Spain beat Croatia in the definition on penalties against Croatia 5-4, after equalizing without goals after the 90 minutes of the regulation and the 30 of the supplementary, to stay with the third edition of the Nations League and cut with a 12-year drought without titles.
The match took place at the De Kuip stadium, in the port city of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, was refereed by the German Feliz Zwayer and for 120 minutes no advantages were taken, so the final, which did not have much football flight, should have been defined in the penalty shootout.
In the penalties the figure of the Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simón appeared, who contained the shots of Lovro Majerthe fourth, and Bruno Petkovicthe sixth, to allow Spain to achieve a championship after 12 years after obtaining the Euro Cup from Poland and Ukraine in 2012.
The first half was even and with both teams intent on taking care of the ball and trying to attack, but without reaching the goal, with a better start from Spain and closing stage Croatia.
The final part did not vary too much in its development, since although both teams intended to attack and look for the goal, nothing happened in the definition zone, while they exchanged dominance, but with a better finish from Spain than featured the best, but rare, scoring situation.
The clearest one occurred at 37 minutes for Spain, when Anssuname Fati finished off a few meters from the goal and Ivan Perisic saved on the line with the goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic defeated.
The end was reached and none took advantage, so the match went to extra time.
The extra period had the same characteristics, Spain He was more incisive, but not enough to unlock the result and the definition of the title went to a penalty shootout.
In the definition with penalty kicks, Spain was more precise and, in addition, had two brilliant saves from unai simon for Luis de la Fuente’s team he obtained the title in his first experience as coach of the “Red”, which is facing a change of figures after several years.
Croatia again was left without the celebration, since it was second in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, third in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and had to settle for second place in the League of Nations in the Netherlands, with many players who surely did not They will continue for a generational issue.
In this way, Spain is the third team to win the Nations League, after the titles won by Portugal in 2019 and France in 2021, when they precisely beat Spain.
Earlier, also in the Netherlands, home of the League of Nations finals, Italy, with the nationalized Argentine Mateo Retegui, beat the local team 3-2 and took third place.
All Nations League Champions
- Portugal – 2019
- France – 2021
- Spain – 2023
Source: Ambito
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