Croatian captain criticises ref

Croatia's outgoing soccer captain has claimed that his team was unfairly denied a chance to reach the quarter-finals in the Euro 2012 tournament.

In the wake of Croatia's decisive group clash with Spain, Darijo Srna said that his side was denied two penalties because the referee was biased against minor European countries.

Croatia ultimately lost 1-0 in the match, which was refereed by German Wolfgang Stark.

We played better than Spain, but the referee refused to give us two penalties, Srna lamented, as quoted by UK paper The Guardian.

We played so well. I can feel that they don't respect us. Croatia in the last six years has been among the best 10 teams in Europe. It's not respect.

Srna insisted that Spain would have been awarded the penalty opportunities, had similar circumstances occurred.

If they had the same situations for Spain, they would give a penalty, he said.

We can't change anything but it's not nice when someone doesn't respect you.