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