Croatia face Italy in a crucial Euro 2024 survival clash

LEIPZIG:

Group B has been dubbed Euro 2024’s ‘Group of Death’, but while Spain rose to the occasion with a game in hand, heavyweights Italy and Croatia met on Monday fighting to stay in the competition.

Both teams were outclassed by Spain and while champions Italy beat Albania 2-1, Croatia could only manage a 2-2 draw with the minnows.

It gives Italy the upper hand ahead of their clash in Leipzig, with Croatia’s golden generation at risk of a disappointingly early exit if they fail to win.

Croatia, who reached the final and semi-final of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively, can make quite a few changes as they scrap Euro survival.

Saudi Arabia-based midfielder Marcelo Brozovic has come in for criticism after underwhelming outings in the first two games, while Real Madrid’s Luka Modric, 38, has also struggled.

Full-back Ivan Perisic looked like a shadow of his former self, still finding his feet after a long injury absence.

“It makes me cry when I watch (Modric) on the pitch, he gives his last bits strength… but he’s not the (Modric) we’re used to,” read a column in Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List.

Youngster Luka Sucic could replace Brozovic, as he did at half-time against Albania.

Striker Bruno Petkovic, who missed a penalty in the 3-0 win over Spain, called on Croatia to deliver for their massive support in Germany.

“The responsibility is ours, we owe it to our fans to show more,” he said.

“I expect us to beat Italy and I hope it happens. We know everything we did or didn’t do in the first two games and we have to fix it.”

Coach Zlatko Dalic complained before the game that he was not given credit when Croatia did well, but was immediately criticized when he struggled.

“I learned some things in those seven years where there were a lot more successes than failures,” he said.

Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was positive ahead of the clash with the Euro 2020 winners.

“We control our destiny — that’s good,” said the stopper, who shone at the World Cup in Qatar, saving a penalty in a shootout against Brazil to send Croatia into the semi-finals.

Italy need a draw against Croatia to claim second place, but after being comprehensively beaten in a 1-0 defeat by Spain, expectations are not high for the Azzurri.

The Gazzetta dello Sport called them “Little Italy”, a far cry from the steely side that beat England at Wembley.

Veteran defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini have since retired, while coach Luciano Spalletti has left out Marco Verratti, now playing in Qatar.

The manager could also make changes with striker Mateo Retegui in contention, along with defender Matteo Darmian, who could replace Giovanni Di Lorenzo after a torturous night against Spain’s Nico Williams.

Even Italy’s opening win over Albania was not without challenges — Sassuolo’s Nedim Bajrami put Albania ahead with the fastest goal in Euro history at 23 seconds.

Italian goalkeeper extraordinaire and current boss Gianluigi Buffon said he was confident the Azzurri could use the loss as fuel.

“Sometimes it’s easier to react to a loss than a win,” Buffon said on Friday.

“Yesterday we got some answers to questions we had been asking ourselves and some new questions to think about.

“So if we thought we were nine out of ten teams against Albania, we can’t suddenly think we’re four out of ten teams after the Spain game. We’re probably somewhere in the middle.”