Croatia coach: 'Argentina's first goal was a bit suspicious'

In the semi-final win over Croatia 3-0 on the evening of December 13, Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 34th minute for Argentina. Earlier, the referee blew a penalty for Croatia after a collision between goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic and Julian Alvarez. Livakovic is also shown a yellow card.

"We had good control for 30 minutes and to be honest, Argentina's first goal was a bit questionable. My players said that in the previous situation, Croatia should have awarded a corner." , Mr. Dalic said after the game at Lusail Stadium.

Argentina doubled the lead just five minutes after the opening goal. This time, Alvarez broke through from the middle of the field, then easily scored when facing Livakovic.

In the 69th minute, Alvarez continued to shine with the goal to set the score 3-0. After Messi's pass, the young star of Man City club shot diagonally into the goal.

According to Dalic, Croatia could have done more than Argentina. However, coming upstream after losing two goals in the first half is an almost impossible task. He said: "The first two goals came too easily. When Argentina scored the second, it was over."

Dalic also thinks that Croatia can hold its head high, despite losing heavily. "We are proud of what we have achieved and now we have to fight for third place," emphasized the Croatia coach.

Dalic's contract is valid until 2024. He said he will continue to lead Croatia in the Nations League finals 2022-2023 and Euro 2024. The Nations League final will take place in June 2023, in the Netherlands, with four participating teams including Croatia, Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

If participating in Euro 2024, Croatia captain Luka Modric will be 39 years old, while some other players are 33 years old, including Vida, Perisic and Lovren. "Perhaps this is the end of the World Cup for this generation. We have a great team and they will end their careers at Euro 2024," Dalic forecast.

Under Dalic's guidance since 2017, Croatia has reached the final of the 2018 World Cup, the 1/8 round of Euro 2021, the Nations League final round of 2022-2023 and the semi-finals of the World Cup 2022. He is the most successful coach in football history. Croatian stone.