Ireland took on Croatia in the other matchup and it did not started the way they wanted it to be as they crashed to 1-3 defeat. The win has now taken Croatia to the top of the table and they would like to keep up the performance as they now have a good chance of making it past the first round.

Both the teams had some good and bad performances. Let us take a look at the hits and flops of the match:

Croatia:

Hits:

Mario Mandzukic: He was arguably the best player for Croatia. He scored a brace and was involved in most of the attacking moves. He was a livewire and the way he was playing last night, if he keeps up to that then things could create problems for Spain and Italy as well.

Ivan Perisic: He never gave a second thought before unleashing long range shots. He kept the defence under constant pressure and carved out many great crosses and eventually was rewarded when Croatia scored the third off his cross.

Flops:

Gordon Schildenfeld: He lacked co-ordination with the other defenders and was made to wander from his position on numerous occasions. He was lucky that his flaws did not create much trouble for them.

Ireland:

Hits:

Kevin Doyle: Arguably the best player in the last match, he kept on making continuous strides and kept the Croatian defence under pressure. Was replaced soon after the second half much to everybody’s surprise.

Flops:

Sean St Ledger: He was the one who got the equalizer for Ireland, but then barring that he was woeful in the defence. He lacked the pace, was toyed with to an extent and was under constant pressure

Stephen Ward: he was the one responsible for their Croatia’s second goal after his bad clearance. He kept on losing possession and was off the mark with ball distribution.

Indian Sports News Network