Croatia opened their Euro 2008 account with a predictable but unconvincing 1-0 victory over co-hosts Austria at the Ernst-Happel Stadium in Vienna on Sunday.
There were no surprises in a match between one of the outsiders for a run to the title and a team ranked 92nd in the FIFA world rankings — below even the likes of Guatemala, Libya and Trinidad and Tobago.
Despite the victory, Croatian coach Slaven Bilic revealed his players weren’t too happy after a match that saw them hanging on during the last half hour.
“First of all I’m glad. I’m happy that after so many years we’ve finally won a game at such a great tournament,” said Bilic, who was a player the last time Croatia won a game at the European Championships, back in 1996. The last time they won a game at a big tournament, though, was the 2002 World Cup.
“I’ve got to congratulate the players for playing so well, this will certainly boost our self confidence for the next two games [against Poland and Germany].”
It took only four minutes for Austria to be exposed as the minnows that they are in this competition as Rene Aufhauser clumsily bundled over Ivica Olic in the box.
Defender Emanuel Pogatetz was booked for protesting over-zealously but there was little doubt that referee Pieter Vink from the Netherlands had got it spot on.
So too Luka Modric, who calmly slotted the ball down the middle as goalkeeper Jurgen Macho dived to his right.
Austria coach Josef Hickersberger said things could not have started worse.
“This was the worst possible start we could have had in the opening match of a big tournament,” he said. “After four minutes we conceded a goal and we took time to recover from that.”
Croatia bossed the early stages without looking like adding to their advantage while it took the co-hosts almost half an hour to muster their first effort on target.
Even then, center-back Sebastian Proedl was wayward with a header from captain Andreas Ivanschitz’s free-kick.
Croatia should have doubled their lead on 35 minutes when a deep cross from Vedran Corluka fell to Mladen Petric at the back post, but he lashed a left foot volley way off target when composure, and maybe even a touch to bring the ball under control, was needed.
Austria had a brief period of pressure before the break when Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa palmed away a dangerous cross from Joachim Standfest and then Josip Simunic cut out a center from Martin Marnik.
Pletikosa was then called into action again to punch clear Ivanschitz’s corner before Standfest headed high and wide with a far post header from a deep cross.
Modric got behind the Croatia defence on the hour mark after a mistake from Pogatetz but Martin Stranzl sniffed out the danger and cleared the Spurs man’s cross before Olic could get to it.
Just as had happened in the first half, Austria came more into things later on and the introduction of Umit Korkmaz and Ivica Vastic added a spark to the hosts.
Austria caused a few scares for the Croatians, who actually came closest to scoring when Igor Budan’s flick from a cross was deflected just past the near post.
Moments later another substitute Roman Kienast almost leveled but his flicked header drifted wide.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier