Six days before the start of the European Football Championship in Germany, Croatia has won its high-profile dress rehearsal. The Croatians celebrated their first victory over Portugal on Saturday in Oeiras with a 2-1 win over the Portuguese. Spain defeated Northern Ireland 5-1, Denmark defeated Norway 3-1. Belgium (against Luxembourg), Hungary (against Israel) and Serbia (in Sweden) each celebrated 3-0 victories.
While Portugal’s superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was only on the bench, veteran Luka Modric was in the starting eleven for the Croatians and secured the early lead. The 38-year-old scored from the penalty spot after Vitinha fouled Mateo Kovacic (8th minute). After the equalizer by Diogo Jota (48th minute), Ante Budimir (56th minute) scored the guests’ successful test victory for their difficult start to the European Championship.
Reuters/Pedro Nunes
Spain celebrates landslide victory
Croatia will start next Saturday against Spain, who warmed up against Northern Ireland. After an early 0-1 deficit through Daniel Ballard (2nd), Pedri (12th, 29th), Alvaro Morata (18th) and Fabian Ruiz (35th) made things clear before the break, followed by Mikel Oyarzabal (60th).
Denmark beat Norway, who did not qualify for the European Championship, thanks to goals from Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg (12th), Jannik Vestergaard (21st) and Yussuf Poulsen (90th). Star striker Erling Haaland scored for Norway to make it 1:2 (72nd).
Clear successes for Belgium, Hungary and Serbia
Belgium said goodbye to Germany with an easy win in Brussels. Romelu Lukaku gave the hosts a 2-0 lead (42’/penalty, 57′), Leandro Trossard scored the final goal (81′).
Barnabas Varga from Ferencvaros was the outstanding player in Hungary’s confident 3-0 win against Israel in Debrecen. The top scorer in the Hungarian championship set up Roland Sallai’s lead (11th) and scored the other two goals (19th, 22nd). Serbia, which lost 2-1 to the ÖFB team in Vienna last Tuesday, also won comfortably in Sweden. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (18th), Aleksandar Mitrovic (60th) and Dusan Tadic (70th) scored in Solna.
Slovenia drew 1-1 with Bulgaria. Sturm Graz legionnaire Tomi Horvat played for the home team in the first half, while his club colleague Jon Gorenc Stankovic was substituted in the 82nd minute.
