Euro 2016: Beautiful Croatia show they can go the distance, but unruly fans again cost team dear

In the first half of their match against the Czech Republic on Friday, Croatia looked like a team that could challenge holders Spain for top honours in Group D. A team that could go the distance. They had composure, they controlled and dominated the game in every part of the pitch, and they made the Czech players look pedestrian in comparison.

They also defended well, surprisingly so for a team which was said to be weak defensively. The squad was said to lack a seasoned holding midfielder, but on Friday, Milan Badelj stood up to be counted, screening the defence, winning balls, and even starting the move that resulted in a goal. Ivan Perisic’s thrilling run and the resulting goal ensued from a ball Badelj won.

Coming into the tournament, there was an air of uncertainty about the Croatian manager Ante Cacic: Nobody was willing to venture a guess about his favoured XI. Against the Czechs, Cacic put in the same team he had fielded against Turkey in their opening match. In the eight games that he has been in charge of the national side, this was the first time he has used the same XI in consecutive games. In fact, in his 41 games in charge of the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb, Cacic never fielded the same team in successive games.

But Cacic must have clearly done something right. His players pressed intensely, never looking like a team ill at ease with their manager. Luka Modric organised play from the middle, Ivan Rakitic ran the creative department, Ivan Perisic ran tirelessly down the left wing to unsettle the Czechs. Mario Mandzukic did not click in the No 9 role, but he managed to occupy the centre-backs, leaving space for the invaders from the midfield.

Everything was going their way in the first half. In the second half, the Czechs pushed harder, and Croatia punished them with a counter-attacking goal. The second goal was of a completely different nature to the first; it came when the Czechs had begun to assert themselves, ironically after getting their first attempt on target.

Even when Czech manager Pavel Vrba put in Milan Skoda in the 67th minute, and his header in the 76th off a superb Tomas Rosicky curving pass got them their first goal, Croatia did not lose control. They were one goal up, and looked good enough for a third, even coming close on a couple of occasions. They were going to win their second game in two matches.

Only they didn’t. Their fans decided to take over. The combustible nature of Croatia’s violent fans was always going to pose a problem. Here, it broke the team’s concentration, giving the Czechs what they needed.

After Skoda’s 76-minute header, the Czech fans — reduced to mute spectatorship for most of the game, as their team chased around — found their voice. When Croatia pressed ahead for a third goal, captain and legend Dario Srna gestured the fans to rally behind their team, to make some noise, to bring in that surge that can only come from the stands.

The surge came in the form of flares thrown on to the pitch and the kind of unruly behaviour that has cost Croatia dearly in the past. The unnatural stoppage changed everything, even as Croatian players walked up to the byline to plead with their fans. By now, the game had changed entirely, even with only a few minutes left. There was already the feeling that this could cost Croatia. When the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty against a Domagoj Vida handball three minutes into injury time, at the other end from where the fans had disrupted the game, the bubbling Croatian team had turned into a bunch of hapless characters at the end of a horror movie.

The tide turned with the crowd disruptions, but it had begun to ebb after half-time. Whatever it is that the Vrba told his team, they were a renewed team in the second half. Whatever Cacic had told his team had not readied them for a renewed impetus from the Czechs. And, of course, Modric got injured. If Cacic is called this team’s great weakness, Vrba is the great strength for the Czechs. Known to favour the proactive approach, Vrba had been credited with making this Czech team greater than the sum of its parts.

When the final whistle blew, Cacic’s team had shown it is smaller than the sum of its beautiful parts. That they are a gifted bunch of players, with inventiveness and pace, under a manager with a reputation for…er…nothing, not much of a reputation at all. That its passionate fans were not content with a supporting role; they want to take over.

For all the see-saw, this was only a 2-2 draw. Croatia managed a point, and can still go through the group stage to the knockout round. It can fulfil the great expectations its fans and neutrals have of an immensely talented squad of entertaining footballers. But in one game, Croatia gave a fulsome account of why it is comparable to the Pakistani cricket teams of recent years.