Spain achieved a great victory at the start of the German Euro Cup and beat Croatia 3-0 with a powerful performance. Álvaro Morata opened the account, Fabián Ruiz scored the second and Dani Carvajal closed the account. For the Croatians he had the chance with Bruno Petkovic, but he wasted a penalty, which was saved by Unai Simón.
Fabián Ruiz, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain, was very inspired and he was the architect of the victory, as he scored the second goal and provided the assist to open the scoring, when it seemed that the Red Fury’s best moment had already passed.
The first goal came through a great assist from Ruiz in the form of a filtered pass for Álvaro Morata, who avoided falling offside, He came face to face with Dominik Livakovic and did not miss the opportunity.
Just three minutes later, Ruiz himself grabbed it in the crescent, dribbled forward past two defenders and crossed it to score a great goal..
In the last play of the first half, he left the dispute almost resolved. Lamine Yamal put a perfect cross to Dani Carvajal, who made it 3-0, which was final.
In the second half, De La Fuente’s team showed their administrative skills. With the good advantage that he already had under his belt, he tried not to take big risks and for that he chose the path of possession.
Croatia had a couple of clear arrivals, between the good Spanish defensive predisposition and the lack of effectiveness of the Balkans, the score did not move.
At 80 minutes, Bruno Petkovic missed three unbeatable chances to score a goal. First, when he was left with the goal open in front of him and chose to dive when Rodri was fouled, so that the referee would charge a penalty, instead of scoring the goal.
Then, His execution was stopped by Unai Simón. And finally, when he finally managed to put the ball into the rival goal after the penalty rebound play, but the action ended up invalidated due to invasion by Ivan Perisic.
It didn’t change much for the development of the match, although it could be significant in terms of the goal difference in case the Croatians have to define something in that way later.
Spain’s victory was unobjectionable and will be an important emotional boost for De La Fuente’s team for the remainder of the tournament.
Italy suffered but turned it around to Albania
Albania surprised the current champion with a goal before the minute of play, but the Azzurra woke up, turned it around and put things in their place in the premiere in Group B of Euro 2024. The goals of Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolò Barella sealed the 2-1 victorywhich was somewhat short.
The Albanian fans believed they were having a debut that they would not have even dared to dream of. After 23 seconds they were already winning. Federico Dimarco took the side back for Alessandro Bastoni in his own area, but he intercepted him Nedim Bajrami and hit the ball at the near post without giving Gianluigi Donnarumma a chance.
A goal that has already gone down in the history of the Euro, as the fastest, although it was only a moment later, a moment of confusion for Italy, which quickly reacted and wiped the smile off the faces of those in red.
At 11, Dimarco and Lorenzo Pellegrini partnered to take a corner from the left, the 10th launched a cross into the area, which a powerful header from Alessandro Bastoni drove to the net for 1-1. Five later, nothing more, Nicolò Barella shot from outside, to turn the score around.
.
Italy’s game began to flow, Albania disappeared from the field and the 2-1 score fell short in the first half. Thomas Strakosha had to make a couple of saving saves to make it happen. Just as it is also true that the Azzurra tried the goal a lot and missed their aim quite a bit.
In any case, the rival’s limitations also allowed him not to suffer any surprises, when his level declined in the complement. He complied. His good first half justified the three points.
The narrow victory leaves the current champion second in Group B, given that Spain was three ahead of Croatia. And it will be the Iberian team, precisely, a more demanding next step in the defense of the Euro Cup title.
