Holders Spain lost for the first time in 15 matches at the European Championship finals on Tuesday when Croatia beat them 2-1 to win Group D at Euro 2016.

Ivan Perisic scored the winner with three minutes left after Croatia keeper Danijel Subasic had saved a penalty from Spain captain Sergio Ramos with 20 minutes remaining.

Croatia's Nikola Kalinic had cancelled out an early goal from Spain striker Alvaro Morata in the first half.

Spain meet Group E winners Italy in a heavyweight last-16 tie on Monday in Paris -- a rematch of the 2012 final -- while Croatia will play one of the third-placed teams in Lens on Saturday.

Spain would need to beat Italy and then possibly Germany and France or England to reach the final. Having been so convinced that the tournament was there for the taking after they put paid to Turkey in their second game it was no wonder the headline on Diario AS's match report read: 'dragged to the dark side'.

Sergio Ramos and goalkeeper David de Gea were not given a mark by the Madrid-based paper as the finger of blame also pointed in Ramos' direction.

Meanwhile, Marca chose to focus on the teams that Spain could now go on to face, with the prospect of their progress further into the tournament becoming bleaker.

The front of Sport used a photograph of Sergio Ramos and seemed to blame his penalty miss for the loss.

The last time a major tournament was held in France Croatia finished third. After last night's heroics Davor Suker, who played in those finals before securing a move to Arsenal, hailed the new national heroes and defended the country's football supporters.

He said: 'I said before the tournament that I thought we could be the surprise of the tournament and that's what I want us to be, not the favourites but the surprise.

‘We have seen a very strong Croatian team but we also showed we can play. We played one of the best teams in world football but we took advantage of how they game went after they missed the penalty. Maybe a draw was a fairer result but we'll take it. I don't want to put the pressure on them by comparing them to the team from 1998.'