UEFA Euro 2016, day 8: Italy-Sweden, Czech Republic-Croatia, Spain-Turkey

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Yesterday in UEFA Euro 2016, Italy defeated Sweden 1–0 and assured their advancement to the knock-out stage. Croatia vs Czech Republic resulted in a 2–2 draw and Spain defeated Turkey 3–0 as Álvaro Morata scored twice. Spectators from the Croatian end threw flares before the final whistle.

File photo of David de Gea
Image: Saul Tevelez.

Group E — Italy 1–0 Sweden

Italy faced Sweden in the first match of the day. Sweden led in terms of ball possession but, in the 88th minute, Éder scored for Italy. Italian captain Gianluigi Buffon was yellow carded in injury time as he delayed a goal-kick. Italy numerically assured their advancement to the knock-out stage by winning this game.

Group D — Czech Republic 2–2 Croatia

Croatia were 1–0 up at half time as Ivan Perišić scored in the 37th minute. FC Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitić scored a second goal for Croatia chipping the ball over Petr Čech just before the one hour mark. Later, Milan Škoda scored from a header in the 76th minute for the Czechs. The match seemed to being inching towards a 2–1 victory for Croatia but Czech Republic won a penalty and Tomáš Necid equalised late in the match, having replaced Jaroslav Plašil.

In the 86th minute, spectators threw flares on the ground and delayed the game by five minutes. A hearing is scheduled to take place today.

Later, Davor Šuker, president of the Croatian Football Federation, said, "We will seek the help of the French police [to investigate] [...] Something is rotten in our country, and this [...] deserves zero tolerance." ((hr))Croatian language: ‍Tražit ćemo od francuske policije pomoć našem sudstvu, da se vidi tko baca baklje [...] Nešto je trulo kod nas, a ovo ostalo zaslužuje nultu toleranciju.

Group D — Spain 3–0 Turkey

Turkish captain Arda Turan faced his FC Barcelona teammate Andrés Iniesta as Turkey took on Spain. Spanish captain Sergio Ramos was booked in the opening moments of the game. Just after the half-hour mark, Nolito assisted Álvaro Morata, who scored a header. Three minutes later, Nolito scored the second goal of the match. Three minutes after half time, Morata scored from Jordi Alba's pass.

Spain won the game 3–0 and qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase.

David de Gea maintained a clean sheet for his first five international appearances and set a new world record breaking the previous record of Gordon Banks.


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