SPLIT, Croatia: Ivan Perisic scored one goal and made another as Croatia beat France 2-0 on Thursday to seize the upper hand in the first leg of their UEFA Nations League quarter-final tie. Perisic crossed for Ante Budimir to head in the opener at the Stadion Poljud in Split after the home side had squandered an early penalty. With France out of sorts, Perisic made it 2-0 before the break and a Croatia side captained by Luka Modric saw out the victory to take to Paris for the return match on Sunday. It was not a good night for France as captain Kylian Mbappe made his comeback having not featured in either of the last two international windows, in October and November. Mbappe did have chances, notably seeing a deflected second-half shot from Ousmane Dembele’s cutback kept out by a fine Dominik Livakovic save. The Real Madrid superstar has now failed to find the net in his last six appearances for his country, since scoring a penalty in a 1-1 draw with Poland at Euro 2024. Les Bleus will now have to find a way of overturning the deficit at the Stade de France on Sunday, otherwise Croatia will be heading to the final four of the Nations League. The semifinals and final will take place in June and will be hosted by either Italy or Germany, depending on which of those sides emerges victorious from their last-eight encounter. France won the Nations League in 2021 but suffered a first ever defeat against Croatia in the group stage of the following year’s edition. This latest repeat of the 2018 World Cup final, won 4-2 by the French in Moscow, saw Croatia win a spot-kick just five minutes in. Liverpool center-back Ibrahima Konate was penalized for a blatant handball inside the area, but Mike Maignan saved Andrej Kramaric’s
