{"id":641157,"date":"2024-06-12T14:22:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=641157"},"modified":"2024-06-12T14:22:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T18:22:13","slug":"three-spain-croatia-euro-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/06\/12\/three-spain-croatia-euro-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look Back at the Three Spain vs. Croatia Euro Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain against Croatia has been a fixture at the last three UEFA EURO tournaments. Given that the two teams will meet again to open Group B in Berlin\u2019s Olympic Stadium on June 15, it is appropriate to look back on the three previous Spain <\/span>vs.<\/span> Croatia EURO meetings here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spain vs. Croatia EURO Meetings<\/span><\/h2>\n

EURO 2012: 1-0 Spain win<\/span><\/h3>\n

In the\u00a0<\/span>first<\/span><\/a> of the three Spain <\/span>vs.<\/span> Croatia EURO meetings, the Spaniards came into the game as defending European champions and reigning World Cup winners. They were a passing machine, while their opponents were a promising but continuously underachieving side. It was the last <\/span>round<\/span> of games in the group stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The favourites dominated that match, though they only managed a minimal one-goal victory through an 88th-minute strike by Jesus Navas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Croatia Players to Watch at UEFA Euro 2024<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

This<\/span> ensured that Spain would top the group and that Croatia would go home after the game. (That was the last 16-team EURO tournament, where <\/span>all 3rd-placed sides were eliminated<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spain ended up winning that EURO and defending their title after <\/span>having beaten<\/span> Italy in the final, the same Italians <\/span>who<\/span>they were in the group <\/span>with<\/span>.<\/span> It might have served as a bit of a consolation to the Vatreni that the two teams that knocked them <\/span>out<\/span>,<\/span> both<\/span> reached the showpiece match at the end of the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

EURO 2016: Croatia win 2-1<\/span><\/h3>\n

In the<\/span> second of the Spain vs. Croatia EURO meetings<\/span>, it<\/span> was again the last group stage match.<\/span> This time, Spain was through <\/span>having<\/span> won the first two matches in the group and the now expanded 24-team competition<\/span>, Croatia<\/span> practically were through as well, having won one match and drawn the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/span>Netherlands Euro 2024 Replacement: In Demand Chelsea Star Called Up<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alvaro Morata scored to give Spain the early lead, Nikola Kalinic equalised before the break – while Sergio Ramos missed a penalty in the 72nd minute before Perisic won it for the Vatreni in the 87th. <\/span>This<\/span> meant that Croatia topped the group and Spain finished second, but both sides lost in the r<\/span>ound<\/span> of 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

EURO 2020: Spain win 5-3 in extra time<\/span><\/h3>\n

The most recent of the Spain vs. Croatia EURO meetings was a knockout match for the ages. The Croats took the lead through a comical error by Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon. La Furia Roja recovered from that shock by taking a 3-1 lead. Croatia then brought virtually every attacking player off the bench and equalised in added time to make it 3-3. The problem was that these offensive players could not defend in extra time, and the Spaniards scored twice more, this time without reply.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain against Croatia has been a fixture at the last three UEFA EURO tournaments. Given that the two teams will meet again to open Group B in Berlin\u2019s Olympic Stadium on June 15, it is appropriate to look back on the three previous Spain vs. Croatia EURO meetings here. Spain vs. Croatia EURO Meetings EURO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":641203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[801,439,31848],"class_list":["post-641157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-football","tag-croatia","tag-spain","tag-uefa-euro-2024"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}