Croatia National Football Team

Manager / Zlatko Dalic
Appointed / October 2017
Captain / Luka Modric
Top Scorer in Euro 2020 Qualifiers / Bruno Petkovic, 4
Top Scorer in Squad (Domestic season 2020-21) / Andrej Kramaric, 20 (Hoffenheim, German Bundesliga)
Most Carded in qualifying / 5 players on 2 yellows (Laimer, Arnautovic, Lazaro, Sabitzer, Dragovic)
Group / D, vs. England (14/06/2021), vs. Czech Republic (19/06/2021), vs. Scotland (23/06/2021)

* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing *

Croatia Road to Euro 2020

Croatia surprised many in 2018 by reaching the final of the World cup beating the likes of England enroute before eventually being overpowered by an impressive French side in the final. It was a fine year for Croatian football with Captain Luka Modric winning the Ballon d’Or for his exceptional form with both club and country.

It has all been a little bit downhill since then. Croatia enjoyed a golden era in their football history with a number of exceptional players all coming through at once. Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic have both now retired and at 35 Luka Modric is no longer quite the footballing force he once was. Unsurprisingly results have suffered as a consequence with Croatia only scraping through qualification. They suffered a surprising defeat to Hungary while managing a narrow win against Azerbaijan and a draw against the same opponent but quite frankly have been largely unconvincing for the best part of 18 months now.

Nations league form has been even worse with Zlatko Dalic’s men only managing one win from their 6 games played. Their most recent displays in the World Cup 2022 qualifiers were particularly worrying, losing to Slovenia and struggling to stamp their authority over minors Cyprus and Malta. Croatia do however thrive on being written off and being classed as the underdog and tend to save their best performances for major tournaments.

Croatia Euro 2020 Squad

Very much a changing of the guard happening within Croatian football just now as many high-profile players have either retired or this will likely be their last major tournament. Rakitic and Mandzukic have gone and it is likely both Ivan Perisic and Luka Modric will follow suit following the conclusion of this tournament. Age is creeping up on a number of players, including key members of their backline. Almost half the likely starting eleven is over the age of 30 and we will have to wait and see whether this is an issue come the start of the tournament.

Goalkeeper

A relatively inexperienced trio of keepers named by Dalic with just 40 international caps between the three of them. Number 1 at World Cup 2018 Danijel Subasic at the age of 36 is now retired and it will now be up to Dominik Livaković (Dinamo Zagreb), Lovre Kalinić (Hajduk Split), Simon Sluga (Luton) to make a claim for the number 1 jersey. Widely accepted by Croat sources that Livakovic will be number 1 at the tournament but it isn’t clear-cut with both him and Kalinic on 19 caps each. Not a particularly strong area of the side by all accounts with Croatia conceding goals at will for well over a year now.

Defence

Croatia need to urgently fix their major weakness since Russia 2018 — their defence. They leaked goals in the past two years, conceding 32 goals in 12 Nations League matches since the World Cup. This is a major concern and for Croatia to be a threat, they will need their back four to reproduce the form of 2018 which took them all the way to the World Cup final. The starting back four will look very similar to that back in Russia; Rangers’ Borna Barišić will be the only new face, joining Šime Vrsaljko, Dejan Lovren and Domagoj Vida, who were all outstanding in Russia.  The back 4 and goalkeeper certainly don’t instil confidence throughout the team at the moment but should they find their best form they can still be a solid outfit. Lovren is a Champions League winner with Liverpool, Vida has just won the Turkish title with Besiktas, Barisic won the league with Rangers as did Vrsaljko with Atletico. It could go one of two ways for Croatia from a defensive standpoint and all of their players will need to be fully focused if they want to have any chance of a successful tournament.

Midfield

Undoubtedly midfield remains the strongest area of the Croatian team with Modric, Brozovic and Kovacic all exemplary technicians and capable of mixing it with the very best in the tournament. Mislav Orsic showed the world what he can do with his tremendous hat-trick against Spurs in the Europa League which saw his club side Dinamo Zagreb through to the quarter finals. Mario Pasalic and Nikola Vlasic have impressed for their club sides too and Croatia are pretty spoilt for choice in this position. Modric does however remain the key man and if they are to have a successful tournament then he must shine once more as he did in 2018. Croatia remains heavily dependent on the Madrid midfielder. The tactics revolve around him and if he can reproduce the quality everyone knows he is capable of then anything is possible again. 

Attack

Following the retirement of Mandzukic, the highest scorer within the squad is now left winger Ivan Perisic with 27 to his name from his 99 caps. Beyond that there is a distinct lack of international goals and something that may be a problem from Croatia. There some decent names in attack including Ante Rebic of AC Milan and Andrej Kramaric of Hoffenheim both of whom had very productive seasons at club level. Kramaric in particular was prolific this season with 20 Bundesliga goals to his name seeing him as the joint 4^th top scorer in the division which is made even more impressive when you consider Hoffenheim finished 11^th in the table. Dalic tends to play just one up front so it will likely be a battle between Kramaric, Petkovic and Rebic as to who starts as the number 9 in the opening game against England. The attack is decent overall and has the potential to do well but the lack of international goals is no doubt a worry and I don’t see Croatia setting the world alight with their attacking football this summer.

Croatia predicted line-up vs. North Macedonia: A. Schlager; Lainer, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Ulmer; Baumgartlinger, X. Schlager, Alaba, Sabitzer, Baumgartner; Kalajdzic. (4-2-3-1)

Croatia Euro 2020 Betting Tips & Predictions

As you can probably tell from my preview, I am not expecting too much from Croatia this summer primarily due to their ageing squad. All of their stellar players are either retired or past their best and they feel very much like a country in a transitional period just now. However, as I said previously they are a team that does well as the underdog and it’s hard to forget what they did in Russia just 3 years ago so difficult to completely write them off just yet.

Having studied their likely route beyond the groups I feel there is a decent chance they will make the quarter-finals before being eliminated. They will likely finish 2^nd behind England in Group D and from there they will face the runners-up of Group E which will most likely pit them against either Poland or Sweden. Given their major tournament know-how I would expect them to see off either of those sides before they head to the quarter finals where a tie against the winners of Group F likely awaits. In theory this will be one of France, Germany or Portugal none of which I can see Croatia standing a chance against. Priced as 4.2 and given their likely route I think this looks a decent shout for a betting tip involving the Croats.

Predicted stage of elimination: Quarter Finals

How to watch Croatia v Czech Republic in Euro 2020

📅   When / Friday, 18 June 2021, 17:00 BST
🏟   Where / Hampden Park (Glasgow)
📺   TV / BBC One, ZDF
📱   Online streaming / bet365