Croatia captain Luka Modric expressed his frustration after his team’s dramatic 1-1 draw against Italy in their Euro 2024 Group F encounter.
Modric spoke to reporters following the match, where he had converted a penalty to give Croatia the lead.
However, Italy’s Mattia Zaccagni equalized in the final minute of stoppage time, snatching a point away from Croatia. This result leaves Croatia’s qualification for the knockout stages in doubt.
“It’s a very difficult result to swallow,” Modric said. “We controlled large parts of the game and took the lead, but unfortunately, we couldn’t hold on for the win.”
The focus of the rephrased body is on the match result and Modric’s reaction to it. We removed the subjective statement about football being cruel and avoided mentioning his potential retirement, as it wasn’t the main point of his comments after the match.