni, who beat Livakovic with a curling shot, sending the Italian fans ecstatic.
In the other match in the group, Spain played with ten reserves against Albania, but that proved enough for a 1-0 victory and topped Group B with a full tally of 9 points.
Thus, De La Fuente’s team became the only one at Euro 2024 to win all their group-stage matches.
La Furia played only for honor, while the Balkans could progress if they had taken the three points. However, their hopes lasted only 13 minutes, as a goal from Ferran Torres dashed them.
By the end of the match, Spain took complete control and didn’t allow any chances in front of their goal, forcing the Albanians to try long shots.
In the end, Spain comfortably finished the match and took a routine 3 points.
They will play against one of the best third-placed teams from the other groups. The Albanians finished with one point in the so-called Group of Death.
Another curious fact is that Spain’s winger Jesus Navas became the oldest player in La Furia to play in a major tournament. Navas is currently 38 years and 216 days old.
He surpassed the previous record holder in this category, Santiago Canizares, who played his last match at a major tournament at the 2006 World Cup against Saudi Arabia at 36 years and 248 days.
The match started as expected.
The Albanians were inspired by the strong support from the stands and tried to press their opponent, while Spain controlled the ball more and calmly played it around.
The first serious threat came in the 12th minute when Merino headed, but Albania’s goalkeeper Strakosha demonstrated a great reflex and saved.
In the next minute, however, La Furia opened the scoring.
Ferran Torres was put through behind the Albanian defense and precisely sent the ball into the net, with a ricochet off the post – 1-0 for Spain.
After the goal, the picture on the field remained the same – Spain controlled the ball more, while Albania tried to threaten their opponent’s goal on the counterattack, but without success.
In the 32nd minute, the Balkans had claims for a penalty due to holding in the penalty area, but Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg didn’t award anything, and VAR also didn’t signal him.
Spain responded with a dangerous header from Torres, but the ball went over the crossbar.
Albania’s best chance came in the last minute of the first half. Kristian Asllani took a dangerous shot from outside the penalty area, but Spain’s goalkeeper Raya saved it with an acrobatic dive.
Thus, the two teams went to the break with a 1-0 score for the Iberians.
Joselu tried an almost impossible shot in the first minutes with a kind of bicycle kick, but the ball went past the post.
In the 65th minute, Spain’s goalkeeper Raya had to intervene again after a long-range shot from the substitute Broja. Immediately after that, Bajrami fell in La Furia’s penalty area and asked for a penalty, but instead received a yellow card for simulation.
Twenty minutes before the end, Spain’s coach brought on his attacking stars Alvaro Morata and Lamine Yamal, who replaced Joselu and the goal scorer Ferran Torres.
Until the end, the most interesting thing on the field was the intrusion of a minor Albanian fan, and after the added 4 minutes, the referee blew the final whistle.
Croatia – Italy 1:1
L.Modric (55′) ; M.Zaccagni ( 90+8′)
Albania – Spain 0:1
F.Torres (13′)
Group B Final Standings:
1. Spain 9 pts
2. Italy 4 pts
3. Croatia 2 pts
4. Albania 1 pt