Croatia beat European minnows Iceland 2-1 in the last round of FIFA World Cup's Group D on Tuesday evening in Rostov-on-Don, making it through to the round of 16 where they will face Denmark on July 1.
Having secured a spot in the knockout stage after beating Nigeria and Argentina earlier this week, Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic opted to field a revamped starting XI, with nine changes from their last game versus Argentina, keeping only Real Madrid’s Luka Modric and Internazionale’s winger Ivan Perisic in the lineup.
Iceland, who had beaten Croatia 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier, proved to be a very tough opponent, exerting pressure in the midfield and creating chances, with only a superb diving save by substitute goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic following a curling mid-range shot by Iceland’s capitain Aron Gunnarsson keeping the score goalless at halftime.
Croatia opened the second half looking better, managing to string together good build-up play. Fiorentina’s Milan Badelj finally broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute, beating Hannes Halldorsson by firing in a half-volley after a cross by Modric from the left.
Iceland picked up the pace and created several goalscoring chances, until a cross into the box was handballed by Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren. Sigurdsson calmly converted the penalty for Iceland in the 76th minute, levelling the score, and giving the Scandinavians a slimmer of hope of progressing through.
But in spite of chances on both ends, Ivan Perisic provided the match winner, powering in a ball from a tight angle in the dying minutes of the game and sending debutants Iceland home, in spite of fielding what was nominally a second-string set of players.
“The fact is that we have 22 players we can really be proud of… The most important thing here is that we have managed to continue our string of victories which helps us retain our good spirits, we certainly would not have been as happy if it had ended in a draw,” Badelj told state broadcaster HRT after the match.
Croatia will now progress through with a perfect score and three wins out of three games, with a 7-1 goal difference. As Group D winners they will face Denmark on July 1 in Nizhny Novgorod.
In the other Group D match of the evening, Argentina managed to beat Nigeria and get out of the group stage only through a late goal by Rojo. Argentina will take on Group C winners France on 30 June in Kazan.
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