After sending oolong, the limit is absolutely flat! Jasula: Help Croatia light the flame, then extinguish it

Football Newspaper

2024-06-20 00:38Published on the official account of Guangdong Football News

The 34-year-old Albanian defender Jasula would not have thought that his first goal in the national team was a 94-minute and 23-second equalizer against Croatia, the third runner-up in the World Cup, setting a record for the latest equalizer in the history of the European Championship and keeping Albania's hopes of qualifying. And just 19 minutes ago, he put himself on the back and narrowly escaped becoming a sinner. Jassoula's fortunes reversed as his opponent Croatia, with a life-and-death battle to qualify, with a draw undesirable for both teams.

This match was a veritable encounter, this was the first time the two teams had met, and it was also the first time they played at Volkspark Hamburg. In the face of encounters, Albania is not good at it, in the last 10 times against the first-time meeting teams, they have 1 win, 5 draws and 4 losses, and their only winning result is a 3-1 defeat to the Faroe Islands in June 2023; Croatia have won 4 of their last 6 meetings against teams that have met for the first time. Counting the former Yugoslavia, which includes Croatian players, they are unbeaten against Albania in 5 games, 4 wins and 1 draw, and 7 of the 13 goals are scored by Croatian players.

Since Euro 1996 (0-3 Portugal, 1-2 Germany), Croatia have not suffered back-to-back defeats in the same tournament. As a result, Albania continues its history of encounters, and while Croatia did not repeat the losing streak of 28 years ago, a draw was bad for both teams.

In the first game against Spain, Croatian coach Dalic was very dissatisfied with Petkovic's violation of the team's penalty taker order, grabbing a penalty and missing the penalty. However, he had to take all three points in the second game, so he had to continue to start Petkovic while accepting the advice of the media and fans to return Gvardiol to a more preferred centre-back role, with 35-year-old winger Perisic making a cameo at left-back.

Croatia started 11 players, and as many as five had a background in the Bundesliga. For Albania, Silvinho replaced Armando Broja and Seferi, who had a poor opening game, with left winger Rachi and central striker Manai. Four of Albania's starting 11 have German and Swiss roots, and as many as five play in Serie A.

Germany is almost Albania's home stadium, with its first match against Italy, and the 62,000-capacity Dortmund Stadium was attended by 50,000 Albanian fans. The 49,000-capacity Volkspark Stadium in Hamburg also had almost 40,000 Albanian fans in attendance.

In the 14th minute, Rachi opened the scoring with a header, and Albania opened the scoring for the second consecutive game against the European giants. Croatian centre-back Soutalo made a mistake to clear the ball, giving the opposition the opportunity to organise the attack, and the defender was out of position when Rachi headed in front of him. Midfielder Brozovic was in a slump and Modric lost possession as many as 13 times in the half.

At the beginning of the second half, Dalic made decisive substitutions, bringing on Sucic and Pashalic for the in-form Majer and Brozovic, but it was not until Budimir replaced Petkovic that Croatia played a climax. In the 74th minute, Kramaric equalised with a powerful shot from Budimir, and three minutes later, it was Budimir who crossed back to Sučić, whose shot was blocked by Gimsiti, but the ball bounced off Jasula and into the net.

After a difficult reversal, Croatia's fitness declined, and Albania fought back, which eventually led to another mistake in the five minutes of stoppage time, giving Jasura a chance to make amends.

Jasura, who made his international debut at the age of 30 and did not play in the opening game against Italy, came off the bench in 72 minutes to experience the most ups and downs of his international career, and he became the first player in the history of the European Championship to come off the bench to score the goal of both sides with his "two goals" in this game - the sentence is too long, because before him, former Czech Republic international Undrusz started the same scene in the 1976 European Championship semi-final against the Netherlands.

Croatia has won 3 major medals in 6 years, but in this tournament, it lost 0-3 to Spain in the first game, and was forced to draw by Albania, which is ranked 66 lower than it in the world, in the second game, and encountered trouble in qualifying; Albania, known as the "second team of Serie A", has also paid the price of losing the initiative to qualify for many missed opportunities. In the final round of the group, both teams will have to face stronger Italy and Spain respectively, and they can only hope for a miracle.

After the game, the frustration of veterans such as Modric slumped on the ground contrasted sharply with the enthusiastic celebration of the Albanian players: the golden generation is getting worse and weaker; The courage of the "Serie A Second Team" is commendable, and the sunrise can be expected.

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