Italy and Croatia faced each other in one of the most decisive matches of the last day of the group stage of Euro 2024 and although they did not have their best performance, after losing throughout the second half, the champions managed to draw 1-1 in the agony to qualify for the round of 16. Mattia Zaccagni ended up being the hero.
Croatia managed to establish conditions from the first minutes and achieved dangerous opportunities through Luka Sucic and Domonik Livakovic, who were the closest to the first.
Italy did not do much to get closer and seeing that Croatia was a complex opponent, they did not find a way during the first half, so parity was maintained until half-time.
For the second half, an awakening of the current champions was expected, but from the start they received a penalty against them after a VAR review and the person in charge of collecting it was the legendary Luka Modric, who saw how Gianluigi Donnarumma saved that penalty well.
However, the performance of the Italian goalkeeper was not enough, because following that action, the Azzurra defense did not know how to get out of its area and in a quick play, Luka Modric retaliated after taking advantage of a rebound from Donnarumma, prior to a header. from Budimir.
After Modric’s score, Croatia took control of the match and eliminated Italy, who managed to get closer with what they could, but did not come up with an option that would equalize the match and avoid the catastrophe. Furthermore, not even with the departure of the Croatian ’10’ (he left applauded) did the champions achieve the goal.
No matter how much Italy tried, Croatia became strong, but when it seemed that they were going to leave Italy with no option and they qualified, their blood and determination managed to achieve the agonizing draw in added time that gave them a place in the round of 16 of Euro 2024. Mattia Zaccagni’s definition was impeccable to make the champions celebrate.
