Czech Republic secured a 1-1 draw with Croatia at Hampden Park to top Group D on four points ahead of England’s titanic battle with Scotland later on Friday.
After his heroics against Scotland, Patrik Schick grabbed his third goal of the competition with a coolly-taken penalty in the 38th-minute, controversially awarded after a VAR check, to give his side the lead and put him top of the goalscoring chart.
Dejan Lovren – restored to the Croatia defence after recovering from a knee problem – caught Schick, leaving the Czech forward with a bloodied nose, but appealed that he was using his arms for leverage.
Ante Rebic spurned a chance to equalise immediately after but sliced his shot badly wide when through on goal, as the Croatians trailed at the break.
However, Ivan Perisic levelled the scores just two minutes after the restart with the Croatian’s first act of urgency, Andrej Kramaric releasing the Inter Milan star following a quickly taken free-kick and he carved inside before lashing home from the angle.
Croatia might have won the game with Nikola Vlasic rifling a shot agonisingly over the bar from inside the penalty area, but that’s as close as either side came to a winner on a largely underwhelming evening in Glasgow.
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The draw means Czech Republic are almost certainly through to the knockout stages of the competition, while Croatia, having picked up their first point, must now beat Scotland on Tuesday night to have any chance of making it out of the group.
