France face an uphill task to reach the Nations League semi-finals after a convincing 2-0 quarter-final first-leg loss to Croatia on Thursday.
The hosts should have taken the lead in the eighth minute, only for goalkeeper Mike Maignan to save Andrej Kramaric's tame penalty. Despite that setback, Croatia deservedly went in front 18 minutes later when Ante Budimir's header squirmed past Maignan from Ivan Perisic's inviting cross.
The lacklustre visitors struggled to fashion meaningful chances, and on the stroke of half-time it was 2-0 when Perisic lashed in an arrowed drive into the corner from 15 yards.
France showed signs of life early in the second half when Ousmane Dembele flashed a shot into the side netting, before stinging the hands of Dominik Livakovic soon after. Substitute Bradley Barcola also had a gilt-edged chance to pull a goal back, but he couldn't connect with Matteo Guendouzi's enticing delivery across the six-yard box.
Kylian Mbappe showed flashes of his quality, but they were too few and far between in front of a raucous home crowd in Split, and Didier Deschamps' side will need to be a lot better for the second leg of this quarter-final tie on Sunday.
GOAL rates France's players from Stadion Poljud...