England vs Croatia Football Live Score, UEFA Euro 2020: Sterling Gives England 1-0 Win

On a boiling hot day England started strongly, lost their way for a while but regained control as Croatia barely managed a shot, giving the home side the early advantage in Group D that also includes Scotland and the Czech Republic.

The game lacked the drama and jeopardy of the teams’ 2018 World Cup semi-final, won by Croatia, and losing on Sunday was no disaster for them given the way the draw pans out, but it was a morale-boosting victory for England as they set off once again in search of their first title since 1966.

Roared on by a noisy 22,500 crowd –- a quarter of Wembley’s capacity — England started full of bright intentions and put huge pressure on the visitors, pinning them deep in their own half.

Phil Foden, his bleached hair channelling Paul Gascoigne from Euro 96, almost gave them a dream start when he cut in from the right and curled a low shot beyond Dominik Livakovic but agonisingly saw it come back off the post after the slightest of deflections from the toe of Josko Gvardiol.

Phillips, impressive all afternoon, had a 25-yard shot blocked but, instead of riding the early momentum, England lost their way.

Croatia’s classy midfield trio of Mateo Kovacic, Luka Modric and Marcelo Brozovic began to stroke the ball around and, with the sun beating down, the pace and energy seeped out of the game.

England eventually shook themselves out of the torpor and struck when Phillips drove through the retreating defence, rode two tackles and played the ball expertly into the path of the darting Sterling who, under pressure, just got enough on the ball to steer it home.

Sterling had looked lively all day and celebrated his first major tournament goal with gusto, though he should have added a second 13 minutes later but blazed wildly over the bar.

Croatia were then forced to show a bit more ambition and threw on their attacking subs but though England’s defence looked a little shaky at times there were few chances for an equalizer.

Scotland and the Czech Republic get their Group D campaign underway on Monday before England welcome the Scots to Wembley on Friday, with Croatia playing the Czechs in Glasgow on the same day.

Austria vs North Macedonia

Austria may be awash with Bundesliga talent but they will be under pressure from the start against underdogs North Macedonia on Sunday as they look for their first ever win at the European Championships.

Austria are the favourites in their Euro Group C opener against the Balkan nation, but in their only other appearances at the tournament, as co-hosts in 2008 and in France in 2016, they drew twice and lost four times.

They hope to change that on Sunday, with Ukraine and Netherlands completing Group C and only the top two teams advancing.

Netherlands vs Ukraine

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Ukraine manager Andriy Shevchenko said on Saturday his team would try to strike the right balance between attack and defence in their opening Euro 2020 match against a dynamic Netherlands side whose talent needed to be respected.

Ukraine, ranked 24th in the world, face a rejuvenated Dutch side, ranked 16th, that is returning to a major tournament after missing the last Euros in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

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