At risk of going home early after opening their Euro 2020 campaign with two limp draws, Luis Enrique’s side produced a 5-0 win over Slovakia to book their place in the knockout rounds.
After 120 minutes of chaos, Spain ultimately won 5-3 and will face either France or Switzerland in the quarterfinals in Saint Petersburg on Saturday.
It was Simon’s horrendous error which led to Pedri scoring a barely believable 40-yard own goal to give Croatia the lead.
“It’s true I’ve been through things I haven’t liked, but the majority of Spain is with me,” Morata said afterwards.
“We had chances to finish the game off quite early on but we showed character throughout,” said Sergio Busquets afterwards.
Barcelona midfielder Pedri, still only 18, was excellent in helping Spain reach the brink of victory in normal time while Ferran Torres was impressive in his role on the wing, getting a goal and an assist.
Back in favour, he scored his first international goal to put Spain 2-1 on this day and also kept Josko Gvardiol quiet after the Croatia full-back caused so many problems for Scotland in their final group game.
“We had to suffer there,” said Azpilicueta.
Hit by Covid-19 during their preparations and finishing second in Group E behind Sweden to end up in the tougher side of the draw, Spain aren’t doing things the easy way at Euro 2020.