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Majer shines as Croatia beats North Macedonia in Euro warm-up

Lovro Majer

Lovro Majer

VfL Wolfsburg midfielder Lovro Majer has scored a brace to help Croatia to a 3-0 victory over North Macedonia in their Euro 2024 warm-up in Rijeka today.

The 26-year-old, who was impressive when Croatia won the ACUD Cup in Egypt in March, gave coach Zlatko Dalić more to think about after a stand-out performance tonight at Rujevica Stadium.

Majer opened the scoring in the 10th minute when he curled a free-kick from 25 yards out into the corner of the net.

He doubled Croatia’s lead just before half time when he combined well with Bruno Petković before slotting home past the North Macedonia keeper.

With Croatia to face Spain in their Euro 2024 opened in 12 days, Majer has furthered his case to be included in the starting XI.

Majer played alongside Mateo Kovačić, who became Croatia’s youngest ever player to reach 100 appearances, in the first half and the pair combined well.

Majer has now scored 8 goals in a Croatia shirt and he has consistently performed for his country in recent years, primarily making an impact as a substitute by injecting creativity as the games progress.

With Luka Modrić not joining the squad until tomorrow, Dinamo Zagreb youngster was given a start in the No. 10 role and he also featured in Majer’s second goal.

Although the result was never in doubt, North Macedonia did look threatening on the counter-attack and at times the defence looked suspect which would worry Dalić. 

Marco Pašalić banged home a lose ball from inside the box to make it 3-0 in the 80th minute. It was fitting that the German-born midfielder scored his first goal for Croatia on his home ground. 

Dalić gave most of his squad some game time, making a host of substitutions in the second half.

Croatia will head to the Vatican on Thursday where they will have an audience with Pope Francis. They will then head off to Portugal for their friendly on Saturday.

They will make their way to their base in Germany direct from Portugal and start preparing for their opening match against Spain on June 15. 

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