Croatia’s Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic struck to secure a deserved 2-0 win over France in their Nations League quarter-final, first leg on Thursday, as the return of Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele failed to get the visitors to fire.

Croatia also missed an early penalty when Andrej Kramaric’s spot-kick was saved by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan, and the 2023 runners-up were full value for a win that might easily have been achieved by a greater margin.

France created chances and tested Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic several times, but it was a below-par performance on a night that had promised much with the return of Mbappe in particular after he sat out his side’s last four fixtures.

France host the second leg in Paris on Sunday. The winners of the tie will face either defending champions Spain or the Netherlands in the semi-finals in June.

France enjoyed almost two-thirds of the possession, but found Croatia tough to break down and when they did craft openings they were wasteful in front of goal.

“We lost the first leg, we’re going to make sure we win the second at home,” France coach Didier Deschamps told TF1. “Our first half was below what we were capable of. We will do everything to turn the situation around.

“We were punished in the first half. We were far too wasteful on a technical level and gave opportunities to the opponent.”

EARLY PENALTY

France defender Ibrahima Konate handled in the area in the opening five minutes as he tried to control a cross from the right but Kramaric’s penalty was saved by Maignan’s legs.

Croatia took the lead after 26 minutes when Maignan initially saved superbly from Budimir’s powerful header but the ball spun back towards goal and the keeper could only watch helplessly as it trickled over the line.

The hosts doubled their advantage on the stroke of halftime as a shot was deflected to Perisic a few metres inside the penalty area and his volleyed finish low into the bottom corner of the net showed his excellent technique.

Dembele, who has scored 22 goals this year for Paris St-Germain in all competitions, had an excellent chance to cut the deficit, but his shot from eight metres hit the side-netting.

France substitute Bradley Barcola then failed to make contact with the ball when he simply had to steer it into the net from close range – a missed opportunity that summed up the visitors’ lacklustre evening.

“We were compact and disciplined,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said. “We missed the penalty, but we didn’t stop, we stayed strong. We had a lot of good situations.

“A great victory, but in three days we will have a new match.”

Denmark’s Hojlund strikes for win over Portugal

Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund came off the bench to net the winner as his side beat Portugal 1-0 in their Nations League quarter-final first leg at the Parken stadium on Thursday.

Hojlund, who has struggled to score for Manchester United this season, struck in the 78th minute to help spare the blushes of Christian Eriksen, whose first-half penalty was saved.

Denmark forward Mika Biereth almost got his international career off to the perfect start in the third minute when he blocked an attempted clearance from Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa, who managed to steer the ball behind for a corner.

Portugal’s first decent effort on target came in the eighth minute when Pedro Neto let fly with a shot from distance but Kasper Schmeichel got a strong hand to it and conceded a corner as both sides sought to attack at every opportunity.

Playmaker Eriksen was in the thick of the action throughout, and Denmark got a penalty in the 23rd when his left-foot shot was handled by Renato Veiga, but the 33-year-old’s spot kick was saved by Costa, who dived to his right to parry the ball away.

Costa again denied Biereth a debut goal in the 36th minute with another fine save and Diogo Dalot came to his keeper’s rescue just before the break, clearing an Eriksen effort before it crossed the line.

Despite Costa’s fine performance, there was little he could do about Denmark’s goal as Eriksen picked out Andreas Skov Olsen on the right of the penalty box and he squared the ball for Hojlund to steer it home with his right foot.

The 22-year-old striker could not confine his joy at scoring, celebrating with Cristiano Ronaldo’s “siu” celebration.

“It was fantastic, it was a great day in many ways,” said Hojlund. “I played against my idol (Ronaldo) and scored and was the match-winner. It couldn’t have been written much better.”

Denmark backed off after the goal and invited Portugal to attack but the home side managed to keep the visitors quiet and take a lead into Sunday’s second leg in Lisbon. The winners will meet either Italy or Germany in the semi-finals.

“We weren’t surprised, we knew they were aggressive and that they would come out strong,” said Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes. “We lacked aggression and we needed to be stronger in the duels, more intelligent in taking advantage of the depth.

“We have a difficult game ahead of us but we really want to win, and at home with our fans we are sure that we’ll be able to turn the game around,” he added.