11:07 AM
Albania saved a draw against Croatia in extra time (2-2)this Wednesday in Hamburg, in a group B match of the Euro Cup, a result that threatens to leave the team led by Luka Modrić, semi-finalist in the last World Cup, out of the tournament.
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Croatian fans experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in Hamburg: For an hour they held their breath as their team was one and a half feet out of the tournament, then they went into ecstasy with their team’s comeback and finally they were overcome with concern about the uncertain future of their team.
Albania, which already gave Italy a lot of problems in its debut in the tournament (2-1 victory for the Azzurra)went ahead again on the scoreboard with a header from Qazim Laçi, ahead of the passive Croatian defense (14).
That provisional defeat, together with the defeat suffered on the first day against Spain (3-0), left Croatia practically out of the fight for qualification for the Euro Cup.
The Croatians thought they could finally breathe easy when they came back in just two minutes, with goals from Andrej Kramaric (74) and the own goal by Albanian defender Klaus Gjasula (76).
But the team trained by Brazilian Sylvinho He once again showed that he has made great progress in recent years and Gjasula himself recovered from his mistake and achieved the tie taking advantage of a bad rejection by Josko Gvardiol (90+5).
True to the emotion that is present in almost all the matches of the Euro Cup, both teams had opportunities in the last minutes to have unbalanced the score.
Know: 34 footballers have scored goals in the 12 matches of the Euro Cup, how many times have they celebrated in the tournament?
This result keeps Spain and Italy as leaders of group B before facing off on Thursday in Gelsenkirchen, with Albania and Croatia with one point each, having to fight on the last day to, surely, try to pass as one of the best third in the group.
Croatia, which will finish the first phase against Italy, is obliged to beat the Azzurra to advance in the tournament. Any other result will be synonymous, almost 100%premature farewell to the tournament.
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