Croatia and France went to a 1-1 draw on Matchday 2 of Group A1 of the Nations League football on Monday in Split. Adrien Rabiot (52nd) gave the advantage to the French, Andrej Kramaric (83rd from the penalty spot) saved the Croats.
Croatia took advantage of the lack of automation in the largely reworked French defense to create two big chances at the start of the game. In the 14th minute, William Saliba made an excellent defensive intervention to prevent Ante Budimir from shooting. Four minutes later, the same Budimir delayed too much and was countered by Presnel Kimpembe then by Mike Maignan.
France thought to open the scoring via Christopher Nkunku, but the referee canceled the goal for offside (31st)
France took the advantage at the start of the second half thanks to Adrien Rabiot, perfectly launched by Wissam Ben Yedder (52nd).
Barely entering the game, before even touching his first ball, Jonathan Clauss committed a foul on Andrej Kramaric, on the ground for ten minutes, in the rectangle, whistled after the intervention of the VAR. Kramaric did himself justice and equalized (83rd).
Kramaric then forced Maignan to relax (87th). In the process, Antoine Griezmann, dribbled past goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic but, shifted to the left, failed to straighten his shot, which went wide (88th). Croatia inherited the last opportunity of the match by Luka Susic, who failed to frame in a good position (90 + 3).
Both beaten at the opening, respectively by Denmark (1-2) and Austria (0-3), France and Croatia take their first point in this competition.
The group’s other match, Austria v Denmark, started an hour and a half late due to a power outage at the Vienna stadium.
