Croatia loses to Scotland in UEFA Nations League

Croatia suffered a 1:0 loss to Scotland on Friday night in Glasgow in the fifth round of play in the UEFA Nations League. 

The loss means Croatia missed out on securing a spot in the quarter-finals. Instead, everything will come down to the final round against Portugal in Split on Monday.

But advancing in the Nations League was not all Croatia had to play for last night. To make matters worse, the first two spots in the group ensure the status of top seeds in the 2026 World Cup qualifications. Croatia was in an excellent position to secure one of those two places on Friday, but failed to do so.

Croatia had a relatively large advantage in the first half and created several good opportunities, while Scotland mainly focused on counter attacks.

Not only did Croatia fail to take advantage of any of their opportunities; at the end of the first half, 21 year-old Petar Sučić was sent off for his second yellow. This put Croatia down to 10 men for the entire second half.

Croatia's best chance of the game came in the 74th minute when team captain Luka Modrić intercepted the ball in the midfield and pressed through the center, laying off a brilliant ball to Mario Pašalić who was one-on-one with the keeper but shot wide.

A strike in the 86th minute by John McGinn, gave Scotland the 1:0 win and ended his country's 10-game run without a competitive victory.

Croatia was unable to equalize in five minutes of injury time.

Luka Modrić said after the game that his team "definitely didn't deserve to lose".

"We controlled the game and had plenty of chances. In the first half we were definitely the better team. We deserved to be up at least one or two goals. But we didn't score when we had the chance. In the end, the referee destroyed the game. We fought till the end like lions but we didn't succeed in preventing ourselves from conceding a goal. We could have scored in the second half. We had some chances, especially from Pašalić. It's too bad he didn't score. But, here we are. We need to move on. We have one more game. Everything is still in our hands," said Modrić.

Meanwhile, Portugal smashed Poland 5:1, securing first place in the group and a spot in the semis.

Croatia will meet Portugal on Monday in Split; with kickoff set for 8:45 p.m..