HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Croatia rung the changes as they went in search of their first points at the European Championship, bringing in three new starters for Wednesday’s Group B clash against Albania at the Volksparkstadion.
Veteran Ivan Perisic was named at left wingback, while Josip Juranovic was brought into defence and striker Bruno Petkovic added to the attack in place of Ante Budimir after Croatia lost 3-0 in their opening game against Spain at the weekend.
It is an unusually attacking line-up named by coach Zlatko Dalic, who is looking to get his country’s campaign back on track.
Albania, who scored after 23 seconds of their opener against Italy before losing 2-1, made two changes to their starting line-up with Qazim Laci brought into the midfield in place of Taulant Seferi, while English-born Armando Broja was dropped for Rey Manaj.
Teams:
Croatia: Dominik Livakovic; Josip Juranovic, Josip Sutalo, Ivan Perisic, Josko Gvardiol; Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic, Luka Modric (c); Andrej Kramaric, Lovro Majer, Bruno Petkovic
Albania: Thomas Strakosha; Elseid Hysaj, Arlind Arjeti, Berat Djimsiti (c), Mario Mitaj; Kristjan Asllani, Ylber Ramadani, Qazim Laci; Jasir Asani, Nedim Bajrami, Rey Manaj
(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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