Saturday 29 October 2022 – 14:01
Abu Dhabi, 29 October / WAM / Just 4 years ago, the Croatian football team got a surprise and stole the spotlight from most of the big teams and successfully made their way to the final match of the 2018 World Cup in Russia .
The footballing talent of the team’s players and their enthusiasm were among the most important elements through which the team achieved this milestone, which is the best for the Croatian national team during its various World Cup and Nations Cup appearances. teams, which began as an independent team in the mid-1990s, having previously been part of the former Yugoslav national team.
In its first participation in the World Cup tournaments, the Croatian team got a surprise of the caliber and made their way to the semifinals of the 1998 edition in France before concluding this participation by taking third place thanks to an exciting generation of gold led by Davor Suker, who was crowned the top scorer of that edition of the World Cup with 6 goals.
This remained the team’s best result until the 1998 World Cup brought with it another step forward for the Croatian team in major tournaments, where they successfully made it to the final at the expense of the old teams before losing the final. against the French team 2-4.
The Croatian national team has relied on its success this time on another golden generation that includes many talents and high potentials such as Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic and Ivan Perisic.
With the continuation of many players of this generation in the squad so far, led by Luka Modric, the team’s experience and ambition have increased ahead of its planned participation in the 2022 World Cup.
The latest bout confirmed that the Croatian team’s ambition and enthusiasm towards reaching a new milestone has not diminished, as the team presented a distinct march in the European qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and passed its own group in the qualifiers at the expense of big teams like Russia and Slovakia, and its players have scored 21 goals in the 10 games played in the qualifiers, while they were shaken. The team scored 4 goals.
These statistics confirm the extent of the balance in the team’s performance between the offensive and defensive sides prior to its participation in the World Cup, which will be its sixth in the World Championship.
The team’s participation in the third edition of the European Nations League has also been confirmed, overcoming one of the problems encountered in the past, namely the ability to overtake some big names, being the team leading its group at the expense of France. , Denmark and Austria to reach the semi-finals, the matches of which will be played in the middle of next year.
The main weakness of the team remains the lack of experience of the goalkeepers, mainly because it depends on the goalkeepers who are active in the local league.
The Croatian team will start its participation in the next World Cup through an exciting group that includes Belgium, Canada and Morocco.
The team must qualify for the second round through the two games against Morocco and Canada before facing its Belgian counterpart in the third game, especially since the Belgian team is one of the strongest participating teams and candidates to compete for the title.
And if the Croatian team crosses this group well, then everything will be possible, because this will be a strong incentive for the team to shine in the next rounds and perhaps to compete for the world title, which is still a dream for the team.
Ahmed Al-Boutli / Ahmed Zahran
