Euro 2016: Croatia's Rakitic slams supporters for crowd trouble after pulsating draw against Czech Republic

The match between Croatia and Czech Republic was stopped for a while as flares were thrown on the pitch. Trouble broke out between the match after Croatia were leading 2-1. English referee Mark Clattenburg had to stop the match and took the players to the side. There was a fight in the Croatian end and the players were seen urging the fans not to create trouble. Things went from bad to worse when the Czech Republic scored a goal in injury time to come back from 2-0 down. 

UEFA said disciplinary proceedings would be opened on Saturday once they had received the official reports about the trouble from the match delegate and referee Mark Clattenburg The English referee called the players to the centre of the pitch and consulted an official after the trouble broke out, while Croatia's players appealed for calm from the fans. An announcement over the public address system at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard pleaded with the Croatia supporters to "leave the stadium and don't embarrass our country".

Play eventually resumed with the Czechs getting an equaliser with a penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw in the Group D match. The drama left Croatia's frustrated players unhappy. "We lost our pace when play was suspended because of our supporters," Ivan Rakitic, who made the score 2-0, said. Ivan Perisic, who had put Croatia ahead, added: "I cannot understand why we have to waste out energy to calm our own supporters." 

With agency inputs