Goals from Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic steered Croatia to a deserved 2-0 win over France in their Nations League quarter-final first leg in Split 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 had 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.
