When Does Croatia Play Again in the World Cup

Participation of Croatia'south national football team in the FIFA Globe Cup

Croatia national football team have appeared in the FIFA World Loving cup on five occasions (in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018) since gaining independence in 1991. Before that, from 1930 to 1990 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. Their best outcome thus far was reaching the 2018 final, where they lost 4–2 to France.

Overview [edit]

CROATIA

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	Fifty	GF	GA
1998	Third place	3rd	7	5	0	2	11	5
2002	Group stage	23rd	3	i	0	two	ii	3
2006	Group stage	22nd	three	0	2	ane	2	3
2010	Did not qualify
2014	Grouping stage	19th	3	1	0	2	6	6
2018	Runners-up	2nd	seven	4	2	1	14	ix
2022	To be adamant
2026	To be adamant
Total			23	xi	iv	eight	35	26

Croatia's World Cup record
First Match	Jamaica one–3 Croatia (fourteen June 1998; Lens, France)
Biggest Win	Republic of cameroon 0–four Republic of croatia (18 June 2014; Manaus, Brazil)
Biggest Defeat	Brazil iii–one Croatia (12 June 2014; São Paulo, Brazil) Republic of croatia 1–3 Mexico (23 June 2014; Recife, Brazil) France 4–ii Republic of croatia (15 July 2018; Moscow, Russia)
All-time Result	Runners-upward in 2018
Worst Issue	Group Stage in 2002, 2006 and 2014

Croatia in France 1998 [edit]

In the draw for the final tournament, held on four December 1997 at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille,^[1] Croatia was drawn to play in Group H, forth with two other teams which qualified for the Globe Cup for the first fourth dimension, Jamaica and Japan, and two-time World Cup winners Argentina. In their beginning lucifer Croatia crush Jamaica three–i, in a game memorable for Croatia's commencement ever World Cup goal, an opener scored past Mario Stanić in the 27th minute. Croatia went on to shell Japan ane–0 earlier losing their third group stage match against Argentine republic 0–one, in a game which was of piffling importance as both teams had already qualified for round of sixteen.

In circular of 16, Croatia faced Group G winners Romania (who had finished summit of their group in front of England) and won the game through a penalty converted by Davor Šuker in stoppage time of the first half later a foul on Aljoša Asanović by Gabriel Popescu. Afterwards 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 Frg as information technology was them who had knocked out Croatia in the UEFA Euro 1996 quarter-finals 2 years before. In the 40th minute Christian Wörns received a directly cherry card and was sent off for fouling Davor Šuker, and Robert Jarni opened the scoring eight minutes afterward in stoppage time of the first half. Goran Vlaović and Davor Šuker added a 2d and third and the game ended in a iii–0 win, which is notwithstanding regarded by fans and the media as ane of the most memorable matches Republic of croatia ever played.

Croatia went on to face hosts French republic in the semi-finals, but lost the game 1–2 when an opener scored past Šuker in the 46th minute was immediately equalised by Lilian Thuram the following minute. Thuram also scored France's second goal in the 69th infinitesimal. These were the merely ii goals Thuram always scored for France in an international career spanning from 1994 to 2008 which saw him earn a total of 147 caps. Afterward Croatia's exit managing director Blažević was heavily criticized by Croation press for not sending in Robert Prosinečki shortly enough later on French republic took the lead (Prosinečki came on equally a substitute for Mario Stanić merely minutes before the last whistle). Croatia captain Zvonimir Boban tried to take the arraign for the defeat maxim that he felt he needed to be substituted simply wanted to stay on the pitch just a fiddling while longer (information technology was his defending mistake which led to Thuram's equaliser).

After beingness knocked out in the semi-finals, Croatia looked for consolation against Netherlands in the third place friction 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 histrion of the match, for a career-all-time performance which saw him relieve numerous shots from Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf and Marc Overmars.

Squad [edit]

Manager Miroslav Blažević included the post-obit 22 players in the finals tournament squad. The 16 players who were capped at least one time in one of the seven matches Croatia played in France are highlighted in bold. The remaining vi players were unused at the tournament (defenders Goran Jurić and Anthony Šerić, defensive midfielder Mamić, striker Ardian Kozniku, and 2d and third-selection goalkeepers Marijan Mrmić and Vladimir Vasilj). 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 xi goals scored past Croatia at the tournament, vi were scored by Davor Šuker, who was awarded the Golden Shoe Award for the summit goalscorer of the tournament, as well as the Silver Ball Award equally the second most outstanding thespian of the tournament (backside Ronaldo of Brazil). Robert Prosinečki (who was retroactively given the 1990 FIFA World Cup Best Young Player Award, where he had appeared for Yugoslavia), also scored 2 goals in matches against Jamaica and the Netherlands, which fabricated him the only player in World Cup history to score goals at finals tournaments for two different countries.

For three players (Jarni, Prosinečki and Šuker) this was their second advent at the World Loving cup, having been members of Yugoslavia squad at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Alen Bokšić would take been fourth, having been a key player in Croatia'due south qualifying entrada, but he was dropped from the tournament squad after sustaining an injury just months before the tournament in France.

Pos	Squad v t due east	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
ane	Argentine republic	iii	3	0	7	0	+7	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Croatia	3	2	1	iv	2	+2	6	Advance to knockout stage
iii	Jamaica	3	one	2	3	9	−6	3
4	Japan	3	0	3	1	4	−3	0

Round of 16 [edit]

Quarter-finals [edit]

Semi-finals [edit]

Third-place match [edit]

Legacy [edit]

Croatia'south 3-v-two lineup in the 1998 World Cup

Past beating Netherlands, Croatia finished tertiary in their World Loving cup debut, a feat matched only by Eusébio's Portugal in the 1966 Globe Cup 32 years before. Consequently, Republic of croatia reached their highest e'er FIFA ranking when they were 3rd in the globe for three months between Jan and March 1999 and were given the Best Mover of the Twelvemonth Laurels in 1998, the only team so far which won the award twice (having been Best Movers in 1994). Upon returning to Croatia, the whole squad was decorated by President Franjo Tuđman, and were nicknamed "Brončani" ("The Bronze Ones") and "Vatreni'" ("The Fiery Ones") in the media. The latter stuck as a permanent nickname for the national squad.

Most players continued playing for the team throughout the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifiers, but after Croatia failed to authorize manager Miroslav Blažević resigned and soon afterwards that some of the players retired from the national team. The next director Mirko Jozić kept some of the remaining members of the Bronze Generation and fifty-fifty took them to 2002 FIFA World Cup (such equally Šuker, Prosinečki, Jarni, Stanić, Soldo, Vlaović, Šimić), simply they failed to make an impact at the tournament and almost all of them retired shortly afterwards, but a number of them after 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 boob tube stations. Šuker launched his line of sports apparel and established a football university carrying his proper noun. Zvonimir Soldo, Robert Jarni, Slaven Bilić, Igor Štimac and Dražen Ladić all took up managing jobs (Soldo coached Dinamo Zagreb to a Double in 2008, while Jarni, Bilić and Štimac all had managerial spells at Hajduk Split). Štimac after became chairman of the clan of Prva HNL clubs, the body regulating tiptop flight football in Croatia, and Bilić took over every bit Croatia director in 2006, hiring Aljoša Asanović, Robert Prosinečki and Marijan Mrmić as his administration. 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 subsequently managed a number of clubs in Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland earlier taking over as Bosnia and Herzegovina manager in 2008 and sensationally leading them to the verge of qualifying for the 2010 Earth Cup.

Croatia in South korea/Japan 2002 [edit]

Croatia qualified for their 2nd world loving cup after navigating Group 6 of UEFA's World Cup qualifications without a loss, finishing start and direct qualifying ahead of Kingdom of belgium, Scotland, Latvia and San Marino.

Republic of croatia qualification led by manager Miroslav Blažević, but later tying the initial two matches, he was replaced by Mirko Jozić, who would manage the team during the World Cup.^[ii]

Despite defeating Italy in the 2d game of the group stage, Croatia, needing a win confronting Ecuador ostend qualification for the knockout stages, could not break downwardly the Ecuadorian defense force, and simply solid goalkeeping from Stipe Pletikosa prevented the South Americans from winning by a greater scoreline. A belatedly Italy goal meant a describe would non transport Croatia through, requiring two goals in 3 minutes to advance, only the Vatreni did not score and exited the competition at the group phase for the first time.^[3]

Team [edit]

Croatia's iii–iv–1-ii lineup at the 2002 Globe Cup

Pos	Team five t e	Pld	West	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
ane	Mexico	3	2	i	0	four	2	+2	vii	Advance to knockout phase
2	Italy	3	1	1	1	four	3	+1	4	Advance to knockout phase
iii	Croatia	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	three
4	Ecuador	3	1	0	2	2	iv	−ii	3

Croatia in Germany 2006 [edit]

Croatia qualified automatically for the World Loving cup after topping their qualification group without losing a game, ahead of Sweden, who tied on points and had a better goal difference but who Croatia had defeated twice. Futurity superstar Luka Modrić made the concluding Globe Cup squad in spite of not playing in a unmarried qualification match.

Croatia selected Bad Brückenau in northern Bavaria as their training base.^[iv] The team played four warm-upward matches in preparation for the World Cup, defeating Austria in Vienna 4:i, drawing Iran in Osijek 2:2, before losing to Poland and Espana in friendlies in Germany and Switzerland, respectively.

A pitch incident marred Republic of croatia's opening game against Brazil, a 1:0 loss, when a Croatian fan ran onto the pitch near Dado Pršo. Security also confiscated 823 flares, merely 2 flares were successfully lit in the Croatian supporters' section.^[5]

Later a scoreless draw with Japan, Republic of croatia entered their terminal match against Australia needing a win to advance. Darijo Srna scored the opener later 2 minutes and Croatia immediately began playing defensively to protect their atomic number 82, assuasive the Australians to pressure for the rest of the first half until Craig Moore converted a penalization in the 38th minute subsequently a Stjepan Tomas handball. A defensive mistake by Australian keeper Kalac led to Niko Kovač putting Croatia up again in the 58th, but this led to Australia pressing again with Harry Kewell equalising with xi minutes left. The final part of the game was marred by a second yellow bill of fare shown to Josip Šimunić without him getting sent off by referee Graham Poll - Šimunić would eventually receive his sending off afterwards a "third" yellow bill of fare in the game's concluding moments.^[6]