POR: Luis Figo (4), Joao Pinto (32), Domingos Oliveira (82).

CRO: -.

POR: BAIA; Secretario, Couto, Helder, Dimas, Oceano; Rui Costa (Barbosa, 79), Sousa (Tavares, 77), Figo; Sa Pinto (Domingos, 46), Joao Pinto.

CRO: Mrmic; Jarni, Bilic, Soldo, Pavlicic; Prosinecki (Asanovic, 46), Simic, Mladenovic (Boban, 46), Pamic (Suker, 46); Vlaovic, Jurcevic.

REFEREE: Bernd Heinemann (Germany).

AUDIENCE: 50.000, City Ground, Nottingham.

YELLOW CARDS: NONE (Portugal); Pamic, Jarni, Pavlicic (Croatia).

RED CARDS: NONE.

Strange but true, a lot of games in this tournament are ruined by the coaches. Oleg Romantsev and Arrigo Sacchi are the fresh examples, and so was Aimes Jacquet, in a game between France and Spain. Yesterday, the Croatian coach Miroslav Blazevic joined the list, playing in the 1st half with 7 (!) players of his reserve, and so causing his team to lose 0:3; now the Balkan soccer power needs to face now Germany in the quarterfinals.

Interesting that even so, Croatia had a lot of opportunities and possessed the ball most of the time; a wonderful skill of Baia and the misses of Vlaovic, Asanovic and Jarni left Croatia without a goal scored. On the other hand, Portugal had just 5 opportunities all over the game, scoring 3 times and catching the first place in Group D.

The very first attack of Portugal resulted in a goal. A double pass between Sa Pinto and Secretario enabled the latter to make a goal pass to the box; Figo stood there uncovered, stopping the ball on his chest and rolling it past Mrmic, 1:0.

Croatia started to attack. Baia took the header of Vlaovic (14) and reached the ball before Jurcevic (26); also, a hand had been used in the Portuguese box (25), with no referee's reaction. In between, Jarni penetrated at the left wing (21), bounced the ball into the box, and Vlaovic volleyed it home; however, Baia dived to his left and parried the ball greatly. Baia also parried a dangerous shot of Jurcevic (40), and the shot of Vlaovic (42) touched the net from its external side.

Croatia was better, but conceded on the very next counterattack of Portugal. A corner of Figo met the head of Fernando Couto in the box. Sa Pinto tried the scissors kick and failed to perform it well; however, the ball went to Joao Pinto who was left 5 meters from the net in front of the keeper and didn't waste his chance. 2:0 to Portugal, the score before the break.

Playing with Asanovic, Boban and Suker in the 2nd half, Croatia started to look more solid. Boban (49) headed it high after a preparation of Soldo (BTW, if Maccabee Haifa buys Soldo, it is a very good deal), and Jurcevic missed the frame (50). On the other hand, two headers of Domingos (53, 56) went high, and Helder missed the frame from 30 meters (70). Boban missed the frame (78), and so did Vlaovic (81); the fantastic shot of Asanovic (77) was parried greatly by a diving Baia to a corner. And here the 3rd goal came, all of a sudden. Pavlicic tried to clear the ball away, but it hit the back of Bilic and went to Domingos. The forward rushed forward and shot after a penetration from 14 meters diagonally, to the left post of Mrmic and in. 3:0 to Portugal, with 8 minutes still to go.

The three last attacks were those of the Croatians. Asanovic missed a rare chance to score at one-to-one with Baia (84), when he missed the frame. Suker tried to bounce it over Baia after a wonderful personal effort (87), too high. The last opportunity was of Jarni, who shot a wonderful ball after a double pass with Vlaovic (90); it passed centimeters above the bar.

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