Early penalty proves enough for Croatia

Vienna: An early Luka Modric penalty and some committed late defending proved enough for Croatia to beat co-hosts Austria 1-0 and get their Euro 2008 Group B campaign off to a winning start on Sunday.

Croatia were worth their win against a team placed 92nd in FIFA's world rankings to set the pace, before group rivals Germany and Poland met in Klagenfurt later on Sunday (1845 GMT).

Austria's disjointed efforts in the first hour betrayed a two-year lack of competitive action but they came to life in the latter stages.

In a rousing finale that had the 51,428 crowd roaring, they laid siege to the Croatian area but though a combination of misplaced passes and desperate defending rarely threatened goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, controversially named man of the match by UEFA.

"I am not entirely happy with the performance in the second half but we were very good in the opening period and should have led by a bigger margin at halftime," said Croatia coach Slaven Bilic.

Austria coach Josef Hickersberger took heart from the second-half display by the 80-1 tournament outsiders: "The last 30 minutes showed that Austrian football is getting better," he said.

"For their effort and passion the team deserved to come away with more than a defeat."

The game had begun in a great atmosphere as Croatia's 20,000 fans outsung the home supporters but the die was cast while they were all settling back into their seats after the anthems.

Ivica Olic was chasing a hopeful ball towards the byline when he was clumsily and unnecessarily brought down by Rene Aufhauser, allowing Modric to convert from the spot with four minutes on the clock.

The goal immediately settled the Croatians, whose neat-passing midfielders began coolly knocking the ball around.

Mladen Petric, unmarked in the area, should have doubled the lead late in the half after a deep cross from Vedran Corluka but blasted wide.

Croatia, who finished above absent England in qualifying thanks in part to the 10 goals of injured striker Eduardo Da Silva, could have done with his finishing on Sunday as their dominance failed to produce the killer second goal.

They began to sit deeper and deeper after the break as Austria came out looking much more positive and began to swing in some dangerous crosses.

The introduction of Umit Korkmaz on the left for the last 20 minutes added further bite to their attacks and they built an impressive momentum.

Fellow substitute Roman Kienast was within inches of becoming a national hero in injury time when he somehow dragged himself free of the wrestled attentions of the visiting defence only for his glanced header to trickle wide.

"That was a bitter defeat," Kienast said. "We got stuck with a stupid penalty. If we hadn't given that away we would certainly have played better in the first half."

Both teams can take something from the game but Croatia will have to be more positive when they face Germany in Klagenfurt while the Austrians cannot afford to start so slowly when they take on Poland back in Vienna, both on Thursday.