THE SPORTS GROUND: DAVID MATAJA FOR CROATIA’S THIRD CONSECUTIVE QUALIFICATION WIN

GREECE – CROATIA 0:1 (0:1)
Greece: Aronis, Ntarlas, Tankas, Papakostas, Tzakidis; Charalampopoulos, Avlonitis, Ensi, Karydas, Adamopoulos, Ntatis, Tsinas, Manos, Panou. Coach: I. Ziavas.
Croatia: Piplica, Čekol, Jelovčić, Gudasić, Mataja; Čizmić, Jurić, Kustura, Moravac, Vukmir, Jurlina, Postružin, Kuraja, Pasariček. Coach: M. Mavrović.

The Croatian futsal team also celebrated in the third qualifying match for going to the European Championship, in Athens against Greece.

After the home win over Azerbaijan and the away win against Sweden, Marinko Mavrović’s team returned from the Greek capital of Athens with three points in their pocket.

The goal worth the victory, for the final 1:0, was scored by Mataj in the ninth minute of the match.

Croatia will welcome Sweden in the fourth qualifying match for the European tournament on Tuesday, March 11, in Slavonski Brod.

We deservedly won the three points, but we struggled a lot. We knew we were going to play against a demanding opponent, we had a problem breaking the zone, and two disallowed goals affected the result. In the end, it was important to win, it is minimal, but it should not be overlooked. We turn to Sweden, we can’t wait to get to Slavonski Brod, because of the parquet and the balls. Because… Kudos to the Greeks, but those were not the conditions for playing an international match. We have all three victories at the opening of the qualification cycle, we want to continue that against Sweden, to achieve all the victories until the end – Marinko Mavrović, Croatia head coach

We expected a tough match, they won four points in two away games, so we knew that it would not be an easy job in Athens. The Greeks were good, they played solid defense, we trotted a bit in the defensive phase, but, despite that, we had a lot of chances. Unfortunately, we didn’t use them, so the match was tense until the end. However, I think we won deservedly. Now we have a match with Sweden waiting for us, I invite all our fans to come to Slavonski Brod to cheer us on, it is a match in which we can secure a place at the Euros, so I believe that the hall will be filled to capacity – David Mataja, Croatia palyer

SOURCE: Croatian Football Federation