Croatia beat France 2-0 in Nations League quarter-final first leg

SPLIT, Croatia :Croatia's Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic struck to secure a deserved 2-0 win over France in their Nations League quarter-final, first leg on Thursday, as the return of Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele failed to get the visitors to fire.

Croatia also missed an early penalty when Andrej Kramaric’s spot-kick was saved by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan, and the 2023 runners-up were full value for a win that might easily have been achieved by a greater margin.

France created chances and tested Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic several times, but it was a below-par performance on a night that had promised much with the return of Mbappe in particular after he sat out his side's last four fixtures.

France host the second leg in Paris on Sunday. The winners of the tie will face either defending champions Spain or the Netherlands in the semi-finals in June.

France enjoyed almost two-thirds of the possession, but found Croatia tough to break down and when they did craft openings they were wasteful in front of goal.

"We lost the first leg, we're going to make sure we win the second at home," France coach Didier Deschamps told TF1. "Our first half was below what we were capable of. We will do everything to turn the situation around.

"We were punished in the first half. We were far too wasteful on a technical level and gave opportunities to the opponent."

EARLY PENALTY

France defender Ibrahima Konate handled in the area in the opening five minutes as he tried to control a cross from the right but Kramaric's penalty was saved by Maignan's legs.

Croatia took the lead after 26 minutes when Maignan initially saved superbly from Budimir’s powerful header but the ball spun back towards goal and the keeper could only watch