Spain pulled off a comfortable and professionally worked performance to kick off their Euro 2024 campaign, with goals from Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz and Daniel Carvajal suitably dispatching Croatia 3-0. After a relatively cagey first half, which saw Spain initially dominate possession and keep Croatia at arms length, it was captain Alvaro Morata who burst in behind the Croatia backline to slide the opener beyond Dominik Livakovic. The goal had come in a period of play wherein Croatia had managed to grow into the game and start to control possession in their own right, but a fine ball from Fabian Ruiz found his captain and soon reversed that on the half-hour mark.
It was Ruiz at his best once again just a few minutes later, receiving the ball on the edge of the area before drifting through three challenges and flashing a beautiful effort into the bottom right corner, to further reinforce Spain's now-strong position in the contest. Dani Carvajal added a rare goal for himself on the brink of halftime, tapping home from a quality in-swinging ball by teenager Lamine Yamal, who became the youngest player in Euros history in this match. Croatia thought they had managed to put a dent in the scoreline with ten minutes left, with substitute Bruno Petkovic winning, missing and scoring the rebound of a penalty, but Ivan Perisic, who had pulled the rebound back across for him, was deemed to have encroached, to spoil Croatia's last gasp in a disappointing opening day.
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