Croatia‘s Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic struck to secure a deserved 2-0 win over France in their Nations League quarterfinal, first leg on Thursday, as the return of Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé failed to get the visitors to fire.
Croatia also missed an early penalty when Andrej Kramaric’s spot kick was saved by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan, and the 2023 runners-up were full value for a win that might easily have been achieved by a greater margin.
France created chances and tested Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic several times, but it was a below-par performance on a night that had promised much with the return of Mbappe in particular after he sat out his side’s last four fixtures.
France host the second leg in Paris on Sunday. The winners of the tie will face either defending champions Spain or the Netherlands in the semi-finals in June.
France enjoyed almost two-thirds of the possession, but found Croatia tough to break down and when they did craft openings they were wasteful in front of goal.
“We lost the first leg, we’re going to make sure we win the second at home,” France coach Didier Deschamps told TF1. “Our first half was below what we were capable of. We will do everything to turn the situation around.
“We were punished in the first half. We were far too wasteful on a technical level and gave opportunities to the opponent.”
Defender Ibrahima Konaté handled in the area in the opening five minutes as he attempted to control a cross from the right but Kramaric’s penalty was poor and saved by Maignan’s legs.
Croatia took the lead after 26 minutes when Maignan initially saved superbly from Budimir’s powerful header but the ball spun back towards goal and the keeper could only watch helplessly as it trickled over the line.
The hosts doubled their advantage on the stroke of halftime as a shot was deflected to Perisic a few metres inside the penalty area and his volleyed finish low into the bottom corner of the net showed his excellent technique.
Dembele, who has already scored 22 goals this year for Paris St-Germain in all competitions, had an excellent chance to reduce the deficit, but his shot from eight metres hit the side-netting.
France substitute Bradley Barcola then failed to make contact with the ball when he simply had to steer it into the net from close range — a missed opportunity that summed up the visitors’ lacklustre evening.
“We were compact and disciplined,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said. “We missed the penalty, but we didn’t stop, we stayed strong. We had a lot of good situations.
“A great victory, but in three days we will have a new match.”
