Dani Carvajal scored the decisive penalty to help Spain produce one of the narrow football scores in the final of the UEFA Nations League. After the game ended scoreless in extra time, substitute Dani Carvajal made the game-winning penalty kick with a Panenka to give head coach Luis de la Fuente, who had only been named Luis Enrique’s replacement in December, a trophy-winning start to his reign. Despite Luka Modric’s best efforts, Croatia, who finished third in Qatar last year and as World Cup finalists in 2018, was unable to score during the 120 minutes of play. In the shootout, substitutes Lovro Majer and Bruno Petkovic also saw their penalties saved by Unai Simon. It was a terrible ending for Croatia, a team known for consistently going above and beyond, who, four days after defeating the Netherlands in extra time in the semifinals, had again come up short.
Despite the loud whistles of the Croatian supporters, who filled the whole arena, Spain got off to a promising start. Alvaro Morata nearly capitalized on a Dominik Livakovic slip-up, and Gavi just missed the goal post. Aymeric Laporte of Manchester City stopped Andrej Kramaric’s shot after an excellent comeback run as Croatia gained control of the game and began taking advantage of Spain’s high defensive line. Many of their greatest plays, as usual, came from the steadfast Modric, who twice crossed for the roving Ivan Perisic to head toward goal, forcing Simon to make saves.
Spain was having trouble dealing with Croatia’s aggressive style, and De la Fuente’s team found it increasingly challenging to dismantle their disciplined and tight opponents up front. When Jordi Alba produced beautiful crosses for Morata and Marco Asensio either side of halftime, it appeared as though they had the best chance of scoring. However, both players missed the target. Josip Juranovic and Mario Pasalic were given opportunities by Perisic, but as the second half progressed, the pace dropped and Spain quickly appeared to be the more probable winner.
The greatest opportunity belonged to Ansu Fati, whose low effort from fellow substitute Mikel Merino’s cut-back was cleared off the line by Perisic. Rodri attempted a nasty long-range shot that went just wide. As extra time went on, Croatia, fatigued after their victory against the Netherlands in overtime just four days earlier, made periodic threats but ultimately fell farther behind.
Although Simon was pushed into a save by Marcelo Brozovic and Nacho’s superb last-second block to stop Majer, Spain was generally in control and had more chances to win the match. Even though Laporte missed an earlier opportunity to win it when he crashed his attempt against the bar, they did not give up in the shootout, with Dani Olmo missing the target when he should have scored. In the end, Caravajal was the one who successfully took advantage of Petkovic’s error to start the Spanish party.
“I’m ecstatic for us. It was an exceptional chance. We were eliminated early from prior competitions, and tonight we needed to capitalize on that,” Spain defender Dani Carvajal said after scoring the decisive penalty. “We trusted the penalties, and everything worked out nicely. I was competent with a gun. I anticipated being the sixth [taker]. In the huddle, I delivered a speech that was both inspirational and heartbreaking. I succeeded in doing it the way Panenka had, which was my goal.”
“We are overjoyed. It was an extremely challenging game that demanded a lot of us,” Spain midfielder Rodri said. “This generation holds great promise. Mentally, we’ve been pretty tough. We can always do better, but we consistently triumph. We must acknowledge it.”
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