While they have been one of the most consistent teams in major tournaments over the last few years, there is a sense that Croatia are no longer the force they once were on the back of their 3-0 defeat against Spain in their Euro 2024 opener.
The Croatian squad still has many of the big names that have led them to so much success in recent times, with the likes of Luke Modric, Matteo Kovacic, Ivan Perisic, and Marcelo Brozovic all featuring against the Spanish. However, most of those footballers are now in the twilights of their career, with the young players in the squad not quite to the same standard.
Despite their poor performance in their opening game at Euro 2024, their manager feels that there has been a lack of respect given to his team ahead of this tournament.
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Euro 2024: Croatia boss throws dig at England over lack of success
Croatia reached a World Cup final in 2018, having also finished third in the 2022 edition of the tournament. Add to that their third place finish in 1998, and it's fair to say that the Balkan nation have been one of the most successful European countries of the last few decades (even if they have never got beyond the quarter-finals at the Euros). They also came second in the 2023 edition of the UEFA Nations League.
They have consistently been labelled as 'dark horses' heading into major tournaments during this period, a tag that their manager actually feels is quite disrespectful.
Speaking ahead of their Euro 2024 game against Albania, Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic threw a cheeky dig at England by comparing the major tournament record between the two nations.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, it wasn’t great to watch, we didn’t get a great feeling.
But we are always the dark horse, we are always not among the favourites, nobody believes in us but in the past six years we have won three medals.
After France, our national team is the first team to have done this so I always keep saying that Croatia deserves greater respect from everyone else for what we have managed to do.
We have won three medals, England won one [more than] 50 years ago but they are a great team, we are not, we are always the dark horse.
We are little but we are brave, we will fight and we have the evidence of thousands of Croats in Berlin. We are a nation that is entitled to feel proud and our results show that we are better than our perception.
I know after this defeat [to Spain] there is a lot of pessimism and negativity but we will give our best and we are doing the best to be the best we can.
Everything we have done in the past six, seven years, we have to look at that and feel proud. Croatia is much better than is said and seen in the public.
Croatia defeated England in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, with the English having finished no better than fourth in any edition of that tournament from 1970 onwards. They were also relegated from the same edition of the UEFA Nations league that the Croatians finished second in.
Zlatko Dalic clearly feels that while his side have been underrated by many, the English do not deserve the praise they have received in some quarters ahead of Euro 2024.
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