Coach: Zlatko Kranjcar
Tactics: Patient in possession with talented players in midfield.
Star Player: Dado Prso - burly striker who is particularly strong in the air.
Verdict: Could go either way. Don't have the star names of the past such as Zvonimir Boban, Alen Boksic, Robert Prosinecki and Davor Suker but that has been replaced by a strong team ethic. Talented squad but morale is quick to evaporate when things go wrong. A good start is crucial.
Ten things you didn’t know about Croatia
1. To demand a beer in Croatia, aggressively approach the bar tender and state "Mogu li dobiti pivo ugoditi!"
2. Croatia is the mother country of the necktie created in the 17th century.
3. Daschunds originate from Croatia
4. Croatia is considered to be shaped like a croissant due to years of expansion by the Turkish empire.
5. Croatian pop group Riva won the Eurovision song contest in 1989.
6. Croatia mythology features Vila (fairies who appear in the shape of beautiful women) and Domaci (a good house spirit who lives in cupboards and under the stairs), supposedly both have influenced characters in Harry Potter.
7. Pag is the fifth largest island on the Croatian coast and is renowned for once being home to a concentration camp during World War II.
8. 2 Croatians Labo Slavruzicka, 1939 and Vladimir Grelog, 1975 both chemists have won the Nobel peace prize.
9. Croat Slavoljub Eduard Penkala became renowned for his inventions of the first mechanical pencil (1906) (then called "automatic pencil") and the first solid-ink fountain pen (1907) and the hot water bottle.
10. The Plitvice Lakes National Park is Croatia's most popular tourist attraction known for it's beauty including a series of breath-taking waterfalls which inter-connect it's 16 lakes. The park obtained UNESCO World Heritage status in 1979.
