UEFA Nations League: England, Croatia play out dull draw behind closed doors

Croatia and England played out a dull goalless draw in Rijeka behind closed doors on Friday with youngster Marcus Rashford missing a couple of chances as they failed to exact revenge for their semi-final defeat in the World Cup in Russia.

The Manchester United striker failed to score despite having just the goalkeeper to beat. Even Harry Kane and Eric Dier’s shot hit the woodwork and in the end, it turned out to be so different a contest than what it was in Russia a few months ago. The main thing that the match lacked was the fans as Croatia were under a sanction by the UEFA according to which they had to play two matches behind closed doors after a swastika symbol was seen on the pitch during a match against Italy in the Euro 2016 qualifier three years ago.

Still, there were about a handful of England fans who watched the match from a hill adjacent to the stadium.

England manager Gareth Southgate decided to field a side with a good amount of inexperienced players. As many as six players in the squad were uncapped.

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Leicester Ben Chilwell, in his first start, almost scored the first goal of the match with a low cross that defender Josip Pivaric cleared to prevent any damage whatsoever.
For Croatia, the best chance was with Andrej Kramaric who, after received a good ball from Ivan Perisic, shot from a very close range with keeper Jordan Pickford up to the task. The World Cup semi-finalists lacked that edge in their attack and they dearly missed the services of Mario Mandzukic, who had scored in that semi-final a few months ago.

Before the break, it was Dier whose header hit the post and after the interval, it was Harry Kane whose looping header saw a similar result.

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Ross Barkley, who played for Chelsea in their Premier League match last week didn’t quite produce an impact. But what England would rue is the two good chances that Rashford squandered just before 60 minutes. A counter-attack saw Croatia saw Kramaric’s wide shot made full use of by Ante Rebic, whose curling shot went wide. With just 12 minutes left, Southgate’s ploy of introducing Jadon Sancho didn’t turn out to be fruitful as the in-form Borussia Dortmund teenager failed to make any real impact.