Paris, June 17 (IANS) Czech Republic kept their European Championship last 16 hopes alive with a hard fought 2-2 draw against Croatia here on Friday.
Ivan Perisic opened the scoring for Croatia before half-time which was followed by a fine finish by Ivan Rakitic to make it 2-0 in their favour and Milan Skoda's late header appeared a mere consolation for Czech.
But in a match that was interrupted for several minutes when flares were thrown by Croatia fans, Tomas Necid scored via a late penalty to ensure Czech Republic came level on terms and shared points to keep their last 16 hopes alive
The match was entirely dominated by Croatia both at the front and at the back but two errors in the end of the play helped Czech come back into the match.A
The Czech team looked dead and buried after Perisic and Rakitic struck to give the team 2-0 lead, but they took full advantage of time added on after crowd disturbances to net a dramatic late penalty to make it 2-2.
--IANS
ac/rn
