Team Sheet: Croatia

Written by Vidit Bhandarkar

These notes were gathered in preparation for our panel discussion of the favorites and dark horses for this year’s World Cup in Russia.

  • Manager: Zlatko Dalic (as of October 2017 after Ante Cacic got sacked) – no notable playing career
    • 5 games managed, 3W, 1D, 1L, 60% win percentage
    • “Whatever the draw has in store for us, even if world champions Germany are one of the rivals, our goal is to progress to the knockout stage.”
    • “We are headed for Russia with the attitude that we are good enough to avoid making an early exit.”
  • 18th in FIFA rankings (very strong squad and didn’t live up to expectations in the Euros. Dark horses for WC – point to prove)
  • Odds: 40-1
    • Croatia is the twelfth favorite to win the WC, behind Russia
  • Placed 2nd in Group I in Europe behind Iceland. Group had Turkey, Ukraine, Finland and Kosovo
    • Won 6, drew 2, lost 2
    • Beat Greece in the playoffs 4-1 on aggregate (4-1, 0-0)
  • Croatia have participated 4 times, the first being 1998
    • Best performance was semi-final of 1998 (finished 3rd)
  • Group D (group of death)
    • Argentina
    • Iceland
    • Nigeria
  • Got knocked out in the group stage in the 2014 WC
    • Group leaders were Brazil followed by Mexico, Croatia and Cameroon
  • Won the group ahead of Spain, Turkey and the Czech Republic (surprising, but were considered dark horses)
    • Knocked out 1-0 by Portugal in the round of 16. This was surprising since Portugal finished 3rd in their group and Croatia were looking much better.
  • Latest friendlies
    • Peru 2-0 Croatia
    • Croatia 1-0 Mexico
  • Squad
    • Goalkeepers: Dominik Livakovic (GNK Dinamo Zagreb), Lovre Kalinic (K.A.A. Gent), Danijel Subasic (AS Monaco)
    • Defenders: Sime Vrsaljko (Atletico Madrid), Ivan Strinic (Sampdoria), Matej Mitrovic (Club Brugge), Dejan Lovren (Liverpool), Domagoj Vida (Beşiktaş), Josip Pivaric (Dynamo Kyiv), Vedran Corluka (Lokomotiv Moscow), Tin Jedvaj (Bayer Leverkusen)
    • Midfielders: Ivan Perisic (Inter Milan), Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona), Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan), Marko Rog (Napoli), Milan Badelj (Fiorentina), Mateo Kovacic (Real Madrid)
    • Forwards: Andrej Kramaric (1899 Hoffenheim), Marko Pjaca (Schalke 04), Nikola Kalinic (AC Milan), Mario Mandzukic (Juventus)
  • Players missing out
    • Srna
  • Key Players
    • Modric
    • Rakitic
    • Mandzukic
    • Perisic
  • Underrated player
    • Kovacic

References:

Croatia want to avoid Serbia in World Cup draw, says Dalic. (2017a, November 30). Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-worldcup-cro-dalic/croatia-want-to-avoid-serbia-in-world-cup-draw-says-dalic-idUKKBN1DU335

Croatia want to avoid Serbia in World Cup draw, says Dalic. (2017b, November 30). Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-worldcup-cro-dalic/croatia-want-to-avoid-serbia-in-world-cup-draw-says-dalic-idUKKBN1DU335

Croatia World Cup 2018 Squad & Possible Lineup. (2018, April 15). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.totalsportek.com/football/croatia-squad-world-cup/

FIFA.com. (1900, January 1). CROATIA. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/stories/y=2017/m=11/news=croatia-2921186.html

FIFA.com. (n.d.-a). 2018 FIFA World Cup RussiaTM – Qualifiers – Europe. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/europe/group=276485/index.html

FIFA.com. (n.d.-b). 2018 FIFA World Cup RussiaTM – Teams – Croatia. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/teams/team=43938/index.html

FIFA.com. (n.d.-c). The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – Ranking Table. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/index.html

UEFA.com. (n.d.). Croatia – European Qualifiers. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.uefa.com/european-qualifiers/season=2018/teams/team=56370/index.html

Zlatko Dalić. (2018, April 28). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zlatko_Dali%C4%87&oldid=838608821