UEFA Nations League: Pasalic secures win for Croatia against Denmark
Jun 11, 2022
Copenhagen [Denmark], June 11 : Croatia claimed their first win of the UEFA Nations League campaign as Mario Pasalic's strike ended Denmark's perfect start to Group A1 on Friday by 1-0.
Denmark had the better of the first half but the closest they came was a Joakim Maehle shot into the side-netting and an Andreas Cornelius effort kept out by Dominik Livakovic.
Croatia made three changes at the break to try and inject some life into their performance, and one of the substitutes, Luka Modric, tested Kasper Schmeichel from outside the box.
Modric was also involved in what proved to be the only goal of the evening, his pass setting up Brozovic to cross, and after a couple of deflections it fell for Pasalic to poke in.
Denmark pushed men forward but still struggled to test Livakovic as their winning run at home came to an end.
Zlatko Dalic, Croatia coach said: "The first half was not so good. In the second half, we changed our formation, and we put on Modric and Kovacic - they changed everything. Then we played a fantastic second half. We really deserved to win this game."
Christian Eriksen, Denmark midfielder: "We fought hard, and it was a tough game. I think the first and the second half were two very different halves. In the first half, we had a lot of the ball and created a lot of chances - only the last pass missed to really open the game up. With Luka [Modric] and Kovacic coming on that changed the possession, and we didn't really have the intensity to get the ball back."
This was only Croatia's third win in 13 UEFA Nations League matches (D2 L8). Denmark failed to score for only the second time in their last 17 international matches. Croatia had conceded a total of 18 goals in their previous five UEFA Nations League away games (an average of 3.6 per game).
