Date: 03-06-2002
Stage: first round
Place: NIJGATA
Running time: 116 min.
Colour: PAL
Quality: HD 1080 50fps (9,5)
Commentary: MULTI : spanish/english/italian
My rating: **
Notes: Blanco,Marquez,Borgetti, Boksic,Prosinecki,Suker
MATCH SUMMARY
Monday, 3 June 2002, 18:00
Niigata Stadium, Niigata
Attendance: 33,679
Meteo: Cloudy, light breeze, 17°C
MEXICO
Óscar Pérez
Claudio Suárez
Rafael Márquez
Ramón Morales
Salvador Carmona
Gerardo Torrado
Cuauhtémoc Blanco
Jesús Arellano
Jared Borgetti
Pável Pardo
Alberto García Aspe (c)
Coach: Javier Aguirre (MEX)
45′ Claudio Suárez
63′ ↓Cuauhtémoc Blanco ↑Francisco Palencia
74′ ↓Jared Borgetti ↑Jesús Olalde
CROATIA
Stipe Pletikosa
Dario Šimić
Igor Tudor
Robert Jarni
Boris Živković
Niko Kovač
Robert Prosinečki (c)
Davor Šuker
Josip Šimunić
Ivica Olić
Zvonimir Soldo
Coach: Mirko Jozić (CRO)
70′ Josip Šimunić
58′ ↓Davor Šuker ↑Alen Bokšić
78′ ↓Ivica Olić ↑Boško Balaban
Referee: Urs Meier (SUI)
Goals:
61′ Cuauhtémoc Blanco (p) MEX
Match overview
Mexico started their World Cup campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory over Croatia. The match was evenly contested until a penalty in the second half, confidently converted by Cuauhtémoc Blanco, gave Mexico the edge.
Trivia
This was Croatia’s first World Cup match without a win since their 1998 debut. Blanco’s penalty marked Mexico’s 40th goal in World Cup history.
