Trnava (Slovakia), Sep 7 (IANS) Slovakia’s went down 0-4 to Group E leaders Croatia in a Euro 2020 qualifier match, much to the dismay of the home fans.
Croatia opened the scoring late in the first half on Friday after missing a bunch of scoring opportunities. Nikola Vlasic was left unchallenged and his well-placed shot from the top of the box bounced in past Slovakia goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, Xinhua news agency reported.
One minute into the second half, the Croatians struck again. Ivan Perisic mimicked Vlasic’s long-range effort to stretch the lead to 2-0. The Slovaks failed to thawrt the offensive dominance of the Croatians and were left stunned in the 72nd minute by Bruno Petkovic’s great individual effort inside the box that gave the visitors a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Dejan Lovren’s header late in the game handed Croatia a 4-0 victory to put the 2018 World Cup runners-up on top of Group E.
“It is all our fault. Our performance left much to be desired, we lacked a team effort. This is a big slap on the face. We have to do better in Hungary,” said Slovakia captain Marek Hamsik.
Slovakia will face their southern neighbours Hungary on Monday.
–IANS
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