Dave’s Dribble: Super Subasic saves it for Croatia

Two goals in three minutes and none further in the next 120 minutes set the scene for another exciting penalty shootout as Denmark and Croatia locked horns for the late show on Sunday.

It was way past midnight in the host country as the keepers prepared to face their barrage of five shots…but only after Kasper Schmeichel had saved one from Luka Modric seven minutes before the end of extra time.

Forget what went before; it was the goalkeepers who were ‘spot’ on – especially Danijel Subasic, who saved three of the five taken by Denmark.

Let’s admit, though, some of them were pretty tame efforts. Tired legs maybe.

Schmeichel also took his tally of penalty saves to three on the night, but only two in the final shootout.

Well done Croatia, who go through, but bad luck to the Danes who had given as good as they got during the match.

Croatia and Denmark served up more excitement in three minutes than Spain and Russia did in 120 minutes.

All it took was 58 seconds for the Danes to be in the score book via a prodigious long throw-in from Jonas Knudsen.

The Ipswich man, whose long-as-a-corner flings would feature throughout the match, hurled one in that bounced around the box where Nicolai Jorgensen stabbed it into and past Croatian keeper Subasic (1-0).

There was an almost identical scenario at the other end from the restart, as the ball bobbled in the Danes’ goal area and Mario Mandzukic beat Kasper Schmeichel on his right (1-1).

There were many if’s and’s and but’s in an open and direct game – so different to the previous match.

Croatia were looking good with Luka Modric of Real Madrid pulling the strings while Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen was conducting the Danish orchestra.

Evenly matched and with similar styles of play, the teams nullified each other.

To be honest, neither side showed any real dynamism up front and goals were more likely to come from defensive errors than brilliant attacks.

Croatia should have sewn it up in extra time when Jurgensen pulled down Ante Rebic who had already rounded Schmeichel.

The hero turned villain was lucky to escape with a yellow and was saved from a shooting squad when his keeper saved the spot kick.

In summary, both stoppers were brilliant in the sudden death lottery, but full marks to Croatia’s hero of the hour Danijel Subasic, the toast of his nation.

However, it would be hard to see Croatia going any further in the competition based on this match.