This was a scoreline from another age and a match for the ages, a wild, thunderous and implausible afternoon that went from the ridiculous to the sublime and back again. It left the people up here as exhausted as the players were down there, struggling to remember everything that had happened but certain that they would never forget the way it made them feel. The kind of match that left many questions, including: how do you explain it? Where do you even start with this?
With the score: 5-3? With the 35 shots? With the fact that Spain won, securing a place in the quarter-final? Or the fact that they had to win twice? With Croatia’s implausible revival? With the noise, the occasion, the nerves? With the quality, and there was plenty of that? With the heart, of which there was even more? With the silliness, because there was some of that too? How about with the goal that ultimately brought this to an end perhaps, finally carrying Spain through a storm?
Written by Sid Lowe at Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jun/28/croatia-spain-euro-2020-last-16-match-report under the title “Spain’s Álvaro Morata finds something extra to beat Croatia in thriller”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
