Óscar Maya Belchí |
Sports writing (EFE).- Only 20 seconds it took Spain under-21 to advance to the quarterfinals and captain Abel Ruiz to redeem himself from his failure against Romania, with a victory over Croatia (1-0) that eliminates this of the tournament and that makes Santi Denia’s men go to play for first place in Group B against Ukraine on 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 clearly controlled the game, especially in the first half hour, in 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.
For this reason, the experienced coach of Croatia under-21, Dragan Skocic, who qualified Iran for the last World Cup in Qatar 2022, changed the plan after the break and put more mobility up front 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 great chance arrived, Juan Miranda had a shot on the post in minute 71 and Rodri Sánchez, in minute 84, had a one-on-one that was won by goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski.
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 from the second 20 of the game was maintained, so Spain qualified for the quarterfinals and the first place in Group B will be played on the last day against Ukraine, on Tuesday the 27th at 8:45 p.m. CEST ( -2 GMT), while Croatia were eliminated after two defeats in two games.