Croatia 2-1 Scotland: Kramaric rounds off comeback as visitors denied by late drama

Andrej Kramaric’s 70th-minute header was enough for Croatia to clinch a 2-1 victory over Scotland, with the visitors denied a last-gasp equaliser.

The forward completed the comeback after Igor Matanovic cancelled out Ryan Christie’s opener, but Kristijan Jakic’s blushes were spared as his last-second own goal was disallowed for an offside against Che Adams.

In a fairly even first half, Christie got the breakthrough, latching onto Luka Sucic’s sliced attempted clearance, and bundling the ball over the line with help from Duje Caleta-Car.

However, just under four minutes later, Croatia were back on level terms as Ivan Perisic cushioned the ball to Matanovic, who drilled his low shot into the bottom-right corner.

The hosts upped the pressure after the break, and Sucic thought he had given them the lead, only to have his goal chalked off for a foul in the build-up.

And they got their reward when Craig Gordon pushed away Borna Sosa’s volley, with Kramaric on hand to nod it in from close range when it looped into the air.

Adams had already sent a looping effort wide of the far post in his search for an equaliser and thought he had finally got it after pressuring Jakic into poking it over the line. However, he had done so from an offside position so VAR ruled it out, and Scotland were denied a first point this Nations League campaign.

FULL TIME: Croatia 2-1 Scotland.

The hosts take the points after coming back from a goal behind in Zagreb.#CROSCO pic.twitter.com/67TR0US419

— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) October 12, 2024

Data Debrief: Scotland suffer more late heartbreak

Late drama seems to follow Scotland everywhere in this competition at the moment – they lost their first two games in the competition due to late goals despite putting up a fight.

As such, Scotland extended their longest winless run in competitive matches in their history (P9 D3 L6), while they have now lost four consecutive games for the first time in five years, last doing so in October 2019.

The match-winner, Kramaric, scored his 30th goal for Croatia on his 99th appearance, with more than half of these (16) coming since he turned 30, while he has scored twice as many goals (eight) than any other Croatian player since the start of 2023.