Historic defeat for vice world champion Croatia

Vice world champion Croatia has abruptly arrived in the gray reality of football in the Nations League due to a historic defeat. Two months after the World Cup final, the Balkan team around superstar Luka Modric suffered the worst defeat in their international history in their opening game of Group A4 against former world champions Spain with 0:6 (0:3).

Spain, on the other hand, celebrated their second victory in the second game under their new coach Luis Enrique after their 2-1 opening win last weekend against fourth-placed England in the World Cup and are already very close to the final tournament in summer 2019.

In the middle of the first half, Saul Niguez (24th), Marco Asensio (33rd) and an own goal from the guests by Lovre Kalinic (35th) made things clear. After the break, Rodrigo (50th), Sergio Ramos (57th) and Isco (70th) sealed the Croatians' unexpected debacle.

Never before had Croatia lost an international match by just five goals. The previous heaviest defeat since Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia was a 2009-1 defeat in England in 5.

Iceland also stumbles over Belgium Iceland's national soccer team apparently still has to recover from its World Cup preliminary round exit in Russia. The 2016 European Championship surprise team suffered its second defeat in its second Nations League game in Group A2 after last weekend's 0-6 debacle in Switzerland against World Cup third-placed Belgium with 0-3 (0-2). has lost its terror for the time being. Belgium, on the other hand, celebrated an optimal debut in the new competition.

In Reykjavik, a double strike from England legionnaires Eden Hazard (29th) and Romelu Lukaku (31st) set the course for the “Red Devils” to win before the break. Nine minutes before the final whistle, Man United star Lukaku once again finally dashed the hosts' hopes of winning at least one more point. Greece loses to Hungary The Greeks with national coach Michael Skibbe suffered a 1:2 (1:2) in the second game of the Nations League C in Hungary and thus their first defeat. Freiburg's new signing Roland Sallai gave the hosts the lead in the 15th minute, Konstantinos Manolas equalized for the Greeks (18th). But before the half-time whistle, the Hungarians were back in front in Budapest thanks to Laszlo Kleinheisler (43'). Greece won the first game 1-0 in Estonia. Austria starts with defeat In the second-tier B league, the Austrians trained by Franco Foda lost 0-1 (0-0) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The goal in Zenica was scored by Edin Dzeko (78th), who plays for Roma. The hosts had already won their opening match in Northern Ireland 2-1.

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Historic defeat for vice world champion Croatia

This was not how the Croatians had imagined their first competitive game after the World Cup. The runner-up world champion went down 0-6 in Spain. Iceland could not reconcile its fans, and Austria also left the field as losers.

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