Unai Simon, Spain’s goalkeeper, stopped Lovro Mayer and Bruno Petkovic from the penalty spot before Carvajal’s cheeky panenka gave Spain their first trophy since Euro 2012 and broke Croatian hearts.
Zlatko Dalic’s team, which finished third in 2022 and runners-up at the World Cup in 2018, has never won a major prize.
It was hoped that victory in the Nations League would bring an end to captain Luka Modric’s illustrious international career, who played his 166th international game.
Meanwhile, the victory gives new Spain coach Luis de la Fuente more self-assurance after receiving harsh criticism in March following a loss to Scotland in the Euro 2024 qualifying round.
It also made up for their 2021 final defeat at the hands of France.
The moment Spain lift their first trophy in 11 years 🇪🇸🏆 pic.twitter.com/CgAkgkYA6g
— LiveScore (@livescore) June 18, 2023
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“For us it was a unique opportunity, we went out early in another tournament (at the World Cup in Qatar) and today we had to take advantage,” Real Madrid defender Carvajal said.
“We had confidence with the penalties and it went well, I knew how I was going to shoot it, and I knew I was going to be sixth.
“I wanted to take it Panenka style and it went well.”
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