Czech Republic and Croatia played out one of the most entertaining matches of Euro 2016 so far, only for it to be marred by crowd violence and flares in the closing stages
The Czechs battled back from two goals down to earn its first point of the tournament against a Croatia side which, after 60 minutes, appeared to be completely in control.
Ivan Perisic’s first half strike and Ivan Rakitic’s second half goal had seemingly wrapped up qualification to the last 16, before goals from Milan Skoda and Tomas Necid earned the Czech Republic an unlikely point.
However, in the game’s dying embers, several flares were thrown onto the pitch by a section of Croatia supporters, resulting in one exploding next to a steward and fighting breaking out in the stands.
Croatia fans had been treated to a masterclass from Real Madrid’s Luka Modric, as the midfielder orchestrated play from the middle of the pitch.
Having been utterly dominant for the opening half an hour, it was a questions of when, not if Croatia would take the lead.
It came as no surprise, then, that the deadlock was broken seven minutes later, Perisic latching onto a loose ball after Milan Badelj had won possession and firing a shot past Petr Cech.
With the Czech Republic chasing the game, defender Roman Hubnik attempted to pass the ball out from the back but inadvertently gifted possession to Marcelo Brozovic.
The Inter Milan midfielder fed the ball into Rakitic who coolly chipped the ball over the onrushing Cech.
With the game and qualification from Group D seemingly secured, Croatia opted to replace Modric who appeared to be struggling with an injury.
Czech Republic’s Tomas Rosicky began to dictate play in the space afforded to him in Modric’s absence and curled a delightful ball into the box with the outside of his boot, allowing Milan Skoda to power a header Danijel Subasic.
Suddenly, Croatia was on the ropes.
With just three minutes left to play, a number of flares were thrown onto the corner of the pitch nearest Cech’s goal. Play was stopped, resulting in 10 minutes additional time, to allow the stewards to remove them.
Play resumed with fan unrest still ongoing in the stands and the Czechs were awarded a penalty in the 93rd minute, after Domagoj Vida’s blatant handball.
Tomas Necid stepped up and hammered the ball down the middle of the goal, sending those fans behind the stands into raptures and keeping the Czechs’ hopes of qualification alive.
In Group E’s final fixtures, Czech Republic plays Turkey, while Croatia faces reigning champion Spain.
