Football World Cup 2014 / Croatia

This article covers the Croatian national football team at the 2014 World Cup . Croatia took part in the finals for the fourth time and in a finals in South America for the first time . At previous World Cups in South America, Croatian players took part as part of the Yugoslav national football team.

qualification

The Croats played in European qualifying Group A . Opponents were Belgium , Serbia , Scotland , Wales and Macedonia . Due to the special relationship between Croatia and Serbia, no spectators from the visiting team were allowed in the games between these two teams. On July 1, 2012, Igor Štimac succeeded Slaven Bilić as coach of the national team. The Croatian team started well under him in the qualification and won five of the first six games and reached a draw with eventual group winners Belgium. Then they lost the home game against Scotland and also the next home game against Belgium and again against Scotland. But since the other teams also took points from each other, Croatia ended up in second place behind Belgium. On October 16, 2013 - after the 2-0 defeat against Scotland - Štimac was sacked by the Croatian Football Association. He was followed by Niko Kovač , who was supported by his brother Robert as an assistant coach. Under the Kovač brothers, Croatia could then prevail in the playoff games against Iceland .

Group stage

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Belgium	10	8th	2	0	018: 400	+14	26th
2.	Croatia	10	5	2	3	012: 900	+3	17th
3.	Serbia	10	4th	2	4th	018:110	+7	14th
4th	Scotland	10	3	2	5	008:120	−4	11
5.	Wales	10	3	1	6th	009:200	−11	10
6th	North Macedonia	10	2	1	7th	007:160	−9	07th

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Croatia
07.09.2012	Zagreb	Croatia	-	Macedonia	1: 0 (0: 0)	Jelavić (69.)
09/11/2012	Brussels	Belgium	-	Croatia	1: 1 (1: 1)	Perišić (6.)
October 12, 2012	Skopje	Macedonia	-	Croatia	1: 2 (1: 1)	Ćorluka (33.), Rakitić (60.)
10/16/2012	Osijek	Croatia	-	Wales	2: 0 (1: 0)	Mandžukić (27th), Eduardo (57th)
03/22/2013	Zagreb	Croatia	-	Serbia	2: 0 (2: 0)	Mandžukić (23rd), Olić (37th)
03/26/2013	Swansea	Wales	-	Croatia	1: 2 (1: 0)	Lovren (77.), Eduardo (87.)
06/07/2013	Zagreb	Croatia	-	Scotland	0: 1 (0: 1)
06.09.2013	Belgrade	Serbia	-	Croatia	1: 1 (0: 0)	Mandžukić (53.)
10/11/2013	Zagreb	Croatia	-	Belgium	1: 2 (0: 2)	Kranjčar (84th)
October 15, 2013	Glasgow	Scotland	-	Croatia	2: 0 (1: 0)

Playoff games

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Croatia
11/15/2013	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Croatia	0-0
11/19/2013	Zagreb	Croatia	-	Iceland	2: 0 (1: 0)	Mandžukić (27th), Srna (47th)

A total of 27 players were used in the 12 games. Only goalkeepers Stipe Pletikosa and Mario Mandžukić were used in all games. The top scorer was Mandžukić with four goals. Nine other players contributed the rest. On March 22, 2013 made in the game against Serbia Pletikosa, Darijo Srna and Josip Šimunić their 101st international match, beating Dario Šimić's record . In the other games not all were used at the same time, so that Srna brought it to the World Cup to 110 games and became the sole record holder . With Mateo Kovačić and Sammir , two players also had their first appearance in the senior national team in the qualifying games. In the last game against Iceland Mandžukić received the red card , which he was suspended for the World Cup opening game. Because of his behavior after the last game against Iceland, Josip Šimunić was banned from FIFA for ten official games on December 16, 2013 , with a stadium ban for these games and a fine and was therefore not eligible for the World Cup finals . The ban has also been upheld by the International Court of Justice for Sports (CAS) .

preparation

Test matches:

• 0March 5 in St. Gallen against Switzerland : 2: 2 (scorer for Croatia: Olić / 39th and 54th)
• May 31st in Osijek for the first time against Mali : 2-1 (scorer for Croatia: Perišić / 15th and 64th)
• 0June 6 in Salvador ( Brazil ) against Australia : 1-0 (scorer for Jelavić / 58.)

Finals

Squad

The squad for the 2014 World Cup is listed below. Four players have already participated in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, record goalkeepers Stipe Pletikosa and Ivica Olić even in 2002. They were able to set the record of Dario Šimić , who was the first Croat to take part in three World Cup tournaments.

No.	player	society	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	birth date	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goalkeeper
01	Stipe Pletikosa	FK Rostov P	111	00	0Jan. 8, 1979	3	0	0	0	0	2002, 2006	6th	0
23	Danijel Subašić	AS Monaco	006th	00	Oct. 27, 1984	0	0	0	0	0
12	Oliver Zelenika	NK Lokomotiva Zagreb	000	00	May 14, 1993	0	0	0	0	0
Defense
05	Vedran Ćorluka	Moscow locomotive	072	04th	0Feb. 5, 1986	3	0	1	0	0
06th	Dejan Lovren	Southampton FC	025th	02	05th July 1989	3	0	1	0	0
03	Danijel Pranjić	Panathinaikos Athens P	050	00	0Dec 2, 1981	2	0	0	0	0
13	Gordon Schildenfeld	Panathinaikos Athens P	021st	00	18 Mar 1985	0	0	0	0	0
11	Darijo Srna	Shakhtar Donetsk M.	113	21st	0May 1, 1982	3	0	0	0	0	2006	3	1
21st	Domagoj Vida	Dynamo Kiev	023	01	Apr 29, 1989	0	0	0	0	0
02	Šime Vrsaljko	CFC genoa	008th	00	Jan. 10, 1992	2	0	0	0	0
midfield
14th	Marcelo Brozović	Dinamo Zagreb M.	001	00	Nov 16, 1992	1	0	0	0	0
20th	Mateo Kovačić	Inter Milan	010	00	0May 6, 1994	3	0	0	0	0
15th	Milan Badelj	Hamburger SV	009	01	Feb 25, 1989	0	0	0	0	0
10	Luka Modrić	Real Madrid C, P	075	08th	0Sep 9 1985	3	0	0	0	0	2006	2	0
04th	Ivan Perišić	VfL Wolfsburg	029	03	0Feb. 2, 1989	3	2	0	0	0
07th	Ivan Rakitić	Sevilla FC E.	062	09	10 Mar 1988	3	0	1	0	0
19th	align = "left" Sammir	Getafe CF.	006th	00	Apr 23, 1987	1	0	0	0	0
08th	Ognjen Vukojević	Dynamo Kiev	055	04th	Dec 20, 1983	0	0	0	0	0
attack
22nd	Eduardo Alves da Silva	Shakhtar Donetsk M.	063	29	25th Mar 1983	1	0	0	0	0
09	Nikica Jelavic	Hull City	033	06th	Aug 27, 1985	2	0	0	0	0
17th	Mario Mandžukić	FC Bayern Munich M, P	050	13	May 21, 1986	2	2	0	0	0
18th	Ivica Olić	VfL Wolfsburg	092	18th	Sep 14 1979	3	1	0	0	0	2002, 2006	5	1
16	Ante Rebić	AC Florence	005	01	21 Sep 1993	3	0	0	0	1
Coaching staff
	Niko Kovač	Trainer	083	14th	Oct 15, 1971						2002, 2006	6th	1
	Robert Kovač	Assistant coach	084	00	0Apr 6, 1974						2002, 2006	5	0
(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given. ( Source, as of May 16, 2014 , updated after the games against Mali on May 31 and Australia on June 7, 2014 )
↑ C = The club won the UEFA Champions League in the 2013/14 season , E = The club won the UEFA Europa League in the 2013/14 season , M = The club was the champion of its country in the 2013/14 season, * = The club plays in the second highest league in the country, P = The club won the cup in the 2013/14 season. ↑ a b c d e f g h As a player

Group stage

Manaus Recife São Paulo Mata de São João

Venues (red) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Croatia was drawn into Group A with hosts and group leaders Brazil, as well as Cameroon and Mexico, with Croatia playing the opening game against Brazil. For Croatia it was the first opening game at a World Cup, but in 1974 there were also Croatian players in the Yugoslav team that played the opening game against world champions Brazil. Croatia last played against Brazil in the 2006 World Cup preliminary round and lost 1-0. The other two games before the World Cup ended in a draw. The 2002 preliminary game against Mexico was also lost. There were also two wins in friendly matches before the World Cup. Croatia had never played against Cameroon before the World Cup.

The team's quarters were the Tivolo Ecoresort Praia do Forte in Mata de São João .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Brazil	7: 2	7th
2	Mexico	4: 1	7th
3	Croatia	6: 6	3
4th	Cameroon	1: 9	0

• Thursday, June 12, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in São Paulo Brazil - Croatia 3: 1 (1: 1)
  
• Wed., June 18, 2014, 6:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. CEST) in Manaus Cameroon - Croatia 0: 4 (0: 1)
  
• Mon., June 23, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Recife Croatia - Mexico 1: 3 (0: 0)
  

Croatia had never played in South America before the World Cup.

Sports impact

• Despite being eliminated in the preliminary round, Croatia moved up one place to 17th place in the FIFA world rankings .
• Ante Rebić was suspended for one game due to being sent off in the last group game. Since Croatia was eliminated, the suspension had to be served for the next official international match, a game in the qualifying for the Euro 2016.

Resignations

• Goalkeeper Pletikosa ended his international career after the World Cup.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stimac takes over Croatia. In: Kicker Online , May 17, 2012.
2. ↑ Birger Hamann with material from dpa and SID : World Cup qualification: Kovac takes over Croatian national team from Stimac. In: Spiegel Online , October 16, 2013.
3. ↑ fifa.com: "Croatian player punished for discriminatory behavior"
4. ↑ fifa.com: "Game suspensions to be served in the final round of the FIFA World Cup ™"
5. ↑ fifa.com: "CAS supports FIFA sanctions for discrimination in the Šimunić case"
6. ↑ hns-cff.hr: "Hrvatski nogometni savez dogovorio je prijateljsku utakmicu s reprezentacijom Australije uoči Svjetskog prvenstva."
7. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
8. ↑ fifa.com: "Decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on World Cup cases"
9. ↑ fifa.com: "World Cup goalkeeper Pletikosa resigns from the national team"

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All qualifying matches of Croatia