Croatia Football Team Tactics, key players and expert predictions - World Cup 2018

Croatia Football Team Tactics, key players and expert predictions - World Cup 2018

As usual, Croatia’s results became progressively worse during the qualifiers before, as usual, the manager was fired. The new man in charge, Zlatko Dalic, was appointed two days before the final – and decisive – group game but it was enough for a triumph of improvisation in Kiev, and then Croatia disposed of Greece with authority in the play-offs. Luka Modric is 32 and most of the other likely starters will be 29 or older – and the tournament may well be the last realistic shot at something big for this extraordinary generation, the best Croatia has had since the 1998 bronze-winning team. But the perennial dark horses have been caught in a web of internal divides involving key national federation men, the fans, the media and politics, decimating their support at home and making it difficult for them to focus.

How they qualified Second in European Group I behind Iceland, then play-off win against Greece Preferred system 4-2-3-1 Star player Luka Modric (Real Madrid) One to watch Nikola Vlasic (Everton) Manager Zlatko Dalic Odds 25-1