Croatia beat France in Nations League

Croatia's Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic struck to secure a deserved 2-0 win over France in their Nations League quarter-final, first leg on Thursday, as the return of Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele failed to get the visitors to fire, reportsc Reuters.

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 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.

France enjoyed almost two-thirds of the possession, but found Croatia tough to break down and when they did craft openings they were wasteful in front of goal.

"We lost the first leg, we're going to make sure we win the second at home," France coach Didier Deschamps told TF1. "Our first half was below what we were capable of. We will do everything to turn the situation around.

"We were punished in the first half. We were far too wasteful on a technical level and gave opportunities to the opponent."

AFP from United States adds: Cecilio Waterman scored a stoppage-time winner as Panama stunned defending champions the United States 1-0 to book their place in the CONCACAF Nations League final on Thursday.

In a shock result in Mauricio Pochettino's first competitive match in charge of the United States, Waterman slammed home a low angled finish in the fourth minute of stoppage time to send the holders crashing out at the SoFi Stadium.

Panama will play either Mexico or Canada in Sunday's final.