Two of FC Barcelona’s players helped put Azerbaijan to the sword on Tuesday night with a 6 goal thriller. Rakitic was in the starting 11 and helped out for the second goal while Barça B player Alen Halilovic came on in the second half when Croatia was 5 goals up.
Last night’s win in Osijek against Azerbaijan made it three wins out of three for Croatia in their Euro 2016 qualifying match. It was always going to be a bloodbath with humble Azerbaijan no match for the superior Croatian team. Croatia needed just 11 minutes to knock one into the net through Kramaric.
Azerbaijan seemed to hold their own for half an hour until Barça’s Rakitic popped up to take a free kick which was turned in by Perisic. This is the second time this week that Rakitic has been involved in a dead ball situation which has resulted in a goal for Croatia. By half time, Perisic and Brozovic had effectively put the game to bed and Croatia were 4-0 up.
After half time Croatia decided that they weren’t done with Azerbaijan yet and Real Madrid’s Luka Modric stepped up to the penalty spot to knock in the 5th goal of the night. Modric then came off to give Barça B player Alen Halilovic a shot at glory which saw the game rounded off to 6 goals – the last by Sadygov, who put the ball into the back of his own net to add to the misery of Azerbaijan’s night.
Rakitic could have made it one more but the clock ran out of minutes and seconds in a match that Azerbaijan would rather forget.Croatia now lead Group H on goal difference ahead of Italy, who have also won their last 3 matches.
On the other side of the world, Leo Messi played for 30 minutes and scored twice in Argentina’s dismantling of Hong Kong in a 7 goal thriller. Higuaín also netted 2 as did Gaitán with Banega slotting home one.
