Spain got off to a strong start at Euro 2024 after beating Croatia 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in front of nearly 40,000 Croatians on the stands. The Spanish scored all of their goals before the break, with striker Alvaro Morata, midfielder Fabian Ruiz and defender Dani Carvajal on target in stoppage time. The Croatians pulled one goal back at the end through Bruno Petkovic, who missed a penalty but then scored in the stoppage time after Ivan Perisic's pass, but shortly afterwards the penalty was disallowed after a review with the video assistant referee system, reports BTA.
In the Spain team, the appearance of the full-back Marco Cucurea was a surprise, and the teenager Lamine Yamal, who, together with Nico Williams and the captain Alvaro Morata, formed the team's attacking trio.
In the 22nd minute, Josko Guardiol crossed from the right and Ante Budimir headed in but failed to push the ball and it flew high over the crossbar. In the 29th minute, Morata was brought on by Fabian Ruiz's cutting pass through the center behind the Croatia defence, with the Atletico Madrid striker slotting home with his left foot to make it 1-0. It was the Spanish striker's 36th goal for the national team, placing him fourth on the all-time scoring list for the national team.
Morata already has 7 goals in the finals of the European Championship, and according to this indicator, only the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo with 14 and the French Michel Platini with 9 are ahead of him.
Immediately after the goal, Mateo Kovacic broke through the center and shot with his left foot, but his shot was parried by Unai Simon.
In the 32nd minute, Fabian Ruiz made it 2:0 for "Furia Roja" with a great individual performance. The midfielder hid the ball from Luka Modric and Marcelo Brozovic and between the legs of Josip Šutalo scored into the left corner of Livakovic's goal.
In the added time of the first part, the Spanish team made its lead a classic one. Young Lamin Yamal crossed from the right and Dani Carvajal sprung behind the defensive line to slot the ball past Livakovic – 3:0.
In the 52nd minute, Yamal was close to a fourth goal for the Spaniards, but Livakovic knocked out his shot with one hand. Shortly after, Morato got a knee to the ball, but it went wide of the left post. The Croatians came close to scoring in the 55th minute, but Kukureja saved Stanisic's shot in front of the goal line.
In the 78th, Croatia were awarded a penalty after the Spaniards made a defensive mistake and Bruno Petkovic went down after contact with Rodri, for which the defender received a yellow card. Goalkeeper Unaj Simon saved Petkovic's shot, but Perišić put it back to the striker, who scored into an empty net. However, the goal was disallowed after referee Michael Oliver received a signal on his earpiece. The situation turned out to be quite controversial, but why the hit was canceled was not clearly understood. One possibility is that there was no penalty, another that a Croatia player entered the penalty area before the kick.
The next match of the Spanish team is against Italy on June 20 in Gelsenkirchen. Croatia plays a day earlier against Albania in Hamburg.