Krstičević began his career in 1972 when he made a senior debut as a 14-year-old for Jadran Ploče. The same year he was spotted by Neretva Metković. After joining Neretva, he went to their youth academy. He debuted for them in 1975 and played with them until 1978 when he was spotted and bought by Hajduk Split. In his first season at Hajduk, he managed to win the Yugoslav championship in 1979. He played a huge part in that winning season by playing 33 times and becoming a first team regular. Despite having world class teammates such as Zlatko Vujović and Ivan Gudelj he still managed to hold his regular team status. He played in the 1979–80 European Cup where Hajduk reached the quarter-finals. He made a total of 206 appearances and 36 goals for Hajduk. Krstičević is also remembered for scoring the last goal for Hajduk on their old stadium Stari plac in 1979. In 1983, he left Hajduk and went to HNK Rijeka. After one year at Rijeka, he joined FK Velež where he won the Yugoslav Cup in 1986. In 1986 he left Velež and went to Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. After playing two more years at Oberhausen, he retired in 1988.
Krstičević began his managerial career in his first club, Jadran Ploče, before joining Hajduk Split in 2004 as an assistant to Blaž Slišković. Although he led Hajduk to the eventual title, Slišković was sacked before the championship ended and Krstičević left the club as well, taking over third division team Trogir. Krstičević led Trogir to promotion to the second division, but then he surprisingly left the club, once again taking over his first club Jadran Ploče in September 2007. He stayed in Jadran for four seasons, keeping the mediocre club constantly near the top of the league. In 2011, Krstičević took over KF Tirana, winning the national cup but disappointingly finishing fifth in the national championship.
Hajduk Split
He left Albaniain the summer of 2011, taking over the U-19 team of Hajduk Split. Under his guidance Hajduk's youth team dominated the national championship in front of recently much renowned Dinamo Zagreb's youth team. His U-19 team won the Croatian U-19 league in 2012. After Hajduk's first team manager Krasimir Balakov left for 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Krstičević was appointed as the new manager. he finished second in the 2011–12 Prva HNL but it was thanks to Balakov's previous results. In the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League he was kicked out in the third qualifying round by Inter Milan after a 2–3 aggregate loss. In the 2012–13 Prva HNL, he started well by finishing first after the starting four matches. After his first defeat in the new season against Lokomotiva, the team started to decline which caused bad results and low team morale. After the autumn part of the season, the team finished second in the league and qualified for the 2012–13 Croatian Cup semi-final. In late April 2013, after he suffered a 1–2 loss against Rijeka on home ground, he was sacked by Hajduk chairman Marin Brbić due to a string of poor results.
