Welsh pressure told when a cross-field kick on the sixth tackle by lively scrum-half Sammut saw Dyer climbhigh and throw a speculative pass to the right wing, where centre Tony Martin cashed in.
Within minutes, Jelavic just failed to climbhigh enough to connect with a cross from fellow substitute Ivan Perisic and Croatia were furious when Vedran Corluka appeared to have his shirt pulled in the penalty area, only for the offence to go unseen.
"Our main version is a spontaneous move by the stabiliser into an extreme position that caused the plane to make a steep climb at high speed, " Mr Chernov told Russian NTV television.