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It solely took Luka Modric 18 years. In 2006, the summer season earlier than Lamine Yamal was born, he was an unused substitute towards Brazil at Berlin’s Olympiastadion. He didn’t fairly get on the pitch then – blame supervisor Zlatko Kranjcar for that one – however a exceptional longevity took him again to Berlin, into historic firm. For the Croatia captain, taking part in in a ninth main event meant he joined solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Lothar Matthaus amongst Europeans. A number of months earlier than his thirty ninth birthday, he turned the oldest ever participant at European Championships; although maybe just for a couple of days, till Ronaldo and Pepe go previous him.

A day of record-breakers, nonetheless, turned an commercial for youth, quite than expertise. Lamine Yamal, the youngest footballer ever at this level, some 22 years Modric’s junior, delivered a star flip. Croatia lost 3-0 to Spain. It wasn’t fairly as dramatic a case of an excellent profession ending on the Olympiastadion as Zinedine Zidane’s, later within the 2006 World Cup, however it was a day to immediate questions. Are Croatia, lastly, too outdated? Will time finally meet up with the timeless Modric, boyish as his physique stays, saggy because the shorts are?

A central-midfield trio with a mixed 375 caps can nonetheless go, however maybe they’ll’t press. As Spain had much less of the ball than prior to now, Croatia didn’t get shut sufficient to them. “We weren’t aggressive sufficient,” mentioned supervisor Zlatko Dalic. “We had been too sluggish and too removed from the gamers.” He felt the issue was most apparent on the flanks, not his veteran midfield, however a product of ageing could be a reluctance to get nearer to youthful, sooner gamers. An issue of ageing is that each defeat will get attributed to the opportunity of decline. This would possibly merely be “a foul day”, as Dalic mentioned. Or it might show one thing symbolic, the top of an period.

The perfect midfielder on present was the extra prosaic expertise, however extra all-action determine, of Fabian Ruiz. He’s 28, the age Modric was when he gained the primary of his six Champions Leagues. He accounts for 176 of these 375 caps, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic 199 between them.

However Modric and Kovacic’s afternoons had been curtailed after 65 minutes, every eliminated to save lots of ageing legs for the video games towards Albania and Italy. “We didn’t need to pressure them to the top,” mentioned Dalic; there was a pragmatism to it however Modric has tended to be the marathon man, taking part in 120 minutes after 120 minutes in World Cup knockout ties, nonetheless on lengthy after males a decade his junior have been eliminated. However that was when he was an everyday starter for Actual Madrid. This season he has been reinvented as an influence substitute, forming a distinct form of double act with Toni Kroos: One passer has began the sport, the opposite completed it.

Kroos’s farewell to worldwide soccer might be his goodbye to the sport; after successful the Champions League in his remaining membership match, he might render it a double by strolling away after Euro 2024. His stellar showing against Scotland – 101 passes accomplished out of 102, a few of them superlative – was an illustration he has not often been higher. He’s the junior associate however he’s going first, maybe with a way of narrative connected. If Kroos is Stuart Broad, Modric is James Anderson, making an attempt to go on eternally. It was exceptional he was named the third finest participant in a World Cup at 37; he was then swift to say he was not retiring from worldwide obligation.

His nation has no appropriate alternative. In Croatia’s technology recreation, there are points in every age group: The older ones danger being too outdated; the youthful ones, with the notable exception of Josko Gvardiol, look much less gifted. Potential successors to Mario Mandzukic and Ivan Perisic look pale imitations; certainly, Dalic’s subsequent gambit might be to revive Perisic to the beginning XI. Asking Gvardiol to reprise his Manchester Metropolis function as an attacking left again left Croatia wanting too weak within the center. Dalic was not proud of the targets conceded. “This was an instance of unhealthy play, and we’ve to see why it was so unhealthy,” he mentioned.

And Croatia received a Pyrrhic victory within the derby of the passers. Not for the reason that Euro 2008 remaining, some 136 aggressive video games in the past, had Spain completed a match with much less possession. But they weren’t out-passed by Croatia, by Modric and co. And so the workforce who’ve turn out to be specialists in surviving, trailing but finally triumphing, now discover themselves coming from behind once more, propping up a bunch. They’ve confounded expectations earlier than.

However Dalic’s Croatia have by no means had a day as unhealthy as this, or one to provide such legitimacy to fears that the Modric golden years might be ending.