On your Marc

> Asensio shines brightest as Spain humiliate Croatia with thumping win

game under Luis Enrique – 2-1 away to England – in their Nations League opener on Saturday and once they scored the floodgates opened and Croatia were left chasing shadows.

“We played a spectacular game and rounded off a brilliant week. We needed to recuperate the feelings we had before, we’ve played two great games,” said goalscorer Asensio.

To reach the Nations League finals next June, Spain need just two points from their remaining two games, at home to England and away to Croatia.

“We’ve played two teams that went very far in the World Cup and these victories are very important to reach the final phase, which is a challenge we have set ourselves,” added Asensio.

A baffled Zlatko Dalic acknowledged his Croatia side were not “a shadow of the team” who reached the World Cup final in July.

“We were very good in the first 20 minutes, we had three clear chances, but after that we vanished from the pitch,” Dalic said.

“We were not even a shadow of the team from before.

“The best thing we can do is congratulate Spain. It’s not easy for us to accept conceding so many goals, but we have to draw some conclusions.

“After their first and second goals went in, we started losing grip and Spain gained momentum, finding it easier to get into our box.

“We didn’t have the solutions. While we played as a team everything worked, but as soon as we stopped playing like that, it was over.

“After their first goal, we weren’t as focused as we were before it. We tried to do things too quickly, we started to abandon our game and you can’t do that against Spain

“I wasn’t able to motivate anyone during halftime,” Dalic added.

“We have to learn from a defeat like this because we’ve seen what happens when we play as a team and what happens when we don’t,” he concluded” – Agencies