This match pitted two of international football’s most gifted, technique-based midfields against each other.
In the red and white corner, experience, nous, age and wisdom; Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic, combined caps 375 (which feels like some sort of world record).
In the red and yellow corner, beauty, tenacity, technique and potential; Rodri, Pedri, Fabian Ruiz, combined age 76, combined caps 99.
This was a battle, but not one that involved violence or conflict; this was two cultured artists competing to paint the finer picture.
Spain created a masterpiece in Saturday’s 3-0 win. Croatia made something your kid did at school that you would be embarrassed to put on the fridge.
Croatia, not just in midfield but across the squad in Ivan Perisic (aged 35) and Andrej Kramaric (turning 33 on Wednesday), have heroes of previous international tournaments whose shadow grows longer as the sun sets on their distinguished careers.
Spain are refreshed and sprightly. When Modric, 38, is eligible for free prescriptions, eye tests and a bus pass, Lamine Yamal will probably still be playing professional football.
Beginning Group B with this contrast was intriguing, but not just in youth versus experience. Two years ago, this would have been the epitome of possession football on the floor, goals by a thousand passes.
Spain are a different beast these days, though. They are direct, vertical and quick. Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic knew this, he warned of it before the match, but his players could not stop it.
For the first time in a competitive match for 16 years — specifically the Euro 2008 final against Germany, when Gordon Brown was UK prime minister and the credit crunch sounded more like a badly named chocolate bar — Spain had less possession than their opponents.
That was a run of 136 competitive games and it was finally beaten by the wily midfield maestros of Croatia. Or, more to the point, Spain willingly gave up that record; they deliberately ceded possession for their newfangled hybrid approach, with lots of pretty passing combined with vertical, direct movements and balls.
They also pressed Croatia. Not relentlessly, but at crucial moments and in important areas of the pitch, specifically in stopping Brozovic from playing the ball out in his own third of the field.
Pedri will be able to describe Brozovic’s aftershave in detailed, eloquent terms after shadowing him closely. Croatian defenders and ‘keeper Dominik Livakovic looked for Brozovic time and again, but either found him unavailable or gave him the ball and saw him be swarmed upon, not just by Pedri but also Rodri, even left-back Marc Cucurella.
Fabian Ruiz helped Spain ease to victory over Croatia (Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
Modric, positioned to Brozovic’s right, was the presser, the harrier, the playmaker and the inspiration, with Kovacic at the tip of the triangle supporting central striker, Osasuna’s Ante Budimir.
Manager Dalic hailed his midfield as the best in the world in Qatar. Team-mate Josip Juranovic said during the same tournament that passing to one of them made the ball safer than the money in your bank.
Juranovic presumably hasn’t encountered identity theft or bank fraud, but you get the point.
And yes, there were moments here when the trio could still justify the lofty praise Dalic did and continues to heap upon them.
Their technical ability and spatial awareness are of the very highest level. When they get into a rhythm, they sash and sway in perfect tandem like Cirque du Soleil trapeze artists.
The problem here was that Spain, via Pedri’s pressing but backed up by the omnipresent Rodri and man-of-the-match Fabian, denied Croatia the space to thrive. With an impotent front three and ineffective full-backs (other than a Josko Gvardiol cross that really should be converted by Budimir), there was nobody to take up the mantle with Modric and Kovacic stifled.
Budimir missed another chance with a header, Josip Stanisic had to score but didn’t and then Bruno Petkovic couldn’t convert a penalty. There should have been three goals there. At the other end a lapse of concentration from Ajax centre-back Josip Sutalo allowed Alvaro Morata through on goal and he was ruthless in a manner Croatia were not.
For the third goal, four defenders stood and watched Dani Carvajal convert Yamal’s cross. It was a really poor showing in both boxes and evidence that Croatia’s midfield trio can carry this team no longer. They need more from their team mates.
Perisic, who hasn’t completed 90 minutes since September after an anterior cruciate ligament injury, was sent on to spark a revival but he looked incapable, too, albeit when the match was drifting to its end.
Not that the midfield trio were blameless, far from it. For the crucial second goal, Fabian drifted past a creaking Modric and then sidestepped Brozovic before firing into the corner. Croatia had looked nicely set defensively but neither player could stop Fabian.
It was symbolic, for sure, of a team nearing its end, as was Modric and Kovacic both being substituted after 65 minutes. Their replacements, Mario Pasalic of Atalanta and 22-year-old Luka Susic of Red Bull Salzburg added a bit of much-needed bite to proceedings. Then Brozovic took a leaf from Spain’s book by going vertical and engineering a great chance, also spurned. Sadly, the man many consider Modric’s heir, 21-year-old Dinamo Zagreb midfielder Martin Baturina, stayed on the bench, but the game was long gone.
Is this the end of the road for a team that reached the semis in the 2022 World Cup? That will be something that many of the sizeable number of Croatian fans in Berlin were no doubt pondering amid their thousand-yard stares as they stood motionless for quite some time after the full-time whistle.
It is not over yet — if Croatia beat Albania on Wednesday they stand a decent chance of reaching the last 16 and we know how Dalic’s team, more than most, can grind their way through a tournament.
There is life in the old Croatia dog yet but on this evidence, the trio of midfielders with almost 400 caps between them can’t carry this team. So where does the inspiration come from, if at all? We’ll find out on Wednesday.
(Top photo: Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
