Mattia Zaccagni on Monday kept Italy’s Euros title defense alive with an incredible late equalizer in the holder’s thrilling 1-1 draw with Croatia, as Spain completed a perfect group stage and showed Albania the door.
Italy are in the round-of-16 of Euro 2024 after forward Zaccagni struck a superb equalizer with almost the last kick of the game in Leipzig, sparking an explosion of joy among the Italian fans and even a sprint up the line from 65-year-old coach Luciano Spalletti.
The Azzurri are to play Switzerland in the next round thanks to Zaccagni, who came on with nine minutes remaining and curled in his leveler in the eighth minute of stoppage-time following a brilliant burst and pass from defender Riccardo Calafiori.
Photo: Reuters
“Nobody believed any more, but the players did,” Spalletti told Sky Sport, before raging at his critics in the Italian media.
At a furious news conference, Spalletti said “I inject myself with this venom,” which he said was coming “from all sides,” and blasted unnamed people within Italy’s camp for potentially leaking his team’s formation to the media.
Spalletti’s team finish Group B in second place on four points, five behind winners Spain, who beat Albania 1-0 thanks to a neat Ferran Torres finish in the 13th minute in Duesseldorf.
Albania’s Euros adventure is over following a defeat which also means that England, France and the Netherlands are guaranteed a place in the next round at least as one of the four best third-placed teams.
Croatia are all but out due to Zaccagni’s late equalizer just as it looked as if Luka Modric was once again going to be the hero for his nation.
Modric defied his advancing years by firing Croatia into the lead nine minutes after halftime, becoming the oldest goalscorer in Euros history.
At 38 years and 289 days, Modric broke the record set by Austria’s Ivica Vastic in 2008, pouncing on a rebound after Gianluigi Donnarumma made an incredible save from Ante Budimir’s point-blank header.
Modric made up for Donnarumma pushing away his penalty just moments before, but his goal was not enough and on two points third-placed Croatia’s hopes are hanging by a thread.
“It’s hard when you lose like this to find the words to describe how you feel,” Modric said.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS