Italy held 1-1 by Croatia at San Siro

Croatia’s Ivan Perisic celebrates his goal during the EURO 2016 Group H Qualifier match between Italy and Croatia at

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Milan, Nov 17 Italy were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Croatia in a heated Euro2016 qualifier which was halted in each half as fans threw missiles onto the pitch.

Italy went ahead in the 11th minutes through Antonio Candreva who scored his first international goal, and Croatia's Ivan Perisic hit the equaliser four minutes later Sunday, reports Xinhua.

Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers had to suspend play in both halves after visiting fans threw fireworks and smoke bombs onto the pitch.

Italy head coach Antonio Conte seemed less impressed by the result which ended his perfect record of three straight wins after taking over the national team.

"It's not easy against an experienced quality team who ran more than us," said Conte. "My side did not give up, they had the will to play, but they could have done more."

The draw left the two sides level on 10 points at the top of Group H after four games with both teams having gone into the encounter on the back of three straight wins in qualifying.