There are losses that hurt and others that leave a scar. The 7-0 defeat suffered by Croatia against England in the Nations League undoubtedly belongs to the second category. An evening to forget for the national team in checkered clothes, defeated in front of its own audience and unable to resist a team that dominated from start to finish.
What makes the debacle even more serious is not only the result, but the way it was achieved. The most worrying data is related to the attitude, because the Croatian national team has always made the fight for every ball one of its characteristics, but this time it seemed to be missing even that. To emphasize this, Luka Modrić spoke at the end of the match.
Modrić: "I've been here for 20 years, but this is the first time I feel ashamed"
The captain did not seek excuses. In front of the microphones he spoke with the clarity and severity of someone who knows that he has a completely wrong evening ahead of him. “It is difficult to find an explanation for such a performance,” he said at the beginning. Then he showed unequivocally what the team lacked: “We played a match without duels, fouls, aggression, cohesion. Everything that has always characterized us was missing.”
Words that indicate a crisis of character above all. Croatia did not show that capacity to suffer and react that had many times enabled them to overcome obstacles that seemed insurmountable. A surrender that, for Modrić, is even more difficult to accept considering the journey built by the national team in the last twenty years: "I've been here for twenty years, but this is the first time I feel ashamed after a match. You can lose, it happens, someone can be stronger than you and at the moment they are. But it is not acceptable to lose like this".
Modrić: "I feel really ashamed"
The captain thus acknowledges the superiority of the opponent, but rejects the idea that a national team like Croatia would surrender without a fight. Losing is part of football, giving up your identity is something else. From here comes the reference to the reputation built over an extraordinary generation: "To waste the reputation we have built in this way is unacceptable. I feel truly ashamed."
The reference is to a team that reached the 2018 World Cup final and transformed Croatia into a permanent presence at the top of international football. A generation led precisely by Modrić, who over the years has become the symbol of a movement that has known how to compete with the great powers of world football.
7-0, therefore, cannot be considered just a heavy defeat. It is an alarm signal that raises questions about the future. The generation of protagonists of the last decade is already in the final phase of its journey and generational replacement represents an increasingly obvious need.
The question is inevitable: was it just a completely wrong night or are we facing the final signal of a cycle? An answer will only come with time. One match cannot erase years of results, but a debacle of this magnitude cannot be archived as a simple incident. Especially because what is worrying is not just the seven goals conceded, but the lack of a response.
Croatia must start from this wound and understand what identity it wants to have in the future. The legacy left by Modrić and his generation is extraordinary. And that is precisely why the captain's words weigh almost as much as the result: when one of the symbols of the national team manages to speak of shame, it means that that night left something much deeper than a simple defeat.
