Thursday , March 28 2024

Euro 2016 – Group D: Defending champions Spain & Croatia both win 1-0!

UEFA EURO 2016The 2016 UEFA European Championships is being played across France from June 10 to July 10 for the first time with 24 nations across 10 venues in nine cities with the French capital Paris being the only city with two venues in the Stade de France and the Park de Prince.

The defending double champions are Spain, who are three time record champions along with Germany.

GROUP D – Matchday 1

Turkey 0-1 (0-1) Croatia

In the end Croatia scored a deserving 1-0 victory over Turkey in a very intense game at the Park de Prince in Paris on Sunday afternoon.

The Men from the Bosporus initially had more of the ball, but the longer the match lasted the better the Men from the Balkans took control of the match and it was Croatia who took a 41st minute lead through a brilliant volley strike by Luka Modric.

It remained an active game at the start of the second session with Turkish substitute Volkan Sen having the first chance of the half and then it was Croatia captain Dario Srna who first put a freekick onto the crossbar and then a shot from the right just wide of the goal.

Croatia continued to waste changes, but they kept their slender lead until the end to win a crucial encounter 1-0 against Turkey.

Carlsberg Man of the Match: Luka Modrić (Croatia) #TURCRO

Spain 1-0 (0-0) Czech Republic

Defending double champions Spain needed a late 87th minute goal from defender Gerard Pique to beat gritty Czechs, who fought with their lives against the superior Spaniards on Monday afternoon.

From the start Spain were in control of the match, but the defensive unit of the Czech Republic kept Spain at bay and if not, then Petr Cech was in the way like he was on numerous occasions against Alvaro Morata, Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta, Jordi Alba or Sergio Ramos. The Czech Republic only had one chance all half and that came in the 45th minute through striker Tomas Necid but he was denied by David de Gea.

After the break, Spain continued to control things but had less chances than earlier and the Czech Republic had chances of their own to take a shock lead, be it through Roman Hubnik or Theodor Gebre Selassie. But then came the 87th minute and a cross from Iniesta and Pique headed in to the joy of the defending champions. Still the Czechs could have equalised in the second minute of added time as a Vladimir Darida shot had to be cleared by de Gea from danger. In the end Spain got a deserving 1-0 win.

Carlsberg Man of the Match: Andrés Iniesta (Spain) #ESPCZE

About Arunava Chaudhuri

Check Also

Maximising football’s impact with UEFA Grow!

The UEFA Grow programme helped the Georgian Football Federation to fully capitalise on the long-term …