David Marshall’s Euro Diary Day 11 - Wooooh! The balls on this guy! (Patreon)

Football can be a cruel, cruel game at times. But sometimes there is enjoyment in the cruelty, I do enjoy seeing a right bastard being the bastard. And Tonight, Italy were every bit the bastard.

Tonight's main game started in fairly unremarkable fashion, it certainly had the vibe of both teams feeling each other out and I had the sneaky suspicion that the Italians would have quite happily shaken hands and walked off with a 0-0 before a ball was kicked.

Croatia started the better team and forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into an early save but outside of that, they were creating very little. Italy grew into the game more as the half went on and should have gone in ahead at the break when an Alessandro Bastoni header was denied by an incredible save from Dominik Livaković.

So it was still anyone’s game going into the second half, would it be Luka Modric’s Croatia or the reticulated (he’s so reticulated, yes he is) Mateo Retegui‘s Italy?

Again it was Croatia who began the brightest as they started to go for Italy to get the goal they needed. Ten minutes into the half, they got their chance when a penalty was awarded for handball.

This was it, Modric’s moment. The talisman of Croatia, the captain, the man who has been through and done so much for his country. He placed the ball down on the spot, took a deep breath and…ah shite he’s missed it.

No, that’s not the story that’s supposed to play out here! Modric! In his last match! Missing a penalty! I think Donnarumma has been the best goalkeeper at the tournament so far but that’s ignoring the all important narra…oh never mind he scored anyway.

Donnarumma was called into action again pulling off yet another fantastic save to deny Ante Budimir. Modric reacted first and, moving away from goal and having Donnarumma pursuing him, he managed to smash the ball high into the net.

Madness in the Croatia end as Modric was swamped by his teammates scoring the goal that could prolong his international career by one more game at least. Equally enjoyable was Donnarumma, quite rightly, going batshit crazy at the clowns in front of him. Italy at this point had looked like Donnarumma and 10 wee idiots.

Now it was just a question if Croatia could hang on.

But with every great hero, comes a great villain. The baddie of the piece tonight was Mattia Zaccagni who received the ball free at the corner of the box and curled in a superb goal in the 98th minute to crush the Croats.

Devastation and tears for Croatia and scenes of jubilation for Italy who will go through to the Last 16 with Spain. It’s not completely over for Croatia, but they do require England to beat Slovenia 3-0 tomorrow night, snookers from other games and the moon to come into Jupiter’s orbit.

Looking ahead to Tomorrow, we have four games as we start a rush to get the group stage finished. The pick of the bunch for me from the early games is Austria and The Netherlands. I can see a wee upset there. The Dutch will go through regardless but I can see Austria sneaking that second-place spot.

I’ll be watching Denmark and Serbia. I had to watch Scotland last night so I’ll be damned if I’m putting myself through another 90 minutes of England boring teams into submission.