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ZAGREB, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Tears of Luka Modric and his teammates seen after the final whistle in a match against Portugal which ended Croatian dream of achieving something great at 2016 EURO in France will stick in minds of Croatian supporters for some time.
Goal scored by Ricardo Quaresma in the 117th minute of the match played in Lens raised a question: is there a Portuguese curse that is hanging over the Croatian team?
Croatia has never beaten Portugal and never managed to score against the Portuguese team. Croatia was clearly a more ambitious team in this match that was heading towards penalty shootout before the counter-attack that came after Ivan Perisic hit the post and Ivan Strinic lost the ball on the left side leaving the field open for young 18-year-old Renato Sanches. The new Bayern Munich midfielder delivered the ball to his experienced teammate Nani and let Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma to finish what he has started.
Sanches was second half substitute that Portuguese coach Fernando Santos brought in to energize his squad that didn't have a lot of ambition to score. They were satisfied with the role of counter-puncher waiting for a mistake from Croatian side that would open enough space for Cristiano Ronaldo to exploit his quickness.
Up until 27th minute of an extra time that moment didn't come. Eventually, Portuguese got the break that they've been waiting for and Renato Sanches is the one that should get the credits for making it happen.
It was the right move from Portuguese coach that came unanswered from the other side. Croatian head coach Ante Cacic didn't think he should be making any substitutes even though it was obvious that some of the players were getting slower and tired. He waited until the last minute of the regulation to give a chance to Fiorentina striker Nikola Kalinic who had a pivotal role in a victory against Spain, scoring an equalizer and setting up position for Ivan Perisic to score a winning goal in that match.
When he was appointed as national manager, Ante Cacic was the target of critics who thought that he is not good enough for the job. However, he proved them wrong as Croatian team played smart and loveable football throughout the group phase and topped the group by beating mighty Spain. He came close to become the first Croatian manager to beat Portugal team. In the end, he wasn't lucky enough to do it his way and he wasn't brave enough to attack Portuguese side when it was clear that Santos' orders were "defend and wait to strike back".
If there is any true in saying that you have to provoke luck to have it then Portuguese coach was the one who was doing that and he ended up as a winner. The Croatian coach was watching on the sideline of the pitch and did little to change the outcome of the match that would change his life.
Cacic and his coaching abilities at this level will be questioned in the coming days because there was a general feeling that this generation of players has everything to fight for the trophy.
Croatian football fans wanted to share tears of joy with their idols. After Saturday, June 25, the day when Croatia celebrated its 25th anniversary of becoming an independent country, all they could do was cry out all the pain that they felt seeing Luka Modric and his teammates being robbed of a chance to shine on the big stage.
Portuguese curse is still on and Croatia is out of the tournament. Once again, the first hurdle in the knockout stage was too high and made them tumble in pain.
