Mandzukic Strikes Again

Italy Line-Up: Buffon (c), Chiellini, Bonucci, Pirlo, Motta (Montolivo, 63') , Marchisio, Maggio, De Rossi, Cassano (Giovinco, 83'), Balotelli (Di Natale, 70'), Giaccherini
Croatia Line-Up: Pletikosa, Schildenfeld, Corluka, Strinic, Srna (c), Rakitic, Modric, Vukojevic, Jelavic (Eduardo, 83'), Mandzukic (Kranjcar, 90'), Perisic (Pranjic, 68')

Mario Mandzukic struck for the third time this tournament to give Croatia a point and succumbing Italy to their second draw of the competition. Andrea Pirlo gave Italy the lead in the first half but it wasn't enough to see off the Croats.

Pirlo looked to control game early on with his sublime passing game. Mario Balotelli had the first shot in anger just after the quarter of an hour mark, but his shot was parried away by Stipe Pletikosa. Croatia began to come into the game by the 20-minute mark, making the match more even. But Italy's miserly defence kept the attackers at bay, with Gianluigi Buffon collecting catches that did come his way.

The deadlock was then broken six minutes before half-time. Italy's assertiveness began to take hold before they were given a free-kick. Pirlo stepped over it and curled over the wall and into the bottom corner, Pletikosa couldn't do much about it and Italy would have the lead at half-time.

Croatia were a bit more attacking in the second half with Italy looking more and more tired as the game went on. Croatia's fans haven't covered themselves in glory so far this campaign and this trend unfortunately continued. A flare was thrown onto the pitch just ten minutes after the restart, forcing Howard Webb to temporarily stop play. The Croatian players were seemingly unhappy and told their fans to calm down.

It didn't affect the play too much and Croatia equalised on 72-minutes. A cross was mis-judged by Giorgio Chiellini and the ball fell to the feet of Mandzukic. After taking a touch, the striker smashed the ball off the post and into the net.

From there, the game seemed to fizzle out as tiredness looked to come into play. There was another stoppage as another flare was thrown onto the pitch by the Croatian fans. Hopefully, security will prevent more of this happening. As for the teams, Croatia move up to four points with Italy on two.