Season › 2011-12 › News Croatia spurn their chance to advance Michael Kenrick , 18 June, 14comments | Jump to most recent Nikica Jelavic's Euro2012 is over after Croatia narrowly lost to Spain in Gdansk and were eliminated as Italy beat Ireland 2-0 in the other Group C game to advance as runners-up. Jelavic came on as a 66th-minute substitute after missing training with a fever over the weekend but was denied the chance to rescue his nation as no chances would fall his way. The Irish, already out having lost their opening two matches, could have saved Slaven Bilic's side with an equaliser but succumbed to a late, second goal scored by Mario Balotelli. The results mean that two more of Everton's representatives will be returning home unscathed from the tournament. Surprisingly, Darron Gibson didn't see a minute of action over Ireland's three games. Bilic had earlier rejected any notion of agreeing the result with Spain: "It's out of the question we would agree a result with Spain. To claim the contrary is an insult." After a cagey opening, the game progressively came alive, with Croatia, labouring with just Mandzukic up front, needing a more expansive approach in the second half after news filtered through that Italy had gone 1-0 up after 35 minutes. Croatia's best chance fell to Ivan Rakitic off a superb curling cross with the outside of his boot by Luka Modric Spanish keeper Casillas superbly palmed the ball away. That prompted Bilic to make a double-substitution in the 66th minute, Jelavic coming on... But the clock ticked on without Jelavic really getting even a half-chance to put Croatia through and dump Spain out. And finally it was all over for Croatia in the 88th minute when Spain debatably broke the offside trap to score what would be the winner, Croatia paying the price for their lack of numbers going forward when they had the ball. Quotes or other material sourced from BBC Sport Reader Comments (14) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads