A late penalty from Louis Fenton wasn't enough to salvage a point for New Zealand as they lost 2-1 to Croatia at the under-20 World Cup overnight.
After two defeats in their opening games, New Zealand required a high scoring win against Croatia to have any chance of progressing to the next round. With that in mind coach Chris Milicich made three changes from the team that lost to Uruguay. Crocombe and Tuiloma were restored to the starting line up and Van Elia was given his first start in the tournament.
Dinko Jelicic made nine changes to his Croatia side that drew with Uzbekistan.
Croatia looked to expose their aerial advantage early. A deep cross from the left found striker Perica unchallenged in the area. Having initially come out to try and take the cross Crocombe was left stranded as Perica's header went over the keeper to open the scoring for Croatia.
Ivancic rattled the crossbar from close range on the 28th minute and Crocombe was forced into a close range save not long later as Croatia looked to press their advantage and end the game quickly. Just before half time Tuiloma made a desperate headed clearance from almost off this line to keep the score at 1-0.
