Euro 2024: Spain Get Perfect Start With Clean Sheet Defeat of Croatia

 

Spain secured a great start to the opening game of the Euro 2024 with a comfortably victory against Croatia and have taken the lead of Group B with the maximum points earned. 

Croatia was punished for a moment of flop in the midfield that allowed Alvaro Morata to latch onto Ruiz's through pass and he poked the ball past on rushing Dominik Livakovic into the goal. The lead was doubled with an individual effort from Ruiz, dribbled through defenders on the edge of the box and blasted home a left footed shot. 

Thereafter, there were a couple of lofty chances to Croatia which were wasted and Spain put themselves in a comfortable lead before halftime as Dani Carvajal's header beat Livakovic to the goal. 

Just as Scotland on their opening game, the margin of loss was the heaviest for Croatia in a major international competition after their 3-0 loss to Portugal in 2022. For Spain, they maintained winning start to the competition with a margin that was the second 3+ margin of victory for the team since 2008.  

Overview 

Initailly, it was a fairly dominated game from the start for Croatia until Spain found the centre midfield a little loose for the build up that produced two stunning goals with a space of three minutes, and subsequently Carvajal's halftime stoppages goal. 

Croatia had the pace and some dependable attacking midfielders like Modric and Kovacic at their disposable but the connection at the front to finish off scoring chances were not sharp enough like their counterparts. The Spaniards were in tact at the back that it seemed as seem as Croatia were a sort of lackluster with the ball.