Soccer World Cup 2002 / Croatia

This article covers the Croatian national team at the 2002 World Cup .

qualification

The Croatian team struggled for a long time in qualifying. Against Scotland and Belgium you only reached a draw at the beginning. The second game against Scotland could not be won either. Only on the last match day against Belgium did they win against a competitor. With a goal from Alen Bokšić , Croatia qualified first for the World Cup.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Croatia	15: 2	18th
2	Belgium	25: 6	17th
3	Scotland	12: 6	15th
4th	Latvia	5:16	4th
5	San Marino	3:30	1

Belgium	-	Croatia	0-0
Croatia	-	Scotland	1: 1
Croatia	-	Latvia	4: 1
Croatia	-	San Marino	4-0
Latvia	-	Croatia	0: 1
Scotland	-	Croatia	0-0
San Marino	-	Croatia	0: 4
Croatia	-	Belgium	1-0

Croatian contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Stipe Pletikosa	HNK Hajduk Split	January 8, 1979	3	0	0	0	0
12	Tomislav Butina	Dinamo Zagreb	March 30, 1974	0	0	0	0	0
23	Vladimir Vasilj	NK Zagreb	July 6, 1975	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Anthony Seric	Hellas Verona	15th January 1979	0	0	0	0	0
3	Josip Šimunić	Hertha BSC	February 18, 1978	3	0	0	0	0
4th	Stjepan Tomas	Vicenza Calcio	March 6, 1976	3	0	1	0	0
6th	Boris Živković	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	15th November 1975	1	0	0	0	1
15th	Daniel Šarić	Panathinaikos Athens	4th August 1972	3	0	0	0	0
20th	Dario Simic	Inter Milan	November 12, 1975	2	0	0	0	0
23	Robert Kovač	FC Bayern Munich	April 6, 1974	3	0	1	0	0
midfield player
5	Milan Rapaić	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	16th August 1973	3	1	0	0	0
7th	Before that, Vugrinec	US Lecce	March 24, 1975	2	0	0	0	0
8th	Robert Prosinečki	Portsmouth FC	January 12, 1969	1	0	0	0	0
10	Niko Kovač	FC Bayern Munich	15th October 1971	3	0	0	0	0
13	Mario Stanic	Chelsea FC	April 10, 1972	2	0	0	0	0
14th	Zvonimir Soldo	VfB Stuttgart	November 2nd, 1967	2	0	0	0	0
16	Jurica Vranješ	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	January 30, 1980	2	0	0	0	0
17th	Robert Jarni	Panathinaikos Athens	October 26, 1968	3	0	0	0	0
striker
9	Before that, Šuker	TSV 1860 Munich	1st January 1968	1	0	0	0	0
11	Alen Bokšić	Middlesbrough FC	January 21, 1970	3	0	0	0	0
18th	Ivica Olić	NK Zagreb	September 14, 1979	2	1	0	0	0
19th	Goran Vlaović	Panathinaikos Athens	7th August 1972	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Boško Balaban	Aston Villa	October 15, 1978	0	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Mirko Jozić		April 8, 1940

Croatian team matches

In the first game against Mexico, Croatia competed with its old stars: Šuker, Prosinečki and Bokšić. But these could not fulfill the hopes placed in them, and the game was lost 0: 1.

The second game was won somewhat happily with a strongly rejuvenated team against Italy. Italy were denied two goals by the referee and Croatia scored a chance goal.

The almost certain qualification for the round of 16 was lost in the last game against Ecuador. A tired and listless looking team lost 1-0 to the South American outsider. The 1998 World Cup third was eliminated.

Croatia	-	Mexico	0: 1
Italy	-	Croatia	1: 2
Ecuador	-	Croatia	1-0