Croatia National Football Team: The World’s Iron-Man Team
By: Anthony Tazbaz
Ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 semi-final match between Lionel Messi and Argentina versus Croatia, now is the perfect time to take a moment to reflect and praise the Croatia national team and their federation. Before we delve into their recent success and opportunity to claim the Holy Grail of football, let’s unpack the national team’s young history and recent rise to fame.
Yugoslavia & Early Years
Before the fall of the Soviet Union and, incidentally, communism in Europe, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR) boasted incredible talent across several sporting disciplines, especially football. Several notable performances include a fourth-place finish in the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile, another fourth-place finish during the 1976 UEFA European Championship as hosts and concluding their 1960 and 1964 European campaigns as runners-up. However, despite qualifying for the 1992 Euro Championship in Sweden, the political tensions ahead of the competition not only led to their disqualification from Euro 1992 but threatened the very existence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) as a nation.
In October 1990, an unofficial Croatian team played their inaugural match—coached by Dražan Jerković—versus the United States, resulting in a 2-1 victory. Less than a year later on May 19, 1991, Croatia gained independence, leading to admittance by FIFA on July 3, 1992, as an independent nation, however, only with eligibility to play friendly matches. In June 1993, Croatia finally became an official UEFA member, thereby allowing them to compete for their very first major tournament: UEFA Euro 1996 in England (they were ineligible to compete for the 1994 World Cup). In March 1994, Croatia began their 1996 Euro qualifying campaign, ranked 125th in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings and led by newly appointed Miroslav Blažević.
Beginners’ Luck… For 10 Years
Those born in the late 1990s and in the 21st century missed out on Croatia’s early success, whereby the national team displayed performances and demonstrated characteristics similar to the squad of today. By the end of the 1994 calendar year, the Croatians moved up to 62nd place in the men’s world rankings. As a result, they earned the FIFA Best Mover of the Year award, dedicated to the nation moving up the most spots in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings within a calendar year. By March 1996, Croatia completed their first qualifying campaign by finishing first place with 23 points and narrowly ahead of defending World Cup-finalist Italy. During their first tournament, Croatia defeated Turkey and defending European champions Denmark, earning them a position in the quarterfinals where they narrowly lost to Germany by a score of 2-1. Although they did not find much success in the subsequent tournaments in 2000 and 2004, they nevertheless qualified for both tournaments, an impressive feat for such a young football federation.
Croatia, led by Blažević and eventual World Cup Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker, used their first two World Cup appearances to put the rest of the world on notice. Despite narrowly clinching their spot for the 1998 World Cup via an aggregate playoff victory versus Ukraine, Croatia cruised to the knockout stages with wins versus Japan and fellow World Cup debutants Jamaica, while losing to Argentina. After cruising to the final eight following a 1-0 victory versus Romania, the Croatians exercised their revenge from 1996 with a 3-0 win against Germany, thereby booking a meeting with hosts France in the semi-finals. Despite losing to France 2-1 thanks to a brace by defender Lillian Thuram, Croatia managed to earn a medal following a 2-1 win in the third-place play-off match versus a strong Netherlands squad. As a result, they once again earned the FIFA Best Mover of the Year award, having jumped all the way to third place.
In 2002, under head coach Mirko Jozić, Croatia entered the 2002 in Japan and South Korea undefeated. Despite a group stage elimination, they still managed to defeat a golden-age Italian squad by a score of 2-1. Six years later, Croatia tasted knockout stage football once again, following a perfect record in their group with wins against co-host Austria, Germany and Poland and only losing narrowly to Tukey on penalties in the quarterfinal. Consequently, the Croatian squad from Euro 2008 posted a record of fewest goals conceded in a European championship (2).
Today’s Croatia
Following nearly 10 years of relative obscurity with brief appearances in the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Euro, a new set of Croatian players found their nation’s old collective identity. Having entered into the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia as dark horses, Croatia lived up their potential and exceeded popular belief with a magical run to the final for the first time. However, the Croatians’ run to the final was quite unique, with every knockout stage win before the final going beyond 90 minutes. First, it is important to note that Croatia claimed three wins and ultimately steamrolled their group opponents, which consisted of Argentina and strong squads in Nigeria and Iceland. Then, they defeated a strong Danish squad on penalties following a 1-1 stalemate after extra-time. Croatia then defeated hosts Russia in the quarterfinals on penalties again, this time after a 2-2 result after 120 minutes. England became Croatia’s next victim as the Croatians erased a 1-0 deficit and won 2-1 in extra-time, thanks in large part to goal scorers Ivan Perišić and Mario Mandžukić.
This World Cup is evidently no different. Their two wins—both on penalties—versus a strong Japanese squad and the tournament favourites Brazil demonstrates not only resilience after trailing in both games, but also significant endurance and stamina by its players. Veteran defenders Dejan Lovren and Josip Juranović, and midfielders Mario Brozović and Mateo Kovačić provide leadership from a defensive standpoint and continuously provide headaches for attacking players due to their persistent defending. Meanwhile, Ivan Perišić and Mario Pašalić continue to be Croatia’s attacking weapons, which is then complemented by striker Andrej Kramarić, an ideal replacement for former star forward Mario Mandžukić. Finally, last but not least, this squad revolves around its ageless Réal Madrid star midfielder—also former World Cup 2018 Golden Ball and 2018 Ballon d’Or winner—Luka Modrić. Undoubtedly the best Croat footballer, Modrić’s name rings jubilation to Croatian and Madridistas.
At 37 years old, the star midfielder leads by example by continuously demonstrating a full 90-minute performance of incredibly high quality. One can also see his leadership in how he communicates with his teammates—both young and veteran players—which truly depicts himself as a family’s first-born son. Young defenders such as Joško Gvardiol and Borna Sosa—both perennial starters in their early twenties—demonstrate incredible professionalism and teamwork to solidify their backline. One can say Modrić played an integral role in their facility to acclimating to the squad and Croatia’s tactics, as they play similar to thirty-year-old veterans and made crucial plays which proved instrumental to Croatia’s success thus far.
Although we tend to provide an immense amount of credit to the players, Zlatko Dalić, the head coach and patriarch of the team, (as well as the rest of the staff) deserves as much credit if not more. While head coaches went in and out of the federation via a revolving door during the late 2000s until the mid-2010s, Zlatko Dalić’s hiring in 2017 proved to be arguably the best decision the Croatian federation made in its young history. Since his appointment, Croatians witnessed not only a run to the final in 2018 and an imminent semi-final match, but also a strong performance during the Euro in 2021 and a trip to the UEFA Nations League Finals, scheduled for June 2023. This recent accomplishment occurred within the past year, when they topped Group 1 in League A (Division 1), surpassing both France and Denmark—two top-10 nations in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings.
An Iron-Man Team With a Young and Successful History
As of now, Croatia find themselves #12 in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings, having jumped three positions since the last rankings assessment. Since its inception as a sovereign nation, Croatia boasts an average [World Football] Elo rating (the ranking system for men’s national association football teams) of 1,876 points—the sixth highest in the world today. They should receive the “Iron Man” nickname due to their continuous string of winning performances ending in extra-time or penalties. They enter their semi-final match with Argentina, having played eight of their last nine knockout stage matches beyond 90 minutes, with the only exception occurring in the final versus France, a 4-2 loss. Also, Croatia won four consecutive games whenever they went to penalties. Such performances constitute perfect examples of not only depth, but incredible endurance in team whose average age is 27.4 years old amongst its 26 squad members, making them the 11th oldest squad at the World Cup.
Against Japan and Brazil, Croatia’s penalty takers—both starters and substitutes—demonstrated far superior aptitude in taking penalties, while their opponents failed to convert on almost every shot. Each penalty taker converted their kick with calm and ease, making it seem as if each player practised over 1,000 penalties in training and already took scores of penalties (no pun intended) on a similar stage during their career.
Moreover, goalkeeper Dominik Livaković was incredibly brilliant during both penalty shootouts. His brilliance also seemed to have made all football fans forget about their 2018 World Cup goalkeeper, Danijel Subašić, who at the time became only the second goalkeeper to save three penalties in a single shootout at a World Cup. Now, Livaković already equalled that record during this year’s edition of the World Cup with his string of heroic saves versus Japan.
Ultimately, Croatia’s heroics and each squad member’s instrumental role to their success can reach new heights with a win versus Argentina in the semi-finals. A small nation of four million inhabitants, Croatia can see themselves achieve an incredibly difficult and rare feat: back-to-back appearances at the World Cup Final, and another shot at their first World Cup title. The last country to reach the final two years in a row was the mighty Brazil, who attained the final in three consecutive tournaments (1994 to 2002). Only Germany, Brazil, and Italy achieved such an accomplishment, all of which occurred when Croatia was still a Yugoslav Republic.
Win or lose and regardless of championship glory, Croatia’s four million people and its diaspora across the globe obtained significant bragging rights over heavyweights, giving them another reason to don their checkered shirts whenever Dinamo Zagreb is not winning domestic titles or producing upsets in European competitions.
