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EURO2016: Croatia upset reigning champions Spain

Croatia have upstaged Spain 2-1 in their final Group D fixture at Euro2016 in Bordeaux on Tuesday night.

The pair had already progressed to the knockout stage of the tournament but the pesky details of group position still had to be sorted in a game that many thought the reigning European champions would safely salute.

However, Ante Cacic's Croatian side, without Luka Modric, managed to come from behind to record a famous victory over Vicente Del Bosque's La Furia Roja who had not lost at the Euros since 2004.

Goals from Nikola Kalinic and Ivan Perisic did the job as Croatia finished top of the group on seven points, one ahead of Spain, and four clear of Turkey in third.

The opening goal came in just the 7th minute when David Silva unlocked the Croatian defence with a delightful ball for Cesc Fabregas who cut back neatly from a tight angle for Morata to easily knock home from pointblank range.

It was the Juventus striker's third goal of the tournament, drawing him level with Wales star Gareth Bale at the top of the Golden Boot chart.

Croatia got back on level terms on the stroke of half-time when Perisic used some trickery to get free of Juanfran on the left flank before supplying a lovely right-footed ball into the box which found Nikola Kalinic, who produced a clever flick with the outside of his right foot to breach David De Gea.

It was the first goal Spain had conceded at the European Championships in 735 minutes, or 12.5 hours.

The second half had one massive moment when Danijel Subasic managed to deny Sergio Ramos from the penalty spot after Sime Vrsaljko was harshly penalised when David Silva went down in the area.

But there was a more defining incident in the 87th minute when Perisic received a ball from a patient Kalinic before advancing forward down the left and firing home from a tight angle to again see De Gea beaten, again at his near post.

Earlier, Kalinic had stung the palms of De Gea with a firmly struck effort as Croatia looked to counter following Morata's opener.

On 14 minutes, Croatia were inches from an equaliser when Ivan Rakitic looked to make the most of a defensive error from De Gea by lofting a clever ball over the Manchester United keeper, only to see it cannon back off the woodwork as it threatened to drop in under the crossbar.

On the hour-mark, An unconvincing punch from De Gea put Spain under pressure with the ball falling for Rakitic whose deflected effort then fell for Marko Pjaca, but the overhead attempt did not trouble the Spanish goal.

In the 68th minute, Silva was clipped by an inadvertent Vrsaljko movement which prompted referee Bjorn Kuipers to point to the spot, but Subasic came right off his line to produce a strong hand which kept out Ramos' firmly struck 12-yard drive.

The stage was then set for a grandstand finish which Croatia took advantage of as they ended the group stage as an unlikely winner, although many spoke of them as dark horses prior to Euro2016.

Croatia next plays the third-placed side from either Group B, E or F while runner-up Spain will take on Italy in Paris on June 27 in a rematch of the 2012 final.

Turkey managed to clinch third spot after beating the Czech Republic 2-0 in Lens and will momentarily move into the top four of best-performed third-placed sides with Portugal and Sweden still to play.


Euro2016 - Group D

Croatia: 2 (Nikola Kalinic 45', Ivan Perisic 87')
Spain: 1 (Alvaro Morata 7', missed pen: Sergio Ramos 68')
Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux - 38,000

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Andrew Slevison
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