Torres goal secures La Roja the perfect lead

The 2024 European Championship continued to offer drama on Monday as Group B came to a thrilling conclusion.

For Spain, things were relatively simple: the group winners secured their third win in three games with a 1-0 victory against Albania in Düsseldorf.

Nevertheless, there was chaos in Leipzig shortly before the end when reigning champions Italy secured their place in the round of 16 with a 1-1 draw against Croatia.

We summarize the best Opta facts of the day.

Croatia – Italy 1:1: Historic goal by Modrić not enough

With his 55th-minute strike, Luka Modrić became the oldest player to score at a European Championship at the age of 38 years and 289 days, and for all the world it looked as though Croatia were already moving into second place.

But Italy and especially substitute Mattia Zaccagni had other plans.

Zaccagni scored his first goal for Italy 41 seconds into stoppage time to send Luciano Spalletti’s team into the knockout stages, where they next face Switzerland. It is the latest goal scored by Italy at the European Championships.

Italy have now come from behind to avoid defeat in two of their three group matches at Euro 2024, having also beaten Albania 2-1 on Matchday 1 – something they had previously only managed in two group matches in the final round of the competition (a 2-1 win against Bulgaria in 2004 and a 1-1 draw against Romania in 2008).

Croatia, who also had to come from behind in the closing stages against Albania last time out, failed to win any of their group matches at a European Championship for only the second time (D2 L1), having already done so in 2004 (D2 L1).

The last four meetings between Croatia and Italy have ended in draws in all competitions since Croatia won 2-0 in a friendly in August 2006.

Modric’s goal came just 33 seconds after Gianluigi Donnarumma saved the experienced player’s penalty.

Donnarumma has only conceded two of his last seven penalties at the European Championships and saved four of them, one of which hit the crossbar.

Modrić made up for it with a brilliant finish from close range, making him only the second player after Cristiano Ronaldo (five) to score a goal at four different European Championships.

It is not yet clear whether this will be Modric’s last game of the tournament. Croatia will need England to beat Slovenia by three goals to progress.

Albania – Spain 0:1: Pretty perfect

Spain had already advanced as group winners and Luis de la Fuente made extensive changes, but thanks to a goal from Ferran Torres, La Roja got the job done.

Spain is only the second team to win all three group matches at a European Championship without conceding a goal. Italy already achieved this at the 2020 European Championship.

In fact, it is the first time that La Roja have not conceded a goal in the group stage of a major tournament.

Torres was directly involved in seven goals in nine appearances for Spain under De la Fuente (five goals, two assists); no Spanish player was directly involved in more goals under him.

Dani Olmo set up Torres with a great pass, and he provided his fourth assist of the European Championships in his seventh appearance in the competition. Only Cesc Fàbregas has provided more assists for Spain in the competition since records began in 1964 (five).

Bayer Leverkusen star Alex Grimaldo, meanwhile, made his first start at the 2024 European Championship and impressed by creating five scoring chances.

This is the highest performance ever recorded by a Spanish defender in a single game at a major tournament (since 1980).

Unlike Croatia, Albania’s fate is sealed. They were eliminated in the group stage of the European Championship for the second time (after 2016) and failed to win a single game for the first time (1 draw, 2 losses).