European Football Championship 2021 / Croatia

This article covers the Croatian national team at the Pan-European Football Championship 2021 . For the Croatian team, which achieved their greatest sporting success with second place at the 2018 World Cup , it is the sixth participation in a European Championship finals.

qualification

For the qualification the Croatian team Wales, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan were drawn, whereby four participants of the last European Championship finals were represented in this group. After the lost World Cup final, Mario Mandžukić resigned from the national team after 89 international matches in which he had scored 33 goals. Otherwise, national coach Zlatko Dalić , who took over the team in October 2017, could largely fall back on the team from the 2018 World Cup. But he also built in new players and used a total of 24 players in qualifying. Of these, Borna Barišić , Josip Brekalo , captain Luka Modrić and Ivan Perišić were used in all eight games. Bruno Petković , Ante Rebić and Domagoj Vida had seven missions , who could not be used once after the third yellow card . Also Marcelo Brozović and Dejan Lovren had once after the third yellow suit and came just six appearances. Their first international match was played by Mislav Oršić , Dino Perić and Bruno Petković in the qualifying matches. Already in the UEFA Nations League 2018/19 Josip Brekalo came to his first international match.

The top scorer with just four goals was Bruno Petković. Borna Barišić (to equalize 1-1 in a 2-1 win against Azerbaijan) and Nikola Vlašić (to lead 1-0 in a 4-0 win against Slovakia) scored their first international goal in qualifying . A total of eight players contributed to 16 qualifying goals. The Croatians also benefited from an own goal.

Games

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
03/21/2019	Zagreb	Azerbaijan	2: 1 (1: 1)	Ramil Şeydayev (19th); Borna Barišić (44th), Andrej Kramarić (79th)
March 24, 2019	Budapest	Hungary	1: 2 (1: 1)	Ante Rebić (13th); Ádám Szalai (34th), Máté Pátkai (76th)
06/08/2019	Osijek	Wales	2: 1 (1: 0)	James Lawrence (17th / own goal), Ivan Perišić (48th); David Brooks (77th)
06.09.2019	Trnava	Slovakia	4: 0 (1: 0)	Nikola Vlašić (45th), Ivan Perišić (46th), Bruno Petković (72nd), Dejan Lovren (89th)
09.09.2019	Baku	Azerbaijan	1: 1 (1: 0)	Luka Modrić (11th / 11th floor); Təmkin Xəlilzadə (72nd)
10/10/2019	Split	Hungary	3: 0 (3: 0)	Luka Modrić (5th), Bruno Petković (24th, 42nd)
October 13, 2019	Cardiff	Wales	1: 1 (1: 1)	Nikola Vlašić (9th); Gareth Bale (45th + 3)
11/16/2019	Rijeka	Slovakia	3: 1 (0: 1)	Róbert Boženík (32nd); Nikola Vlašić (56th), Bruno Petković (60th), Ivan Perišić (74th)

Closing table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Croatia	8th	5	2	1	017: 700	+10	17th
2.	Wales	8th	4th	2	2	010: 600	+4	14th
3.	Slovakia	8th	4th	1	3	013:110	+2	13
4th	Hungary	8th	4th	0	4th	008:110	−3	12
5.	Azerbaijan	8th	0	1	7th	005:180	−13	01

Finals

Croatia had initially applied to host games with the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb , but then withdrew. At the draw on November 30, 2019, the Croatians were drawn into the group with England, the Czech Republic and a team that still has to qualify via the playoffs in March 2020. There have been ten games against England so far with three wins, two draws and five losses. In 2018, the two met three times, initially the Croatians won the World Cup semi-finals 2-1, in the first game of the 2018/19 UEFA Nations League there was a goalless draw in Croatia, the second leg the Croatians lost 2-1. There was one win and two draws against the Czech Republic, most recently in the group stage of the European Championship in 2016.

If the Croatian team wins group winners, they would - subject to the retention of the venues - play in Dublin against the runner-up in Group F with Germany, world champions France or defending champions Portugal, as second one day earlier in Copenhagen against the second in Group E, e.g. B. Poland, Sweden or Spain. If they were one of the top four group thirds they would either be group B winners with Belgium, group C winners with Netherlands or group E winners in the round of 16, where they would play in Bilbao or Budapest or Glasgow .

Group games

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	England	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00
2.	Croatia	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00
3.	Playoff winner way C	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00
4th	Czech Republic	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00

June 13, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. in London
England	-	Croatia	-: - (- :–)
June 18, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. in Glasgow
Croatia	-	Czech Republic	-: - (- :–)
22 June 2021 at 9:00 p.m. in Glasgow
Croatia	-	Playoff winner way C	-: - (- :–)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ kicker.de: "" No turning back ": Mandzukic resigns from the national team"