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Key events
Halftime entertainment. Sore eyes after that lackluster half of football, in the form of Tom Jenkins’ wonderful photo essay from the first week in Germany!
HALF TIME: Croatia 0-0 Italy
That’s good enough for Italy. It almost certainly won’t be good enough for Croatia.
45 minutes: Di Lorenzo tries to find Darmian on the right with a nonchalant flick of the boot. The pass takes off for a throw. Nothing is happening. The players aren’t the only ones desperately waiting for the half-time signal. Just another minute and everyone can regroup.
43 minutes: It’s all a bit congested in the middle of the park. “Do you think the Argentine-born Retegui reminds Guardiol? that Messi participated in the World Cup?” wonders Andy Gordon.
41 minutes: Both teams seem to have gone into Waiting For Half-Time Oranges mode.
39 minutes: Brozovic fires at Modricesque from the right. Calafiori reads and intercepts with ease.
37 minutes: Pellegrini’s shot through a packed penalty area was saved by Livakovic. Croatia counter and Pasalic wins a corner from the left. Nothing comes of it. This match is threatening to come to life, but it’s not quite happening yet.
35 minutes: The quality wasn’t terrible. But that wasn’t great either, and right now it’s pretty bad. That allows us to consider this message from Vivek Rajendra: “May I be the first of 1,057 others to point out to Kev McCready (29th minute) that Robert Carlyle is the more obvious Modric counterpart than Mackenzie Crook, you mean he’s still hoping for his stuff 28 years later?”
33 minutes: Loud fireworks erupt as Suchic tries to shoot a ball down from the skies near the Italian pitch. It doesn’t help him. Meanwhile, more from Italophile Stephen McCrossan: “And what a nice reaction from Barella, who applauded Livakovic’s save from Bastogne.”
31 minutes: Little space for Modric on the right. He whistles a low cross into the mixer. Donnarumma puts out a strong arm to deflect the ball away from danger, although he still needs a bit of luck to avoid any close red and white checkered shirts. He gets it. Italy clear their lines.
29 minutes: Croatia trying to counter Italy’s building momentum with some sterile midfield possession. They largely succeed. “As my wife Sarah just pointed out, you never see Luka Modric and Mackenzie Crook together,” notes detectorist Kev McCready.
27 minutes: Retegui’s precise run down the inside left channel wins a corner. The clearance goes to Barella, just to the right of the D. He puts in a clever diagonal chip to Bastoni, breaking in from the left. Bastoni shoots a header in the direction of the goal. Livakovic turns over with a strong hand and nothing comes from the next corner. But Italy now they are in their rhythm.
26 minutes: This is much better than Italy now, who are starting to hold the ball. The possession stats are still 63% in favor of Croatia, however, which shows how long it took the Italians to get going. Meanwhile, BBC viewer Stephen McCrossan wrote: “Classic bit of cynosure-style stereotyping from the ever-boring Danny Murphy over there as he tells us that Italian boys are more likely to fall than most.” You will never get that from Kane or Saka.
24 minutes: Pellegrini threatens to break into space on the left, so Sucic cynically cuts him back. In the book he goes.
23 minutes: The corner comes back down the left flank to Raspadori, who either crosses or attempts a shot to the top right corner. It’s not very good anyway. Kick from the door.
22 minutes: Pellegrini takes it this time. Like DiMarco’s efforts before, it’s poor and fails to beat the first guy, but Italy regains possession and this time Dimarco swings right. Retegui brought the ball down 12 yards out but his shot was deflected wide to the left.
21 minutes: After a really slow and uncertain start, Italy begin to rise to the top. Calafiori sends in an outrageously good ball from the left flank, Retegui rises at the far post six yards out. He should at least score a header, but Guardiola’s presence is enough to push him away. The header goes wide, but it deflects off the defender and another corner is awarded.
19 minutes: Pongracic misjudges a simple bounce ball down the middle of the pitch and as it flies over his head, luckily, Retegui steps on the ball and goes down. Otherwise, the attacker would have gotten away.
17 minutes: Modric scoops a ball down the right for Kramaric, who can’t beat Bastoni. A decent interception, but the clearance isn’t everything and Stanisic has time to cross the ball. Not quite enough time, though, as it takes a deflection off Calafiori and spins into the hands of Donnarumma.
15 minutes: Angle for Italy on the right. Dimarco swung at the near post but it was easily cleared and Modric was on hand to direct down the left flank. Barella does well to spot the danger and take the little genius off the ball. For a second there, Italy looked exposed at the back.
14 minutes: A breath of fresh air for Italy: Spain won 1-0 against Albania. Michael Butler knows the details.
13 minutes: Kramaric finds some space on the right and sends a low diagonal pass to Sicic. Calafiori does very well with the clean hook.
11 minutes: Jorginho finds Dimarco in space on the left. Dimarco crosses low. Pellegrini tries to curl a header towards goal from the edge of the Croatian penalty area, but the effort always flies wide to the left. Still, full marks for the ambition. That would have been spectacularly ear-splitting, van Persian, if it had gone in.
9 minutes: Croatia back to the ball. Kramaric probes down the left but is forced to turn his tail.
7 minutes: Italy clearly still not fully recovered from the trick Spain played on them that night. They try to clear their heads with a little possession in the back of their own. Then they finally show themselves on the attack, Di Lorenzo curling low down the right hoping to find Retegui in the middle. Pongračić’s hooks are clean.
5 minutes: Nothing comes of the resulting corner, but it’s a very safe start Croatiawhich without wasting time impose themselves in Italy.
4 minutes: Long pass down the inside right channel for Kramaric to chase down. Bastoni takes a shot wide of the goal. But the ball is soon back on Italyand Sucic delivers a rising shot that Donnarumma is forced to turn over, otherwise it sneaks into the top left corner.
3 minutes: Croatia i still have it.
2 min 03 sec: Italy touches the ball! Canes with a clearing header. Croatia get their possession back and go about their business again.
2 minutes: Croatia spend the first few minutes pinging the ball around the back. Italy press but to no avail; they haven’t had a touch yet!
Croatia got the ball rolling. A huge roar. More Croatian fans than Italian fans on the pitch tonight.
The teams are out! Croatia wear their famous red and white checks, while Italy sport their legendary blue. National songs are sung: paeans to the Drava, Sava and Danube, hosannas that are sung from the Alps to Sicily. Both are on the back of the head hits. In the wonderful atmosphere of the Zentralstadion, hands are shaken, fists are bumped, coins are tossed and flags are exchanged. We’re leaving in a few minutes!
Given the way Italy failed to qualify for the last two World Cups, they still won European championship between them, you’d think the current squad would be well-acquainted with the fine line between glory and abject failure. However, if not, the team Spain fielded against Albania tonight should have shaken them out of any residual complacency. The Red Fury had already reached the knockouts as group winners and, as the more cynical among us expected, took the opportunity to rest some of their top talent. Ten changes! So if Albania pull off a win and Croatia register another win against a side they have the tick over…well… addio, Italia, we hardly knew you. Michael Butler has all the details on Luis de la Fuente’s Selección and his MBM will be a must-read tonight. Switch those tabs, kids.
Zlatko Dalic makes four changes in Croatia XI that started the 2-2 draw with Albania. Josip Stanisic and Marin Pongracic replace Josip Juranovic and Ivan Perisic in defence, while Mario Pasalic and Luka Suchic come in for Bruno Petkovic and Lovro Meier up top.
Italy coach Luciano Spalletti makes three changes to his team after the bigger than it sounds 1-0 defeat to Spain and they are all in attack. Davide Fratesi, Gianluca Scamacca and Federico Chiesa come out; in come Giacomo Raspadori and Matteo Reteghi up front and Matteo Darmen adds ballast to the back line.
The teams
Croatia: Livakovic, Stanisic, Šutalo, Pongracic, Guardiol, Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic, Mario Pasalic, Kramaric, Sucic.
Reserves: Erlich, Madjer, Labrovic, Perisic, Budimir, Petkovic, Ivanushec, Sosa, Pjaca, Vida, Juranovic, Ivusic, Marko Pasalic, Baturina.
Italy: Donnarumma, Darmian, Bastoni, Calafiori, Di Lorenzo, Barella, Jorginho, Dimarco, Pellegrini, Reteghi, Raspadori.
Subs: Buongiorno, Gatti, Fratesi, Scamaca, Vicario, Chiesa, Bellanova, Cristante, Mancini, Zaccani, Fagioli, El Shaarawy, Cambiaso, Folorunsho, Meret.
Referee: Danny McKelley (Netherlands).
Preamble
Neither of these teams have particularly impressed so far. Italy conceded a goal after 23 seconds against Albania, then it was beaten 1-0 from Spain; Croatia put in a slightly better show against the Spaniards in a 3-0 defeat (funny old scoring system, football) but sent a late, late, late equalizer against the Albanians. All of this means that…
… which in turn means Croatia almost certainly have to win tonight if they want to make it to the knockout stages. This is most likely the last hurray for their golden generation, who came second and third at the last two World Cups and were runners-up in last year’s Nations League. But Croatia never quite got it right at the European Championships: their deepest run, until the quarter-finals in 2008, is best remembered for the wild celebration of a 119th-minute ‘winner’ against Turkey, who equalized in stoppage time before the inevitable penalty shoot-out that followed. So maybe the Euro owes them a little something.
The reigning champions Italy face many dangers of their own. A draw will be enough to see them through to the knockout stages, but if they lose tonight they will go out if Albania shock Spain – who have already qualified as group winners and could be forgiven for easing off the gas, so nothing it’s off the table. Worrying about Azura, their record against Croatia isn’t great: in nine games they’ve won just once, losing three. They will be helped by the fact that the last three meetings between the sides ended 1-1, which should be more than enough tonight. So with both sides in a vague state of desperation, it’s done great. The fun in Leipzig starts at 20:00 BST. It’s on!
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