Spain defeated Group B foes Croatia 3-0 at Berlin’s Olympiastadion to start Euro 2024 on a winning note.
Inspired by Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal, who, at 16 years and 338 days, became the youngest player to ever feature in a European Championship, Luis de la Fuente’s team scored three goals in a dominant first half.
Within three minutes, the first goal was scored by captain Alvaro Morata after a clever through-ball from Fabian Ruiz. Then, the midfielder twisted and turned in the Croatia box to score the second goal himself.
Only two weeks after scoring in the Champions League final, Yamal set up Fabian’s goal and assisted on the third when Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal headed in his excellent cross for his debut on the international scene.
Surprisingly, 38-year-old Luka Modric’s Croatia, competing in his seventh international tournament, had a larger possession percentage than Spain, but their carelessness on defence was severely punished, and they were unable to take use of their opportunities.
Josip Stanisic’s attempt was stopped by Marc Cucurella in the second half, and after substitute Bruno Petkovic won a penalty off Rodri due to an error by Unai Simon, the Spanish custodian saved his spot-kick, and Petkovic scored from the rebound, Croatia had a late goal disallowed for encroachment.
With the exception of an alleged hit to Rodri that resulted in the Manchester City midfielder being substituted late in the game, the outcome epitomises Spain’s nearly flawless start to the tournament.
Spain winger Lamine Yamal said: “I’m thrilled with the win, for my Euro debut and we are all already thinking about the next match.
“I’m there for the coach and for the team whether I play wide, inside, whether I’m attacking, creating or defending. Whatever is needed. We are an efficient, hard-working team and you’ve seen months of hard work come to fruition today.
“We are a family, we are very confident and the way Dani celebrated his goal with me shows that. Starting with a win like this, against a rival like this, is very important for the team. But we’re turning our minds to the next match already.”
Spain captain Alvaro Morata said: “I thought we played well. We put a terrific national team under big pressure. This is a template for how we have to approach all our matches right from the start.”
Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic: “My impression was that we withstood Spain’s initial pressure in the first 10-15 minutes. After that, we took control, we were better and started creating some chances. But then we conceded a goal due to our mistake and weren’t able to get back into the game after that. It wasn’t good.
On the early substitutions of Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic, he explained: “We have two important matches ahead, against Albania and Italy. At that moment, we were losing 3-0 and didn’t have many chances to turn it around, so I decided to take them off.”
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