More than 400,000 Croatians live in Germany, and whoever is in Berlin Anyone who was on the road had to believe that every second person had come here to support their team. Red and white checked jerseys, caps and flags were everywhere you looked. It was no different in the Olympic Stadium. The Croatian colors were spread out over a good three-quarters of the people in the Berlin Oval. 74,000 people were there.
Those who were dressed in checkered clothes in large numbers had to watch as their team was soon checkmated.
The Spaniards, who are being coached for the first time at a finals by the internationally unknown former U21 team manager Luis de la Fuente, showed a more vertical football game in their opening match of the European Championship than we have been used to from them in the recent past. And with success. The Iberians had already made everything clear by halftime with three goals.
The match winner
Man of the match was Fabian Ruiz,The central midfielder of Paris Saint-Germain initially set up a striker Álvaro Morata with a perfect pass into the deep area (1-0, 29th) and made the soon-to-be 39-year-old Luka Modric look old with a dance in the penalty area for the second goal (33rd). The Croatians were only able to free themselves from the pressure of La Roja in certain situations, but should have scored. After a cross from Gvardiol, Budimir missed the ball (41st). And so the knockout blow came before the half-time whistle. Carvajal was quick to react after a short corner kick (45th+2). For the Croatians, it was not just the former Salzburg player Pongracic who was asleep, having already lifted the offside for the 1-0.
The Croatians tried courageously to turn the game around during the break. And it almost came Unai Simon The Basque keeper saved at the last minute from a Kramaric-Header, after moments before cucurella against Stanisic (55th). The Spaniards switched to counterattacks, often via Barcelona’s Lamine Yamalwho became the youngest European Championship player in history that evening at 16 years and 338 days.
The Croatians were not granted anything that evening. Petkovic took a penalty, but goalie Simon saved. The rebound played Perisic again to Petkovic, who shot and turned away in celebration. But because passer Perisic ran into the penalty area too early, the goal was not counted (81′).