Modric: Croatia Must Rise Soon After Defeat To Spain

JAKARTA - Croatian captain Luka Modric insists that his team must quickly rise from a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Spain in their opening Euro 2024 match, Saturday, June 15.

Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz, and Dani Carvajal scored in the first half of Saturday, where Spain picked up three points full of decisive wins.

Croatia are experiencing difficulties in most matches, but Modric said his team should focus on the last two games in the group against Albania and Italy on 19 and 24 June.

"This is not the result we expected, but this is the reality. We still have two more games to fix and make up for. In the first half, we weren't ourselves; we lacked energy and stood too far away from their players. They punished us for that," Modric was quoted as saying. from the official UEFA website.

"We also have our chances, but this is one of the matches where whatever you try doesn't work. We improved in the second half and was much better, but that wasn't enough. In my opinion, their victory was deserved. Maybe it was just a score that was too high," he said.

"We no longer have the right to make mistakes; we have to recover and win the games to come. On the one hand, it's a good thing because we know we have no other choice but to win. We need to prepare well, analyze what went wrong, and be much better, especially in terms of energy," added the Real Madrid midfielder.

Meanwhile, head coach Zlatko Dalic added: "This is not a good start, but I congratulate Spain for their victory. We lacked energy and aggression, and conceded the first goal from a mistake.

"The worst thing was that we conceded in extra time the first half from a corner. We shouldn't have let that happen, and the game was decided at that time," he said.

"My impression is that we were able to withstand the initial pressure of Spain in the first 10-15 minutes. After that, we controlled the game, we were better, and started creating several chances. But then we conceded a goal because of our mistakes and were unable to bounce back after that. That's not good, "said Dalic.

There was a question mark when Modric was replaced in the 65th minute of the match, while Mateo Kovacic was also replaced at the same time as the Real Madrid midfielder.

Dalic dismissed injury issues, insisting that the change was a tactical decision, with the team still having a great opportunity to advance to the knockout round of the competition.

"We had two important games ahead, against Albania and Italy. At the time, we lost 3-0 and didn't have many chances to turn things around, so I decided to pull them around," added the manager.

Croatia have reached the last 16 in the last two European Cups, but they have never made it past the quarter-finals of this competition.