The Croatia futsal team was left without a place in the UEFA Euro quarterfinal after they lost to Slovakia 3-5 (1-2) in a key match in Groningen.
Goals for Croatia were scored by Kristijan Postružin (15), Matej Horvat (36) and Franco Jelovčić (38), and for Slovakia by Martin Smerička (8, 35), Petr Kozar (20) and Tomaš Drahovsky (21, 28 penalty).
Croatia played against Slovakia without the suspended Matošević and the injured Suton. The last seconds of the first half and the first seconds of the second were fatal for Croatia.
Croatia did not enter the match well and Smerička scored from the right side in the 8th minute, left totally unmarked by the Croatia defense.
In the 15th minute, Olmissum’s Postružin equalized after a quick action and play by Marinović, raising Croatia’s confidence. Still, despite several opportunities, Croatia failed to score, and Slovakia took advantage with 15 seconds to go in the first half. Kozar was left unmarked on the right to push the ball into Luketin’s net.
The shock of conceding a goal 15 seconds before the half became even greater when Dragovsky surprised Luketin with a long-range shot for 3-1 to start the second half.
Slovakia also took a penalty in the 27th minute after a Jelovčić foul, and Drahovsky was accurate for 4-1. Croatia then endured the last ten minutes without a goalkeeper and a player more, but after a mistake by goalkeeper Primić Smerička, Slovakia was up 5-1. Horvat and Jelovčić reduced it to 3-5, but it did not go beyond that.
Croatia needed to win to secure the Euro quarterfinal spot along with Russia. Russia and Slovakia thus move forward from Group C.
In the second match, Russia defeated Poland 5-1.
GROUP C
1. Russia 9
2. Slovakia 4
3. CROATIA 3
4. Poland 1
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