Croatia participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. This was their fifth appearance. Croatia managed to reach the final where they lost to France and finished second in the tournament.
Qualifying
Croatia was in Group I of UEFA's World Cup qualifications. They played alongside Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland and Kosovo. Croatia finished as runner-up in the group and entered the second-round play-offs where the team beat Greece and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Croatia national team was led by manager Ante Čačić until 7 October 2017 when he was, due to a series of bad results, replaced by Zlatko Dalić. Standings
The results of the group stage
The results of the second-round play-off
Players
Altogether 26 players appeared in the qualifying matches. Domagoj Vida is the only player that appeared in all 12 matches playing the full 90 minutes of all games. Mario Mandžukić was the top scorer with 5 achieved goals. Filip Bradarić, Duje Ćaleta-Car and Dominik Livaković did not appear in any of the qualifying matches but made the final World Cup squad.
Complete list of players in the qualifying matches {|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;" |- !width=50px|# !class="unsortable" width=150px|Name !width=50px|Games played !width=50px|Goals |- | 1 | Domagoj Vida | 12 | 1 |- |rowspan="4"| 2 | Mario Mandžukić | 11 | 5 |- | Marcelo Brozović | 11 | 2 |- | Andrej Kramarić | 11 | 3 |- | Ivan Perišić | 11 | 1 |- |rowspan="3"| 6 | Danijel Subašić | 10 | 0 |- | Šime Vrsaljko | 10 | 0 |- | Luka Modrić | 10 | 0 |- |rowspan="3"| 9 | Nikola Kalinić | 9 | 2 |- | Milan Badelj | 9 | 0 |- | Josip Pivarić | 9 | 0 |- | 12 | Ivan Rakitić | 8 | 1 |- | 13 | Mateo Kovačić | 7 | 0 |- |rowspan="2"| 14 ! style="background-color: #ffdddd" | Matej Mitrović | 6 | 1 |- | Dejan Lovren | 6 | 0 |- | 16 ! style="background-color: #ffdddd" | Marko Rog | 5 | 0 |- | 17 ! style="background-color: #ffdddd" | Duje Čop | 4 | 0 |- |rowspan="3"| 18 | Ivan Strinić | 3 | 0 |- | Vedran ĆorlukaĆorluka missed most of the qualifying matches due to injury. | 3 | 0 |- ! style="background-color: #ffdddd" | Mario Pašalić | 3 | 0 |- |rowspan="3"| 21 | Lovre Kalinić | 2 | 0 |- | Tin Jedvaj | 2 | 0 |- | Ante Rebić | 2 | 0 |- |rowspan="3"| 24 | Marko PjacaPjaca missed most of the qualifying matches due to injury. | 1 | 0 |- ! style="background-color: #ffdddd" | Ivan Santini | 1 | 0 |- ! style="background-color: #ffdddd" | Nikola Vlašić | 1 | 0
Player was not selected for the 2018 FIFA World Cup squad
World Cup preparation
Draw Croatia was drawn into Group D. Croatia's opponents in the first stage were Nigeria, Argentina and Iceland.
Squad Coach: Zlatko Dalić
A 32-man preliminary squad was announced on 14 May 2018. The squad was reduced to 24 players on 21 May. The final squad was announced on 4 June.
Matches
Group stage
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Standings LegendGroup winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16
References
Reports
External links