Lazio forward Antonio Candreva struck a first-half leveller from the penalty spot as Italy held Croatia 1-1 in a closed-doors Euro 2016 qualifier that could lead to further sanctions for the hosts.

Candreva beat Danijel Subasic from the spot nine minutes before half-time to pull the match level after Mario Mandzukic had beaten Gianluigi Buffon, who was replaced at half-time, after sliding in to toe poke the ball home on 11 minutes.

The result leaves Croatia top of Group H with their two-point lead on Italy intact.

It helped Antonio Conte’s men avoid the ignominy of being overtaken by Norway, who were held to a scoreless draw in Oslo by Azerbaijan to remain third two points further adrift.

But Niko Kovac’s men could be treading a thin line, two months after Croatian Football Federation (HNS) president Davor Suker admitted their next sanctions could involve the “revoking of points and being kicked out of competition”.

UEFA had ordered Friday’s qualifier to be played behind closed doors, in a virtually empty stadium, as punishment for fan violence and racist incidents when Croatia played Norway earlier in the qualifying campaign.

Croatia’s fans extended their ill-gotten reputation last November when sporadic incidents of violence and the throwing of rocket flares by fans temporarily halted a 1-1 draw with Italy in Milan.

On Friday, a swastika was clearly seen on the pitch at the Poljud Stadium, the home of Croatian top flight side Hajduk Split.

It was not clear if the Nazi symbol was mowed into the grass or painted, but ground crew struggled to cover it up during halftime.

Suker, interviewed by Rai, said: “We’ll speak about it tomorrow, but I’m very angry and disappointed.”

At the San Siro last year Niko Kovac’s men were unlucky not to come away with a win that would have bolstered their lead of Group H, but despite a sluggish start Italy rebounded from being disallowed a goal and then losing Buffon to injury to fight back in style.

A lively Croatia caught Italy unawares in a lively opening period and were on their way to an early lead when Davide Astori fouled Darijo Srna in the box, but Buffon did well to stop what was a flawed effort from Mandzukic from the spot.

Conte, forced by injury absences to deploy an inhabitual 4-3-3, had given a rare start to Stephan El Shaarawy and the AC Milan forward had the ball in the net minutes later only to see his goal harshly disallowed for offside.

“We were a little naive at the start but we were sure the goal by El Shaarawy was valid,” said Conte.

“There was nothing wrong with the goal and then we suffered a double blow (with Croatia’s goal). I think the referee should have stopped play.”

Italy’s players were incredulous, but while they spent time arguing with the fourth official Croatia launched a counter-attack which saw Barcelona forward Ivan Rakitic fire the ball over for Mandzukic to poke it past Buffon in the 11th minute.

Italy almost conceded a second minutes later, with Buffon at full stretch after Ivan Perisic fired across the bows and happy to see Ivica Olic miss contact after he slid in unchallenged.

Buffon was limping during the first half and was replaced by Salvatore Sirigu for the second half.

Both sides spurned several chances to score but what was a largely experimental Italy side, due to injuries this week to Marco Verratti, Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli among others, will be buoyed from taking a share of the points.

“It was a good performance by us compared to our last meeting, we showed far more determination and will to play football,” added Conte.

“I thought we deserved a little more.”