Euro 2012 Qualifiers: Croatia Moves to Top of Group F

Israel vs Croatia  1-2

Shechter 81’  /  Kranjcar 36’ (pen.), 41’

Tonight Croatia proved to everyone that they belong to the elite of European national teams.

Sure Israel isn't one of the greatest teams in Europe but it's really hard to beat them on  their own field.

Croatia also came back on the top of group F.

Starting Lineups

Israel

Aouate

Ben Haim, Keinan, Ziv, Natcho

A.Cohen, E.Cohen, Vermouth, T.Cohen

Barda, Shechter

Substitutes

Colautti for T. Cohen

Rafelov for Barda

Golsa for E.Cohen

Croatia

Runje

Corluka, Simunic, Schildenfeld, Strinic

Pranjic, Modric, Rakitic, Kranjcar

Eduardo, Olic

Substitutes

Mandzukic for Eduardo

Bilic for Olic

Vukojevic for Rakitic

The match was pretty good. A lot of football fans for sure enjoyed good football.

Israel was a good opponent to the great Croats. But stupid mistakes by the Israeli defense gave Croatia an easy two goals.

The first goal came from a penalty after a weird call by the referee from Germany, Stark. Croatian defender Simunic was fouled in the box and Stark didn't hesitate to call a penalty for Croatia.

The Israel goalkeeper was very unlucky on the penalty because he knew where Kranjcar was going to shoot, but he failed to save it.

The next goal was a pure class performance by the great Croatians. Modric gave a great assist to Kranjcar, who first played a little bit with Israel defenders and then nailed it easily with his left foot for a 2-0 lead.

Israel had good chances in the match but they were just unlucky or were stopped by the great Croatia goalkeeper Vedran Runje.

Late in the game, Shechter did a amazing solo run and finished it nicely to score the only goal for Israel in this match.

Israel should be very mad because they deserved at least one points from this one. We also have to add that Israel didn't have their best player, Benayoun, who is still injured.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Croatia	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7
Georgia	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
Greece	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
Israel	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
Latvia	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
Malta	3	0	0	3	1	6	−5	0

This group is really interesting, with every team still having a chance to be first or second. It would be a huge surprise if Croatia and Greece failed to take second or first place in this group.

Next matches:

12 October

Latvia vs Georgia

Greece vs Israel

17 November

Croatia vs Malta