Croatia cruise on after late winner
Ivan PerIsIc ended Iceland’s World cup dream with a 90th-minute winner as croatia racked up a third successive victory in Group D.
The island nation’s hopes of an improbable place in the knockout stages were raised when Gylfi sigurdsson exorcised the demons of his penalty miss against nigeria last time out with a spot-kick equaliser with 15 minutes to go.
But Perisic fired home right at the death — after Milan Badelj’s second-half opener — to make it 2-1 and kill off any chance of Iceland progressing.
croatia were below their best but a clean sweep in Group D sees them cruise through into the last 16, where they will play Denmark on sunday night. Badelj hit the crossbar with a long-range strike early in the second half, but made no mistake moments later when the ball was cut back to him near the penalty spot.
Iceland continued to push forward and their pressure told in the 75th minute when Dejan Lovren handled sigurdsson’s cross and the everton man drilled home the penalty.
But it was Inter Milan’s Perisic who produced the decisive moment for the croatians.
‘The fact we made nine changes to our team and still won shows our strength,’ said Badelj. ‘We have got to be proud of that.’ repeated since — began with him grabbing a woman to dance with in the executive seats before the game. He seemed to be out of control when Messi’s opening goal went in. At the end of the game, he was seen raising his middle finger in the direction of fans, though this may have been an Argentinian celebratory gesture rather than an insult to supporters.