In the early morning of June 29, Beijing time, the 2020 Euro 2020 quarter-final ushered in the most ups and downs since the beginning of the game, and the Spanish team finally eliminated Croatia 5-3 after a 120-minute battle.
Throughout the game, the two teams scored a total of 8 goals. Within 90 minutes, the two teams were 3-3, with Spanish goalkeeper Simon swinging himself before Saravia equalising, Azpilicueta and Ferran Torres scoring two goals in a row, Croatia having a goal pulled back by Orsic and Passali's header in stoppage time. The match went into extra time, with Morata and Oyasaval scoring one goal each, and Spain won 5-3 against Croatia.
During the game, Simon's oolong ball instantly detonated the network. In the 20th minute, Pedri returned a pass in midfield and Simon made a huge mistake when he stopped the ball, and the ball crossed from his feet and rolled into the goal. Such low-level mistakes in the competition are very rare. UEFA officials first counted the ball as Simon's oolong ball, and finally identified it as Pedri's oolong ball. Simon made a mistake and eventually Pedri carried the pot.
The data showed a distance of 44.8 metres from the position of Pedri's return pass to the goal line, the farthest ball since the European Championship was counted in 1980. At the same time, the distance of 44.8 meters is second only to the midfield shot (45.4 meters) scored by Hick in the group stage of this European Championship, becoming the second-farth goal in the European Championship.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first oolong goal of the Spanish team in the European Championship. Although Simon made such a low-level mistake, in the subsequent game, he resisted highly and saved many threatening shots from his opponents, which was also a good credit.
In addition, the victory was Spain's first victory in the knockout rounds of the World Series (World Cup and European Championship) in 9 years. The last time they won in the knockout rounds was a 4-0 win over Italy in the 2012 Euro 2012 final.
For Croatia, they have not won a single game in the knockout rounds since their first European Championship in 1996. The First European Championship Knockout Win by the Grid Army will continue to wait. Since Euro 2016, Croatia have participated in 6 major knockout matches, only the 2018 World Cup final did not play extra time, and the other 5 games all played for 120 minutes.