2023-06-24 22:51:35
It only took 20 seconds spain sub-21 to direct his pass to the quarterfinals and captain Abel Ruiz to redeem himself from his failure against Romania, with a victory over Croatia (1-0) that eliminates it from the tournament and that makes Santi Denia’s men they are going to play the first place of Group B against Ukraine in the last day.
Juan Miranda commented after the victory in his debut that he had a great connection on the left flank with Sergio Gómez and it didn’t take him long to show it this Saturday. Filtered pass from the left side to the Manchester City player, who served the ball to Abel Ruiz for 1-0 on the first play of the game.
20 seconds and Spain was already ahead thanks to the combination of three players who are chasing, together with the coach Santi Denia and his teammates Hugo Guillamón, Víctor Gómez and Antonio Blanco, the triplet of European championships after winning together the sub-19 and the sub-17.
An early goal that gave peace of mind to Spain under-21. He controlled the game clearly, especially in the first half hourin which Rodri Sánchez had two shots to double the advantage.
Those of Santi Denia did not suffer, although Croatia resorted to the 1.95 meter tall striker Dion Drena Beljo to approach the goal of an Arnau Tenas in the last 15 minutes of the first half who, even so, did not have to be used thoroughly.
That’s why, experienced Croatia under-21 coach Dragan Skocic who qualified Iran for last Qatar World Cup 2022changed the plan after the break and put more mobility up with Lukas Kacavenda entering for Beljo.
A substitution, together with the Croatian need to win to stay alive in the tournament, which changed the tone of the game in the second half. Giving reason to those “improvements” that Santi Denia insists so much that he has to carry out his team, in reference to the disconnections in the game and defensive concentration during the 90 minutes.
Of course, it was difficult for Croatia to disturb Arnau Tenas. Before his big chance came, Juan Miranda had a shot on the post in minute 71 and Rodri Sánchez, in minute 84, had a one-on-one that goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski beat him.
The Croatian moment came in the 88th minute. They loaded the area with many players and Matija Frigan was about to take advantage of a false start by Arnau Tenas, but he took possession of the ball after stopping it with his chest.
The result was maintained from the second 20 of the game, so Spain qualified for the quarterfinals and the first place in Group B will be played on the last day against Ukraineon Tuesday 27 at 20:45 CEST (-2 GMT), while Croatia was eliminated after two defeats in two games.
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