Ivan Rakitić the competition. On 15 October 2008, he scored a brace in a 4–0 win at home to Andorra. On 5 September 2009, he scored the match-winning goal in a 1–0 win at home to Belarus. Croatia failed to qualify for the finals after finishing third in their group. After appearing in all of their Euro 2012 qualifiers, he was selected to be part of the Croatian squad at the Euro finals in Poland and Ukraine. Croatia were drawn in Group C together with Spain, Italy and the Republic of Ireland. Rakitić started in all three of Croatia group stage matches.
2012 Stanley Cup Finals first two and the final two games, while the NBC Sports Network televised games three and four. The 2012 Final rated poorly in comparison to the four most recent Stanley Cup Finals on United States television. The first four games were marred by low ratings; had the series ended in four games, this series would have produced the lowest television ratings ever for a championship series of any major league sport. However, game five and game six produced somewhat higher ratings than the first four games, which gave the 2012 Final a slightly higher rating than the Final (which was