Croatia were made to work hard for their narrow victory as Austria, cheered on by a partisan home crowd at the Ernst Happel Stadion, recovered from a poor opening half-hour to push Slaven Bilic's men all the way to the final whistle.

Some Austrians petitioned for their side to withdraw from the tournament for fear of being embarrassed and when Croatia went ahead from the earliest penalty ever conceded in the European Championships, it seemed that they may have had a point.

The co-hosts' defender Rene Aufhauser bundled over Ivica Olic near the by-line in the third minute and Dutch referee Pieter Vink immediately pointed to the spot. Middlesbrough defender Emanuael Pogatetz was booked for his protests but Modric kept his cool, stepping up to send keeper Jurgen Macho the wrong way.

Modric nearly turned provider with fifteen minutes gone when his dangerous set-piece delivery was narrowly missed at the near post by Olic, who with half-an-hour gone, made a complete fool of Pogatetz, nutmegging the Boro defender with a cheeky back-heel by the corner flag. Pogatetz pulled back the CSKA Moscow forward and was extremely lucky to avoid a second yellow card.

Mladen Petric - the man whose goal at Wembley last year eliminated England - should have done much better when he was picked out in space at the far post by Vedran Corluka's cross but the Borussia Dortmund striker blasted a volley high and wide when he had the time and space to take a first touch.

Austria had their best spell of the first period as half-time approached. Martin Harnik's dangerous cross had to be cleared by Josip Simunic before Joachim Standfest put a free-header wide of the target following a deep delivery from the left.

Modric and Olic nearly combined again just before the hour mark when the Spurs man took advantage of some slack defending but his drilled cross was scrambled clear by Martin Stranzl with Olic waiting to pounce.

Austria again grew as the half progressed but aside from a header from the edge of the box by substitute Ivica Vastic on 79 minutes and a long-range drive from Unit Korkmaz five minutes from the end, Stipe Pletikosa in the Croatia goal was relatively untroubled.

Roman Kienast headed narrowly wide from a free-kick in the final minute of added time, but Croatia held on to claim the spoils and set the early pace in Group B.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic admitted the occasion got to his players.

"Some players were overwhelmed by playing at a great tournament but we started off with the best possible way - with a win," Bilic said.

"In the first 35 minutes we played excellently, of course the early lead contributed to that.

"They exerted more pressure in the second half and I'm sure that is not to do with a lack of strength from our players. But we confined ourselves to our penalty area too early.

"The last 15 minutes or so when they play all or nothing, you can do that - but we started in the 60th minute or so."

"This was the worst possible start you can have in an opening match of a major tournament," said Austria coach Josef Hickersberger. "We took some time to recover, during the first 30 minutes we were nervous.

"For the rest of the match we were playing the way we should have been playing. We even dominated in the second half of the match.

"We had good opportunities but unfortunately we weren't able to score a goal so we are empty handed. In our remaining games we need four points to go through."