La Roja needed a point to progress into the quarter finals of the European Championships, but Jesus Navas ensured the three points with a goal in the dying minutes.
Slaven Bilic has induced extreme vigour in the Croatian team ensuring that oppositions find the Croats tough to beat, and has earned respect for the manner his team has played in the tournament.
The match was played out at the PGE Arena in Gdansk on the 18th of June.
Both the teams went off to a sluggish start, with neither team in the mood of taking the game to the other team. The reigning European Champions were finding it extremely hard to penetrate the defence of the Vatreni. Their intricate
pass and move style of play was met by a stubborn defence.
Jesus Navas injected the side with much needed stimulus and ended up being the scorer on the night, securing the three points for La Roja.
The Spanish national team head coach fielded the same side which defeated Ireland 4-0. His counterpart made two changes to his line up with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Domagoj-Vida-c11490 fielded in place of Nikica
Jelavic.
Croatia played with extreme patience and did not get much sight of the ball in the first half an hour, Spain’s possession within the first twenty minutes reached 78 percent which gives us a view on the degree of dominance of the
Spaniards.
Torres did get a shot on target but the Croatian goalkeeper was up to the task and saved with relative ease. Frustrated from the lack of infiltration into the Croatian box, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Ramos-c33096, unleashed
shots from distance to test their luck, but there was no end product for their efforts. Ramos’s enthusiasm nearly got the better of him, as Ramos fouled Mario Mandzukic with a hefty challenge, which seemed to be over the top but had been adjudged to be fair
by the match referee.
Half time ended goalless and there were no real chances throughout the half. If http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926 were to secure a victory against the Irish, Croatia had to score at least a goal to be in with a shout of qualifying for the quarter finals.
A renewed urgency was shown in the second half, and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ivan-Rakitic-c17333, the shot was consequently blocked by Casillas in the Spanish goal.
Del Bosque called Torres off for Jesus Navas and Bilic introduced Jelavic and Perisic to add more attacking potency to score that elusive goal.
The deadlock was broken in the 87th minute as Navas scored from a tap in. Spain has the possibility of being drawn against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 in the quarter finals, depending on the standings of the group after
today’s matches.
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