That Modric hugged his face in delight as if attempting to hold back tears shows how emotional he was. Scoring at a EURO finals at almost 39 is special.

More importantly, Modric was blaming himself for missing the penalty kicƙ that handed Croatia the chance to advance to the knockout phase just one minute earlier.

Croatia appeared to have thwarted Italy, but Livakovic fell asleep on a late counter-attacƙ in stoppage time and his net collapsed. Midfielder Ricardo Calafiori cut from home. He ran right into the center circle, received the return ball from his teammate, ran up again, and threw the ball into the penalty area.

Livakovic was a bystander as substitute Mattia Zaccagni sprinted into the penalty area, launched a technical shot, drew a lovely curve, and pinned the ball into the top corner.