Croatia hold France to surprise 2-2 draw

Croatia 2 (Rapaic 48 pen; Prso 52)
France 2 (Tudor 22og; Trezeguet 64)

Croatia held champions France to a 2-2 draw in a explosive Euro 2004 match last night, the latest tournament surprise that leaves Group B wide open.

An own goal by Igor Tudor midway through the first half seemed to have France on course for the quarter-finals but two goals in four minutes early in the second, a Milan Rapaic penalty and a shot by Dado Prso, suddenly turned things round.

David Trezeguet rescued the holders in the 64th minute to set up a tense final round of fixtures on Monday.

France lead the way with four points. England, who beat Switzerland 3-0 earlier yesterday have three, Croatia have two and the Swiss one.

France play Switzerland in the final round, needing just a draw to advance. England play Croatia, also needing a point, but Croatia and Switzerland could still qualify with wins.

France started confidently, knocking the ball about crisply, but never really threatened in the opening 20 minutes.

The breakthrough came out of the blue when Zinedine Zidane curled a free-kick from wide on the left that took a slight deflection off defender Tudor and left goalkeeper Tomislav Butina wrong-footed.

The game then went into a lull with neither side showing any particular urgency until an outrageous backheeled flick by Zidane set up William Gallas for a header, which the defender sent wide.

Croatia coach Otto Baric said in the build-up to the game that he would be delighted with a draw and his side were on level terms three minutes into the second half after Mikael Silvestre bundled over Dovani Rossi in the box.

French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez had saved David Beckham's penalty for England on Sunday but had no chance with Rapaic's blasted effort.

The massed hordes of Croatian fans erupted to acclaim their first goal of the tournament and four minutes later they took the roof off to celebrate the second.

Prso thought he had lost possession after hooking the ball over the head of Silvestre but a miscued clearance by recalled captain Marcel Desailly returned it to him and he took full advantage by lashing the ball past Barthez.

France were stunned but quickly collected themselves and drew level with a hotly-disputed goal in the 64th minute.

Trezeguet charged down a Butina clearance, the ball hitting his arm, before slotting into the empty net from a tight angle.

The Croatian players complained bitterly to Danish referee Kim Milton Nielsen but the goal stood.

France then went for the win, sending on Robert Pires for Sylvain Wiltord but they could not manage it.

Ivica Mornar could have won it for Croatia in injury-time when he swivelled inside the box but flashed his shot over and their last chance of victory was gone.

Aftermatch comments...

Coach Jacques Santini says France must stop giving away goals if they are to go far at Euro 2004.

"We must now have a good result against the Swiss," Santini said after France gave away two goals in four second-half minutes before coming back to draw against Croatia.

"We have seen that in football things can quickly change. Against England, we scored two quick goals. Today it was the Croats who did it to us. We can't repeat these moments of weakness if we want to go far."

Croatia coach Otto Baric said he believed Euro 2004 referees were looking after the bigger teams.

"My feeling is that the referees in this tournament are protecting the stronger teams a little bit," he said.

Baric and his players said a foul should have given against striker David Trezeguet who handled the ball before the second French goal.

Croatia striker Dado Prso said: "I don't think the referee was very kind to us over their second goal and half of the bookings in the Switzerland game were unfair."

Croatia: Butina; Simic, R. Kovac, Simunic, Bjelica (Leko 68); Rosso, Tudor, N. Kovac, Rapaic (Mornar 87); Prso, Sokota (Olic 73).

France: Barthez; Gallas (Sagnol 81), Thuram, Desailly, Silvestre; Vieira, Dacourt (Pedretti 79), Wiltord (Pires 70), Zidane; Henry, Trezeguet.

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark).

HT: 0-1.

Attendance: 30,000.