Spain wins 2023 UEFA Nations League
Spain won the 2023 UEFA Nations League Final on Sunday, outlasting Croatia in penalty kicks Sunday.
This is Spain’s first Nations League victory and their first piece of hardware in over a decade. Their last trophy came during the 2012 European Championship. The Spanish did reach the final of the Nations League two years ago but fell short to France.
Spain reached the final after Joselu’s 88th-minute goal gave La Furia Roja a narrow 2-1 victory over Italy in the semifinals. Croatia required extra time to defeat the Netherlands 4-2 in the other semifinal.
After two explosive semifinals, it was expected that the final would have the same goal-scoring energy. However, this proved to not be the case as both teams failed to find the net.
Brilliant defensive tackles and poor finishing helped keep the scoreline level. The best chance of the game came in the 84th minute when Ansu Fati had a chance to win the game with a close-range shot. Although his effort beat Croatian keeper Dominik Livaković, he was denied on the line by Ivan Perišić, whose crucial block denied Fati the winner.
Extra time proved to be more of the same between the two sides. Spain had the better of the opportunities, seeing multiple chances from Dani Olmo and a chance from Rodri narrowly missing the goal.
With the score still tied 0-0, penalties were required to separate the two. After both teams made the first three penalties, it was Lovro Majer who made the first mistake. The Croatian attacking midfielder saw his kick denied by Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simón, giving Spain the advantage.
Spain then had an opportunity to win the Nations League with their fifth penalty kick. However, Aymeric Laporte smashed his penalty off of the crossbar, keeping Croatia alive and sending the game into sudden-death kicks.
Although they had a second chance, Croatia could not capitalize, with Bruno Petković seeing his penalty kick denied by Simón. This proved to be decisive, as Dani Carvajal stepped up and scored a panenka penalty to win it for Spain.
While this result brought elation to Spain, it brought devastation to Croatia. The small European nation has performed well recently in international competitions, also reaching the World Cup Final in 2018 and the World Cup semifinals in 2022. However, they have yet to win a trophy, and it seems like Luka Modrić is never going to be able to get his national team over the final hurdle.
Elsewhere, Italy beat the Netherlands 3-2 in the Nations League third-place game after goals from Federico Dimarco, Davide Frattesi and Federico Chiesa.
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