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The World Cup 2018 runners up Croatia certainly saw the wrath of the mighty La Roja when the two sides met yesterday in their UEFA Nation's League fixture. The Spanish team scored 6 past the Croatian side to claim the top spot in their Nation's League group, after having beaten England last week.
This defeat was Croatia's worst defeat in their International history, and came as a shock to the footballing world, just after their recent brilliant performance at the World Cup. Lets look at some of the talking points and highlights from the game.
#1 Six Goals, six different scorers
The six zero scoreline at the full time whistle revealed a very rare statistic, and clearly showed the attacking prowess of Spain - all the six goals were scored by different players, including an own goal from the Croatian goalkeeper, Kalinic.
Atletico Madrid's Saul Niguez put the hosts in front in the 24th minute which was followed by two quick goals, both scored by Marco Asensio, but one of them was later ruled as an own goal from the Croatian keeper. The next three goals were buried in the net by Rodrigo, Sergio Ramos and Isco in the second half.
#2 Marco Asensio was on fire - 3 assists and 1 goal
The Madrid starlet who is deemed to be the successor to Cristiano Ronaldo was totally on fire last night. The 22 year old created 3 goals for his fellow team-mates and scored one goal. He was also involved directly in the shot at the Croatian goal which resulted in an own goal by the Croatian goalkeeper.
At the tender age of 22, Asensio's future at Real Madrid and with the national team seems extremely bright. If he keeps his head straight, he could surely become one of the best players in the world.
#3 Croatian retirements and absentees post World Cup
There were significant absentees for Croatia last evening in Elche, due to some of their important players retiring post a successful World Cup campaign. Daniel Subasic who played for Croatia for 10 long years, was missed as his counterpart Kalinic succumbed to heavy attacks by the Spaniards.
Mario Mandzukic's absence was felt too as Croatia's attack was non-existent throughout the game, and Dejan Lovren who was not part of the squad was heavily missed as well, especially due to the fact that his fellow central defender Vida failed to create a strong defensive partnership with new first team introduction, Pivaric.
#4 Real Madrid players everywhere!!
Thanks to Barcelona's Spanish dominance in the past decade, Spain's national squad too was always dominated by Barcelona players, but a new era that has just begun saw the Real Madrid players dominate the squad.
Out of the squad of 11, 6 players were Real Madrid players, and the sole player from Barcelona was Sergio Busquets. This paradigm shift in the club dominance comes in the aftermath of retirements of Barcelona's major national team players, which include the likes of Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique.
Another interesting piece of trivia is that two of Croatia's players were also Real Madrid players (Modric and Kovacic), and that takes the total count of on-field Madrid players to 8.
#5 Helpless Modric and Rakitic
A strong performance by Spain in the heart of the midfield saw two of the World Cup's biggest midfield stars left in shambles. Ivan Rakitic who won his 100th cap for Croatia last night started the game well when he almost scored from outside the box, just for the shot to drift inches wide of the right post guarded by De Gea. But apart from that effort, Rakitic was merely chasing the ball off Real Madrid's Isco and Sergio Busquets.
Same was the case for Luka Modric, who was recently crowned Europe's best player for 2017-18. Modric couldn't dictate the pace and tempo of the game like he usually does for Madrid and Croatia, as Croatia didn't see much of the ball in their possession.
Conclusion
To summarise, it was a night to forget for the World Cup heroes, and Manager Dalic needs to find ideal replacements for the retired players if Croatia are to even think about repeating the World Cup feat. For Spain, it all looks good under former Barcelona coach Luis Enrique, who has been given the charge of revamping the side's fortunes, and he is rightly doing so.
