Team Captain Luka Modric and the entire Croat footballers will have a shaky road en route the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia, but the Croatia national team will definitely put their best foot forward (no pun intended).
Dubbed as the “dark horses†whenever they join international football tourneys, they were able to get through to that chance of success in 2018. While Croatia was able to get past challenges during the playoffs, let’s remember that a number of their players have turned into their 30s by June when the World Cup commences.
Skills and Scoring
The Croats might have prayed so much to get that luck and qualify in the group phase with a final stand-off against Ukraine. They were successful in beating the Ukrainians with a 2-0 score, but had to face Greece after. With the luck of the dark horses, an aggregate win of 4-1 moved their seat to the group finals.
Football Star Player
Team Captain Luka Modric is still Croatia’s best bet to get through the World Cup group matches. Europe has seen Modric to be one of the best midfielders as he projects his football skills by playing in Real Madrid. He has been used to having the Champions League trophy in his hands for the last four seasons.
Will his capability in leading the pack shake off the dark horse tag from Croatia? We’ll see in their performance this June in Russia.
Rising Star
Does Andrej Kramaric ring a bell? This Croatia national team’s rising star made a short stint at the Premier League when he was signed at Leicester City for £9,000,000. He was a part of the football club’s win on 2015-16 season, but missed out on the medal. After that, he switched to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and scored more than 20 goals in the Bundesliga.
Why is Kramaric the team’s rising star? He helped Croatia beat Ukraine in the group tie and Greece in the play-offs. On top of that, he placed third as Croatia’s top goal scorer at the World Cup qualifiers.