Euro 2012 Team Guide: Croatia

Road to Euro 2012

Croatia produced the best and most notable performance in the play offs with their contemptuous dismissal of Turkey, but before that qualifying was made to look pretty difficult. Slaven Bilic looked under enormous pressure when his team suffered a last minute loss against Georgia, but it would be dangerous to read too much into their two defeats. The Georgians aren't a bad side, and were pretty lucky that day in Tblisi, while losing in Greece is certainly not an outrageous result. If Croatia had converted one of the many chances they created against Georgia then they would have qualified automatically and there wouldn't have been too much criticism of Bilic.

Croatia are being left alone by most pundits, but remember that they were brilliant at Euro 2008 and desperately unlucky to go out in the manner that they did. That defeat against Turkey seriously scarred them and they were a non-entity in the qualifiers for the last World Cup. I'm not suggesting that their qualifying campaign hints at huge success here, just that it would be foolish to underestimate them.

The Manager

We already know that Slaven Bilic will leave his job in charge of Croatia after Euro 2012, the question is whether it will be a glorious tilt at glory or something of a damp squib. What isn't in question is the fact that Bilic seems to have lost the support of much of the Croatian press, and the team will need to overperform significantly for the coach to get much credit. We should remember, though, that Bilic's record in charge of the national side is remarkable. Croatia have lost just six games out of over 50 for which he has been in charge, and he will almost certainly go on to have a significant career in club management. His biggest job at this tournament might be to motivate his players. You get the sense that a few of his star men have had long campaigns with their clubs, that Euro 2012 could be a step too far. If he can get them going against Ireland, then he may be able to inspire them to at least a quarter final place.

The Star

A couple of Premier League players contend feverishly to be the star in Bilic's team. With a big nod of respect to Nikica Jelavic of Everton, though, the top man has to be Luka Modric of Spurs. Ultimately you could argue that Modric made a mistake when he turned down Chelsea to remain with Spurs, but you sense that he'll always play the kind of football that he wants under Harry Redknapp. He'll be given a free role here by Bilic, and has the fate of the team at his feet. His lack of goals remains somewhat surprising though. He got only five last season for an attack minded Spurs team, and has scored just once in his last 19 internationals. He'll need to improve on that here.

The Rock

Dario Srna has been through enough in his life to fill an entire website, let alone a brief and relatively unimportant pen picture. He possesses immense personal strength, and I think that his character will be vital as Bilic looks to motivate his players. If Srna continues to buy into the coach, then the rest of the team will follow. He seems to have been around forever, but is only 30, although his 90 caps show the wealth of experience that he brings to the squad. He captained Shakhtar Donetsk to a League and Cup double this season and will look for a similarly inspirational experience here. He's normally someone that I look at closely to score at a price, but his record of just one goal in qualifying and three for Shakhtar last season suggests that he's concentrating a little more on his defensive duties these days.

The Youngster

The Dnipro left back Ivan Strinic best fulfils the role of Croatia's youngster to watch. This is a team which struggles defensively, largely because age is catching up on Josip Simunic and Vedran Corluka, and because I don't particularly rate the Eintracht Frankfurt centre half Gordon Schildenfeld. Strinic has had an excellent season and brilliantly managed to score two goals in his last three games of last season and be sent off in both matches. That made a total of three red cards for the season. Expect him to get booked at least once during this tournament.

The Bet

The opening match of any tournament is always definitive to a certain extent, but Croatia's fixture against the Republic of Ireland can be classed as particularly important. Croatia can win that, and know that if they do they have a real chance against a fragile Italy. The Azzurri haven't beaten Croatia since independence and a confident, attack minded team could beat the Italians and render that final group game against Spain a near irrelevance. I think that they have a big chance of qualifying, but having already tipped Republic of Ireland to go through at a silly price, it doesn't feel right to suggest Croatia as well. Their flaky defence means that they're likely to concede goals, and so try and get a price matched in one of the more obscure Betfair markets, Group Goals Conceded.