La Roja is back. More than ten years after reigning supreme in the world of football, Spain return to the top with a narrower path, the League of Nations, won against Croatia (0-0, 5-4 tabs), Sunday 19 June, in Rotterdam (Holland). After winning Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, Spain succeed Portugal (2019) and France (2021) after the first final of this new tournament played on penalties.
Exercise specialist Croatia bowed out, Rennais Lovro Majer then Dinamo Zagreb centre-forward Bruno Petkovic after seeing Unai Simon stop their attempt. However, Aymeric Laporte had offered the Croatians a break, hitting the bar on the last pitch of the five-game run. However, the French-born defender took his revenge, two years after the failure in the same phase of the competition, precisely against the Blues (2-1), in Milan.
It is also revenge for the new Spanish coach, already in danger after his second meeting in charge of Roja – a defeat in Scotland (2-0) – and who won a trophy after the fourth. The Rodri generation, shaped by Luis Enrique and retouched by Luis de la Fuente, has established itself as outside, in a crazy atmosphere with the songs of the Croatians.
The Croatians still finish with the silver medal, like at the 2018 World Cup, and add this medal to the two bronze medals from the 1998 and 2022 World Cups, but still no gold. They can console themselves with the unofficial title of best crowd in Europe and hope that their captain, Luka Modric, 37, doesn’t want to retire internationally for this failure.
More than 25,000 Croatian fans
Luckily there was this atmosphere to make one forget a final that didn’t keep the promises of the previous duels between the two teams. The seething De Kuip stadium, which looked like a gigantic chessboard, occupied almost exclusively by red and white checkered shirts, with the exception of two yellow and red boxes for the 6,000 Spaniards. Announced 25,000, Croatians were much more numerous.
But dressed in blue, the Croatians failed to spread this fever on the ground. If possession was to his advantage, Spain had more chances, the first for Alvaro Morata (9AndGavi (12And), Marcus Asensio (57And) or Rodri (66And). Croatia had its chance from Andrej Kramaric or Mario Pasalic, opposed by the “French” Robin Le Normand (24And) before subsequently hitting the side net (61And). The Vatreni did not improve ball possession because Petkovic, who came on for Pasalic (62And), made many bad choices, sometimes angering his teammates. And the unfortunate missed the fatal shot on goal…
Ansu Fati could have avoided extra time if the still excellent Ivan Perisic hadn’t made a miraculous save on his line – the players had already come off the Spanish bench to run and celebrate the goal. After regular time, Nacho also managed to save, blocking the ball from the feet of Lovro Majer, who was running towards the goal (100And). Almost the entire stadium asked for a penalty, but the gesture was regular.
Finally, Dani Olmo, former Dinamo Zagreb aged 16 to 22, “munched” two new match points (104And108And). But this time Spain held on nervously after two eliminations in quick succession against Italy and Morocco.
