Croatia at the FIFA World Cup


have appeared in the FIFA World Cup on five occasions since gaining independence in 1991. Before that, from 1930 to 1990 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. Their best result thus far was reaching the 2018 final, where they lost 4-2 to France.

Overview

CROATIA

Croatia in France 1998

In the draw for the final tournament, held on 4 December 1997 at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, Croatia was drawn to play in Group H, along with two other teams which qualified for the World Cup for the first time, Jamaica and Japan, and two-time World Cup winners Argentina. In their first match Croatia beat Jamaica 3-1, in a game memorable for Croatia's first ever World Cup goal, an opener scored by Mario Stanić in the 27th minute. Croatia went on to beat Japan 1-0 before losing their third group stage match against Argentina 0-1, in a game which was of little importance as both teams had already qualified for round of 16.
In round of 16, Croatia faced Group G winners Romania and won the game through a penalty converted by Davor Šuker in stoppage time of the first half after a foul on Aljoša Asanović by Gabriel Popescu. After that Croatia faced Germany in the quarter-finals, in a game which was at the time touted by the Croatian media as a great opportunity to get back at Germany as it was them who had knocked out Croatia in the UEFA Euro 1996 quarter-finals two years earlier. In the 40th minute Christian Wörns received a direct red card and was sent off for fouling Davor Šuker, and Robert Jarni opened the scoring eight minutes later in stoppage time of the first half. Goran Vlaović and Davor Šuker added a second and third and the game ended in a 3-0 win, which is still regarded by fans and the media as one of the most memorable matches Croatia ever played.
Croatia went on to face hosts France in the semi-finals, but lost the game 1-2 when an opener scored by Šuker in the 46th minute was immediately equalised by Lilian Thuram the following minute. Thuram also scored France's second goal in the 69th minute. These were the only two goals Thuram ever scored for France in an international career spanning from 1994 to 2008 which saw him earn a total of 147 caps. After Croatia's exit manager Blažević was heavily criticized by Croatian press for not sending in Robert Prosinečki soon enough after France took the lead. Croatia captain Zvonimir Boban tried to take the blame for the defeat saying that he felt he needed to be substituted but wanted to stay on the pitch just a little while longer.
After being knocked out in the semi-finals, Croatia looked for consolation against Netherlands in the third place match played just three days later at Parc des Princes. Croatia went on to win 2-1 through goals by Šuker and Prosinečki, but after the final whistle Dražen Ladić was labelled player of the match, for a career-best performance which saw him save numerous shots from Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf and Marc Overmars.

Squad

Manager Miroslav Blažević included the following 22 players in the finals tournament squad. The 16 players who were capped at least once in one of the seven matches Croatia played in France are highlighted in bold. The remaining six players were unused at the tournament. On the other hand, six players appeared in all seven matches: goalkeeper Dražen Ladić, defender Slaven Bilić, midfielders Aljoša Asanović, Mario Stanić, Robert Jarni, and striker Davor Šuker.
Out of 11 goals scored by Croatia at the tournament, six were scored by Davor Šuker, who was awarded the Golden Shoe Award for the top goalscorer of the tournament, as well as the Silver Ball Award as the second most outstanding player of the tournament. Robert Prosinečki, also scored two goals in matches against Jamaica and the Netherlands, which made him the only player in World Cup history to score goals at finals tournaments for two different countries.
For three players this was their second appearance at the World Cup, having been members of Yugoslavia squad at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Alen Bokšić would have been fourth, having been a key player in Croatia's qualifying campaign, but he was dropped from the tournament squad after sustaining an injury just months before the tournament in France.
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Round of 16

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Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third-place match

Legacy

By beating Netherlands, Croatia finished third in their World Cup debut, a feat matched only by Eusébio's Portugal in the 1966 World Cup 32 years earlier. Consequently, Croatia reached their highest ever FIFA ranking when they were third in the world for three months between January and March 1999 and were given the Best Mover of the Year Award in 1998, the only team so far which won the award twice. Upon returning to Croatia, the whole squad was decorated by President Franjo Tuđman, and were nicknamed "Brončani" and "Vatreni'" in the media. The latter stuck as a permanent nickname for the national team.
Most players continued playing for the team throughout the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifiers, but after Croatia failed to qualify manager Miroslav Blažević resigned and soon after that some of the players retired from the national team. The next manager Mirko Jozić kept some of the remaining members of the Bronze Generation and even took them to 2002 FIFA World Cup, but they failed to make an impact at the tournament and almost all of them retired soon afterwards, but a number of them later became prominent figures in Croatian football.
Zvonimir Boban went into sports publishing and took over as CEO of Croatia's sports daily Sportske novosti in 2005 and worked as a commentator for Italian television stations. Šuker launched his line of sports apparel and established a football academy carrying his name. Zvonimir Soldo, Robert Jarni, Slaven Bilić, Igor Štimac and Dražen Ladić all took up managing jobs. Štimac later became chairman of the association of Prva HNL clubs, the body regulating top flight football in Croatia, and Bilić took over as Croatia manager in 2006, hiring Aljoša Asanović, Robert Prosinečki and Marijan Mrmić as his assistants. Dražen Ladić took up managing the Croatia under-21 team in 2006, and Krunoslav Jurčić is the current manager at Dinamo Zagreb, having been appointed in 2009. Miroslav Blažević later managed a number of clubs in Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland before taking over as Bosnia and Herzegovina manager in 2008 and sensationally leading them to the verge of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

Croatia in Korea/Japan 2002

Squad

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Croatia in Germany 2006

Squad

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Croatia in Brazil 2014

Squad

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Croatia in Russia 2018

Squad

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Round of 16

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Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Final

List of matches

Players with most appearances

is the only Croatian player to ever win the Golden Ball award. He was team captain in 2018, when Croatia reached the World Cup final.
No.NameMatchesWorld Cups
1Luka Modrić122006, 2014 and 2018
2Dario Šimić111998, 2002 and 2006
3Robert Jarni*101998 and 2002
3Dejan Lovren102014 and 2018
3Ivan Perišić102014 and 2018
3Ivan Rakitić102014 and 2018
7Mario Stanić91998 and 2002
7Stipe Pletikosa92002, 2006 and 2014
7Ante Rebić92014 and 2018
10Zvonimir Soldo81998 and 2002
10Davor Šuker81998 and 2002
10Ivica Olić82002, 2006 and 2014
10Šime Vrsaljko82014 and 2018
10Mateo Kovačić82014 and 2018
10Mario Mandžukić82014 and 2018

*Robert Jarni also played one match at the 1990 World Cup, representing SFR Yugoslavia.

Goalscorers

*Robert Prosinečki also scored one goal at the 1990 World Cup, representing SFR Yugoslavia.

Awards

Team Awards
Individual Awards