Italy 1-1 Croatia Highlights – Euro 2012

Mario Mandzukic’s second-half equaliser earns Croatia a vital draw against Italy to leave Group C qualification wide open.

Watch Euro 2012 match, Italy Vs Croatia highlights here.

Venue: Municipal Stadium, Poznan
Date: Thursday, 14 June
Kick-off: 17:00 BST

1-0 Andrea Pirlo 39′

1-1 Mario Mandzukic 72′

Head-to-head

Since gaining independence Croatia are unbeaten in their five games against Italy, winning three of those matches.

That includes Slaven Bilic’s first match as Croatia boss – a 2-0 friendly win in Livorno in August 2006, when Eduardo and Luka Modric got the goals.

The only competitive encounter came when the sides met in their second group match at the 2002 World Cup. Although the Croats won 2-1 in Japan the Azzurri eventually progressed to the knock-out stages while Croatia went home.

Italy

The Azzurri forced Iker Casillas into five saves in their opening game – as many as the Spain goalkeeper made in total during qualifying (in seven appearances).

That is despite Italy having just 34% possession against Spain – the lowest percentage in the opening round of games.

Andrea Pirlo made 2,778 successful passes for Juventus this season – the highest tally of any player in one of the top European leagues.

They have won just one of their last nine games at major tournaments (W1, D6, L2), with penalty shoot-outs against France (2006) and Spain (2008) classified as draws.

Croatia

The last team to beat Croatia at the European Championship (excluding penalty shoot-outs) was England, who defeated them 4-2 at Euro 2004.

The Croats have won their last four group games at the European Championship.

They have not ended a calendar year outside the top 10 of the Fifa rankings since 2006.