Spain defeats Croatia on penalties to win Nations League

The negative sequence of the new Spanish generation has been dragging on since the last conquest, the Euro 2012. Since that tournament, there have been two eliminations in world Cups, hard marked by the team having a non-productive ball possession. Eleven years have passed and the Fury only with jordi alba reminiscent, returned to celebrate a title this Sunday (18), inside the stadium of Kuipat Netherlands. The Spaniards overcame the brave Croatian selection on penalties by 5×4, after normal time and goalless extra time. The commanders of Luis de la Fuente raised the League of Nations for the first time in its history.

Normal Time

The regulatory stage of the decision was marked by the lack of clear opportunities, mainly due to the respect of the teams that lasted for a long time, both tried to control possession by having more quality socks. A Spanish national team almost opened the scoring before the first 10 minutes with Gavithe young man almost won Livakovic on a low shot that went close. On the other hand, the Croatia scared a few times aerial game with perisicwell set in motion by the left wing, the Croatian’s headers ended up in the hands of Unai Simon.

The second half came back with a little more intense emotions, even without resulting in goals. perisic maintained its prominence, and continued to fall to the bottom line in the attack. The Croatian full-back stood in the middle of the area, Unai Simon it came out badly, but he was lucky with the finalization of Juranovic pass close to the crossbar.

A Spain tried to push the opponent in defense, jordi alba doubled the attack from the left and found Asensio on the penalty spot, the number 10’s header almost surprised the goalkeeper. The biggest chance of the final happened after the entry of Ansu Fati at the beginning of the complementary stage. The Spanish winger received the cross in the middle of the defense, and the only reason he didn’t score was perisicpresent at the right time to leave the tie on the scoreboard.

Extension and Penalties

In the Croatian specialty in the last decisions, extra time demanded a lot of conditioning from both teams, even more so because the players were at the end of the European season. The Spanish bench was better, giving more variety in the attack, while the Croatia continued with its base well defined, despite having lost some important players in recent summons. major had the chance to decide the match, but at the last moment it was stopped by nacho with a perfect cart.

The tie persisted with the physical delivery of both teams, taking the decision to penalties. At the beginning they were consistent, maintaining 100% success until the fourth penalty kick. Croatia. in it, Unai Simon hit the corner and with his leg defended the beat of majorgiving the advantage to Spain. On the last, laporte needed to convert to win the title, but hit the crossbar, even kicking in the middle. In the alternates, the Spanish goalkeeper returned to shine and defended the petkovicleaving for Carvajal hit in cold blood and end the bond fast la roja.

The defeat in the decision left the most competitive generation in Croatia with a bitter taste, getting very close to taking three titles, getting the vice of World Cup in 2018third place in 2022 and now against Spain at League of Nations. This final could have been the last for the star Luka Modricas there is still doubt as to whether the midfielder will wear the Croatian shirt again.

Already for the Spainis the consecration of a fight for the title of Nations League, even more so for having lost to France in the last edition. Despite Luis de la Fuente not having much experience when he replaced Luis Enrique in the technical command, the commander raised his first cup as a coach.

Feature Photo: Players from Spain celebrating winning the Nations League. Playback/Twitter