European Football Championship 2016 / Croatia

This article covers the Croatian national team at the 2016 European Football Championship in France . It was Croatia's fifth participation and since Croatia qualified as a separate team for the first time in 1996, the Croatians have only missed the finals once (2000).

qualification

Ivan Perišić , Croatia's top scorer in qualifying matches

Croatia completed the qualification for the European Championship in Group H . After the preliminary round at the 2014 World Cup , Niko Kovač had led the Croatians into the qualification, but the Croatian federation broke up with him shortly before the end of the qualification. The qualification started well for the Croatians. Just like the Italians, they won the first three games, then scored 1-1 in the away game in Italy and then took over the sole lead with a 5-1 win against Norway, as Italy only achieved a 2-2 in Bulgaria. As a swastika was engraved in the grass in the next game between the Croatians and Italy, which ended 1-1, UEFA withdrew the point from the Croatians. With a 0-0 win in Azerbaijan and a 2-0 defeat in Norway, they gave up the table lead again, whereupon Kovač was dismissed. Under his successor Ante Čačić , they were able to secure second place with two wins in the last two games. They had scored the most goals in the group and conceded the fewest goals, but with four points behind the Italians they were only second, but also qualified, while the Norwegians failed in the play-offs of the group third. The two coaches used a total of 26 players, of which only Ivan Rakitić and Danijel Subašić , who had replaced the record goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa , who retired after the World Cup, as regular goalkeeper, were used in all ten games. Ten players were able to enter the goalscorer list, as top scorer Ivan Perišić with six goals, who also scored the decisive 1-0 for qualification in the last game. No newcomer was used in a qualifier. In the first game against Italy Ivica Olić made his 100th and record international Darijo Srna in the last qualifier his 125th international match.

In the FIFA world rankings , the Croatians, who fell to 16th place after the preliminary round of the World Cup, could not improve during qualification, they even fell three places.

Games

All results from a Croatian point of view.

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
09/09/2014	Maksimir Stadium , Zagreb	Malta	2: 0 (0: 0)	1-0 Luka Modrić (46th), 2-0 Andrej Kramarić (81st)
10/10/2014	Vasil Levski National Stadium , Sofia ( BGR )	Bulgaria	1: 0 (1: 0)	1: 0 Nikolaj Bodurow (36th / own goal)
October 13, 2014	Gradski vrt stadium , Osijek	Azerbaijan	6: 0 (4: 0)	1-0 Andrej Kramarić (11th), 2-0, 3-0 Ivan Perišić (34th, 45th), 4-0 Marcelo Brozović (45th + 1 ′), 5-0 Luka Modrić (56th / penalty ), 6: 0 Rəşad Sadıqov (61st / own goal)
11/16/2014	Giuseppe Meazza Stadium , Milan ( ITA )	Italy	1: 1 (1: 1)	0: 1 Antonio Candreva (11th), 1: 1 Ivan Perišić (15th)
03/28/2015	Maksimir Stadium , Zagreb	Norway	5: 1 (1: 0)	1-0 Marcelo Brozović (30th), 2-0 Ivan Perišić (53rd), 3-0 Ivica Olić (65th), 3-1 Alexander Tettey (80th), 4-1 Gordon Schildenfeld (87th), 5: 1 Danijel Pranjić (90. + 4 ′)
06/12/2015	Poljud Stadium , Split	Italy	1: 1 (1: 1)	1: 0 Mario Mandžukić (11th), 1: 1 Antonio Candreva (36th / penalty)
09/03/2015	Tofiq Bəhramov Stadium , Baku ( AZE )	Azerbaijan	0-0
09/06/2015	Ullevaal Stadium , Oslo ( NOR )	Norway	0: 2 (0: 0)	0: 1 Jo Inge Berget (51st), 0: 2 Vedran Ćorluka (69th / own goal)
10/10/2015	Maksimir Stadium , Zagreb	Bulgaria	3: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Ivan Perišić (2nd), 2-0 Ivan Rakitić (42nd), 3-0 Nikola Kalinić (81st)
13/10/2015	Ta 'Qali Stadium , Attard ( MLT )	Malta	1: 0 (1: 1)	1-0 Ivan Perišić (25th)

table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Italy	10	7th	3	0	016: 700	+9	24
2.	Croatia	10	6th	3	1	020: 500	+15	20th
3.	Norway	10	6th	1	3	013:100	+3	19th
4th	Bulgaria	10	3	2	5	009:120	−3	11
5.	Azerbaijan	10	1	3	6th	007:180	−11	06th
6th	Malta	10	0	2	8th	003:160	−13	02
As of October 13, 2015

preparation

After the end of the qualification, the Croatians won 3-1 against EM participants Russia on November 17th in Rostov-on-Don . On March 23, the Croatians met Israel , who could not qualify for the European Championship, in Osijek and won 2-0, three days later they were 1-1 against European Championship participants Hungary in Budapest . Shortly before the European Championship, they won test matches on May 27 in Koprivnica against Macedonia 1-0 and on June 4 against San Marino in Rijeka 10-0 - the Croatians' highest international win to date. The realized Nikola Kalinić with the gates of 8: 0, 9: 0 and 10: 0 in the 59th, 73rd and 84 minutes "flawless" hat trick . Mario Mandžukić also scored three goals , while Marko Pjaca scored the 1-0 with his first international goal.

Squad

A provisional squad with 27 players was presented by national coach Ante Čačić on May 16, 2016, which was then reduced to 23 players. The final roster was named on May 31.

The players came from 17 clubs in seven countries. Champions and cup winners Dinamo Zagreb had the most with four players. Two other players also played in Croatia, the rest in other European countries.

No.	position	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut
23	goalkeeper	Danijel Subašić	AS Monaco	Oct. 27, 1984	22nd	0	2009	4th
12	goalkeeper	Lovre Kalinić	HNK Hajduk Split	0Apr 3, 1990	4th	0	2014
01	goalkeeper	Ivan Vargić	HNK Rijeka	15th Mar 1987	2	0	2014
11	Defense	Darijo Srna	Shakhtar Donetsk	0May 1, 1982	131	22nd	2003	4th		1
05	Defense	Vedran Ćorluka	Moscow locomotive	0Feb. 5, 1986	89	4th	2006	4th
21st	Defense	Domagoj Vida	Dynamo Kiev	Apr 29, 1989	39	1	2010	3		1
03	Defense	Ivan Strinić	SSC Naples	17th July 1987	36	0	2010	3
13	Defense	Gordon Schildenfeld	Dinamo Zagreb	18 Mar 1985	28	1	2009	2
02	Defense	Šime Vrsaljko	US Sassuolo Calcio	Jan. 10, 1992	19th	0	2011	2		1
06th	Defense	Tin Jedvaj	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	Nov 28, 1995	3	0	2014	1
10	midfield	Luka Modrić	real Madrid	0Sep 9 1985	91	11	2006	3	1
07th	midfield	Ivan Rakitić	FC Barcelona	10 Mar 1988	77	11	2007	4th	1
04th	midfield	Ivan Perišić	Inter Milan	0Feb. 2, 1989	48	13	2011	4th	2	1
08th	midfield	Mateo Kovačić	real Madrid	0May 6, 1994	27	1	2013	2
19th	midfield	Milan Badelj	AC Florence	Feb 25, 1989	21st	1	2010	4th		1
14th	midfield	Marcelo Brozović	Inter Milan	Nov 16, 1992	18th	4th	2014	3		1
15th	midfield	Marko Rog	Dinamo Zagreb	July 19, 1995	3	0	2014	1		1
18th	midfield	Ante Ćorić	Dinamo Zagreb	Apr 14, 1997	2	0	2016
17th	attack	Mario Mandžukić	Juventus Turin	May 21, 1986	67	24	2007	3
16	attack	Nikola Kalinić	AC Florence	0May 1, 1988	29	11	2008	2	1
09	attack	Andrej Kramarić	TSG 1899 Hoffenheim	June 19, 1991	12	4th	2014	3
20th	attack	Marko Pjaca	Dinamo Zagreb	0May 6, 1995	9	1	2014	3
22nd	attack	Duje Čop	Málaga CF	0Feb. 1, 1990	4th	0	2015	1

Coach: Ante Čačić

Players who were only in the preliminary roster

position	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut
goal	Dominik Livaković	NK Zagreb	0Jan. 9, 1995	0	0
Defense	Duje Ćaleta-Car	Red Bull Salzburg	17 Sep 1996	0	0
midfield	Alen Halilović	Sporting Gijón	June 18, 1996	9	0	2013
midfield	Domagoj Antolić	Dinamo Zagreb	June 30, 1990	3	0	2014

1. ↑ ^{a b} Status: June 12, 2016
2. ↑ ^{a b} Status: May 27, 2016

Finals

Paris St-Etienne Bordeaux Deauville Lens (AF)

Venues (green = won, yellow = draw), quarters (blue)

In the draw for the six final groups on December 12, 2015, Croatia was only placed in Pot 2, so there was a risk that they would face hosts France, defending champions Spain or world champions Germany in the group stage. Ultimately, they were drawn to group D with Spain. Other opponents are the Czech Republic and Turkey, so this group is seen as balanced. Against Spain, the Croatians played the last group game at the last European Championship and lost 1-0 in the last meeting before the European Championship. They could only win the first game against each other in 1994. In between there was a draw and two defeats - all in friendly games. Against the Czechs there was a win and a draw in two friendly games, whereby the draw in the final of the King Hassan II Tournament in 1996 led to the tournament victory on penalties. Against the Turks there were two wins and four draws in six games, one of which was lost in the quarter-finals of the European Championship 2008 on penalties . The Croatians took the lead in the 119th minute, but had to accept the equalizer in stoppage time. The last time they met each other in the play-off games of qualifying for the Euro 2012 , the Croatians prevailed 3-0 and 0-0.

In the opening game against Turkey, the largely superior Croatians were only able to demonstrate their superiority with one goal. Against the Czechs they were the dominant team for a long time and took the lead 2-0. Towards the end of the game, the Czechs got into the game better and scored the next goal in the 75th minute. After the game was briefly interrupted in the 86th minute after rioting by Croatian spectators, the Croatians completely lost control of the game and then had to accept an equalizer with a converted hand penalty in the long stoppage time. For the game against the Spaniards, who started with two wins, the team was changed in some positions, as both had already qualified for the round of 16, so Luka Modrić , the best player of the opening game, stayed on the bench. The Croatians were already behind after seven minutes, but were then able to make the game more and more evenly balanced and hardly allowed the Spaniards to score any more chances. For their part, they came to several goal opportunities, of which they used two and defeated the defending champion 2-1. So they met Portugal, the third in Group F, as group winners in the round of 16. There were three games against the Portuguese that were all lost. At the European Championships in 1996 both met for the first time and the Croatians lost 3-0. In the following two friendlies , the Croatians also failed to score, but the Portuguese scored one less each.

Again, there was no victory against the Portuguese. The Portuguese coach Fernando Santos had changed his starting eleven compared to the group games in defense and midfield with the intention of neutralizing the Croatian playmakers Luka Modrić and Ivan Rakitić , which the Portuguese also mostly succeeded in doing. However, she could not achieve anything creative herself and so the two teams largely took themselves out of the game. Both goalkeepers did not have to provide proof of work. Only shortly before the end of extra time did the Croatians get a significant chance, but it ended on the post. The counterattack initiated by Renato Sanches led to Cristiano Ronaldo's first shot on goal . Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subašić was able to fend off the shot in his only action, but Ricardo Quaresma , who ran with him, scored the 1-0 winner. The Croatians still had a chance to equalize, but defender Domagoj Vida's shot just missed the target.

Thanks to the European Championship games, Croatia improved by twelve places in the FIFA world rankings .

Group games

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Croatia	3	2	1	0	005: 300	+2	07th
2.	Spain	3	2	0	1	005: 200	+3	06th
3.	Turkey	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03
4th	Czech Republic	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01

Sun., June 12, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. in Paris
Turkey	-	Croatia	0: 1 (0: 1)
Friday 17th June 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in Saint-Étienne
Czech Republic	-	Croatia	2: 2 (0: 1)
Tue., June 21, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Bordeaux
Croatia	-	Spain	2: 1 (1: 1)

Knockout phase

Round of 16 Sat., June 25, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Lens
Croatia	-	Portugal	0: 1 a.d. (0: 0)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ “Croatia goes to the EURO” , uefa.com
2. ↑ FIFA World Ranking (August 14, 2014)
3. ↑ FIFA World Ranking (5th November 2015)
4. ↑ Croatia - San Marino 10: 0
5. ↑ "UEFA EURO 2016 preliminary list Čačić:" With best squad into every match "" , hns-cff.hr
6. ↑ "Kramarić and Jedvaj in Croatia" , uefa.com
7. ↑ “UEFA EURO 2016 final draw” , uefa.com
8. ^ Balance sheet Croatia - Portugal