Croatia vs Mexico - 2002 World Cup Group Match

Home: World Cup 2002: Korea-Japan Finals: 1st Round: Match Report

Monday June 3rd, 2002

Zivkovic Sees Red

Although the game in northern Japan started lively enough, with Oscar Perez pushing a Josip Simunic attempt around the post for a corner in the 6th minute and Zvonimir Soldo hooking the ball over the bar from the penalty spot in the 14th, both sides found it hard to get into their rhythm or produce any real creativity.

The best chance of the game fell to Jared Borgetti, in the 33rd minute, when Ramon Morales mis-hit a shot. The ball fell nicely to the unmarked Borgetti, who could only shoot wide from six yards.

Mexico had perhaps a little more of the possession, although Croatia's bursts forward earned them more corners - Robert Jarni taking the ones on the left and Robert Prosinecki on the right.

Mexico closed the half a little more lively but even Cuauhtemoc Blanco fell on his backside when trying one of his infamous hops, five minutes from the break.

Half-time: Croatia 0 - Mexico 0

Milan Rapajc came out at the start of the second-half, for the ineffective Robert Prosinecki and drove in a low free-kick to the left of the goal in the 54th minute.

Apart from that, Mexico started to look more dangerous with Blanco getting into the game better, so good that Boris Zivkovic brought the influential Mexican down in the area and earned his marching orders.

0:1
Cuauhtemoc Blanco kept his calm to ram the ball home from the spot - 60 mins.

The double substitution from Croatia, to counter being a man short for the remaining thirty minutes (Suker and Boksic out for Saric and Stanic), meant that they had no notable striker on the pitch to pull the game back.

Mexico's answer, a minute later, was to bring on Hernandez for Borgetti.

With a quarter of an hour to go, the Mexican fans were treated to an eight-touch passing display and showed their pleasure with an equal amount of ol�s.

With an extra man on the pitch, Mexico could afford to give Blanco a rest and bring on Francisco Palencia for the last ten minutes.

Even with a man less, Croatia needed to throw caution to the wind a little and take a few risks. The third-placed team from France 98 looked out of their depth here and really need to watch the video to see just how lethargic they were if they want to do better against Italy and Ecuador.

Final Score:
Croatia 0 - Mexico 1

Man of the Match:
Cuauhtemoc Blanco - His run into the area resulted in the penalty, which he converted, and the dismisal of Boris Zivkovic.

Red Cards:
Boris Zivkovic (59 mins)

Yellow Cards:
None.

The Teams

Croatia:
1 Stipe Pletikosa; 6 Boris Zivkovic, 21 Robert Kovac, 3 Josip Simunic, 17 Robert Jarni; 4 Stjepan Tomas, 14 Zvonimir Soldo, 10 Niko Kovac; 8 Robert Prosinecki (5 Milan Rapajc - 46 mins); 9 Davor Suker (15 Danijel Saric - 64 mins), 11 Alen Boksic (13 Mario Stanic - 67 mins).

Mexico:
1 Oscar Perez; 5 Manuel Vidrio, 4 Rafael Marquez, 16 Salvador Carmona; 7 Ramon Morales, 19 Gabriel Caballero, 6 Gerardo Torrado, 11 Braulio Luna, 13 Sigifredo Mercado; 10 Cuauhtemoc Blanco (17 Francisco Palencia - 79 mins), 9 Jared Borgetti (15 Luis Hern�ndez - 68 mins).

Referee: Jun Lu