Croatia head into Euro 2024 once again expected to do fairly well despite not having the most amazing overall squad compared to sides like France and England.
Zlatko Dalic took charge of the Croatia national team back in 2017 and it has largely been positive since then.
They were shock finalists at the 2018 World Cup before losing out to France. Their Euro 2020 campaign was less impressive, losing to Spain in the Round of 16.
But this was followed by a third-place finish at the 2022 World Cup and a spot in the final of the Nations League, where they once again lost out to Spain.
Despite not actually picking up a trophy in this period, it has been an incredibly successful time for Croatia who it is fair to say have largely been overachieving.
Their squad is largely made up of players from the Croatian league with smatterings of quality stars form elsewhere around Europe.
Manchester City’s Matteo Kovacic will help carry some of the load for Modric next summer and big things are expected of Kovacic’s new teammate, Josko Gvardiol, at the back. But a lot of Croatia’s current stars are getting on in years or have not proven themselves at that high a level before.
Despite all of this, Croatia have overachieved in many fan’s eyes and a solid run next summer cannot be ruled out.
