EURO CUP: England takes revenge of 2018 WC semis loss to Croatia

In the mega Sunday clash, England started their Euro 2020 campaign on a positive note with win. Raheem Sterling scored the lone goal of the match to seal 1-0 win over Croatia in Group D. And with this win England took revenge of 2018 World Cup loss against Croatia.  Luka Modric led Croatia team had beaten them in the semi final.  

England’s manager Gareth Southgate gambled to choose Sterling over Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford. Sterling was off colour and faced very tough time last season including UEFA Champions League final. This time he clasped the opportunity with both hands and his sparkling game with pace created lot of problems for the Croatian  defence.

Although Croatia were very gutsy in the defence  and  foiled the English attackers attempt at their goal post in the first of the match but in the second half they could not succeed to stop Sterling from scoring decider lone goal of the match. Croatian attackers paced their game for equaliser but they missed to converting the chances. 

During this mega clash, Jude Bellingham became the youngest player ever to feature in an European Championship match. Bellingham came on in the second half replacing England skipper Harry Kane. He achieved this feat at 17 years and 349 days. Earlier the record was held by Enzo Scifo, who held it since 1984. 

The football lovers  also witnessed a thrilling match of Group C  where Netherlands beat  Ukraine 3-2 in a razor sharp finish. After a quiet first-half, as many as five goals were scored in the second. Netherlands skipper Gini Wijnaldum broke the deadlock and shot first goal for his team while Wout Weghorst scored the second goal. Then Ukraine’s Andriy Yarmolenko and Yaremchuk scored the next two goal for their side. Finally Denzel Dumfries scored the fifth and the winning goal to seal it for the Oranje.

 In another Group C clash, Austria scored 3-1 win over North Macedonia.