NIZHNIY NOVGOROD, Russia, June 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Just weeks before the
start of the World Cup, Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic identified a major problem
with his team, their obsession with France 1998.
“Croatia haven’t done well in a World Cup since France 1998 and going on
our quality we should have,” Dalic told one of the country’s main news
programmes, Dnevnik Nove TV.
“We have a brilliant generation of players who, like me, have to know that
we can’t live on past glory.
“Ahead of us is the World Cup, and we have to be at our best there.”
Twenty years ago, Croatia reached the last four, being denied a World Cup
final spot only by a Lilian Thuram-inspired France.
Along the way a squad including Robert Prosinecki and Zvonimir Boban beat
Jamaica, Japan, Romania then thumped Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals.
Davor Suker won the Golden Boot and Croatia matched Portugal’s 1966 team
in becoming the only other side to finish third on their World Cup debut.
Just seven years after independence, the team were lauded worldwide and
decorated by their president on returning to Croatia.
But from a glorious high there have been a number of lows.
Since 1998 Croatia have disappointed at the World Cup, failing to even
make it past the group stage once in that time. And in 2010 they failed to
qualify for the tournament altogether.
Now, a new generation, inspired by captain Luka Modric, have a chance to
create history.
Their three victories in Group D containing Argentina, Iceland and Denmark
have led many to claim that Croatia could win the World Cup, especially in a
tournament where there appears no outstanding favourite.
The 3-0 rout of Argentina was especially impressive.
It was arguably the stand-out team performance of the first round and
inspired by Modric giving possibly the best individual display seen so far.
In the haze of the eye-catching victory over the much-fancied South
Americans, Dalic still had time to tell reporters that he wanted to better
the 1998 performance.
That win came in Nizhny Novgorod and it is there Croatia will return on
Sunday to play their last-16 game against a Denmark side who have failed to
impress, but notably are still unbeaten after emerging from Group C.
Croatia are favourites to win that game and would then face either hosts
Russia or Spain in the quarter-finals.
But the ghosts of 1998 hang as heavy in the build-up as the merits of the
Danish or their key midfielder Christian Eriksen.
Modric’s midfield partner Ivan Rakitic said in the run-up to the Denmark
game that the Croatia of 2018 wanted to be talked about as much as the
Croatia of 1998.
“We can achieve whatever they have achieved and even overcome them,” he
told reporters from Croatia’s camp in Roscin.
“We want in 20 years to talk about our generation, not about the
generation of ’98.”
Sunday is their first chance to do just that.