Croatia More Than The Third Place Story Of The 2022 World Cup

Croatian national team (Twitter @fifaworldcup)

JAKARTA - This year Croatia failed to repeat its achievements four years ago reaching the World Cup final, but they successfully repeated 1998's achievements by ranking third at the World Cup.

In 1998 they beat the Netherlands 2-1 to reach that position, so this year they won with the same score against Morocco.

Dominating throughout the game and creating more goals, Croatia won thanks to Josko Gvardial's goal in the seventh minute which Achraf equalized two minutes From before Mislav Orsic scored the winner three minutes before the first half's normal time ended.

Launching Antara, Monday, Croatia is classified as a newborn country, but they don't need generation to become one of the great powers of world football.

Independence on June 25, 1991 in the midst of the collapse of Yogoslavia and now a population of 3.8 million people or about a third of the population of the city of Jakarta, the Croatian mini twice in a row reached the semifinals of the second largest sporting tournament after the Olympics.

The two semifinals are also part of the three semifinals since 1998 or seven years after independence.

They won one of the semifinals to reach the 2018 finals, but in 1998 and 2022 failed to get through it. These two failures closed with sweet epilogues with the title of third place in the World Cup.

Three years after independence, they played their first official match against Estonia.

Two years later they reached the quarter-finals of Euro 1996 which was followed by the semifinals of the World Cup in 1998.

For a newborn country, this achievement really exceeds all expectations.

At that time they had been awarded a golden generation of players, including Davor Suker and Zvonimir Boban, who played for elite European clubs.

But the golden generation then faded to the point that the third place at the 1998 World Cup actually backfired because two years later they did not qualify for the Euro 2000 finals.

But eight years after that their names began to grow again along with the emergence of the next golden generation led by Luka Modric and Mario Mandzukic.

The golden generation looked charming at Euro 2016 by topping the group stage before stopping in the last 16 at the hands of Portugal who then won the tournament.

Memories that will last a lifetime 🇭🇷❤️#FIFAWorldCup | @HNS_CFF pic.twitter.com/XB0fSxYv4b

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 17, 2022

Zlatko Dalic and the Balkan War

Shortly after that they replaced the coach with Zlatko Dalic in 2017.

Dalic was not tested in high-level football contests except at the Asian level when he coached Al Ain club in the United Arab Emirates in the 2016 Asian Champions League final.

It turns out that Dalic is the right person for Croatia. In his era, Croatia also entered a peak period that surpassed his history.

Together with players like Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic and Danijel Subazic, plus young blood like Marcelo Brozovic, they reached glory until the 2018 World Cup final before giving up to France, who became the edition world champion.

Despite being stopped on the last 16 of Euro 2020 for subjecting 3-5 to Spain, Croatia at Dalic's hands has really become a consistent good team that has remained in the top 15 FIFA rankings until now.

Croatia was no longer able to field Subasics and Mandzukic, even Luka Modric immediately retired, but now they have never broken up producing another golden generation.

They now have new generation players such as Josko Gvardiol, Nikola Vlasic, Dominik Livakovic, Lovro Majer, Mario Pasic, and Mateo Kaveocic.

They are not just a golden and a young generation, because they are also heirs to the great play ethic passed down from generation to generation.

Etos itu adalah konsisten bermain bagus, tuak dan tak berlahan yang semuanya sudah menjadi trademark Croatia.

They could have had it all maybe because of its violent historical templates due to the Balkan War three decades ago.

In fact, the Croatian squad was filled with great players during and after the brutal Balkan War, especially between Croatians and Serbia, and between Bosnians and Serbia.

Luka Modric himself grew up in the city of Zadar which became one of the places where brutal wars took place and so far has not been completely large from the landmines planted during the Balkan war.

Despite 30 years ago in 1991-1995, the Balkan War has created trauma as well as a trigger for the Croatian spirit, including its football players.

Not a coincidence

Football is one that unites and encourages Croatia, although football can also be said to have made the Balkan War even more brutal.

This is because since the Yogoslavia era there has been ethnic group fanaticism, such as Dinano Zagreb for ethnic Croatians and the Red Star Belgrade for ethnic Serbs.

Some even say that the trigger for the Balkan War was actually the riot that occurred during Dinamo Zagreb's match against Red Star Belgrade in 1990.

The Croatian national team inherited Croatia's identity during the Yogoslavia era. Not surprisingly, Croatian players are seen as national heroes and symbols of nationalism identity.

Football matches are also considered a place to strengthen and thicken nationalism.

Born in the 1980s and 1990s, the current Croatian players still bear the traces of the brutal and hard-to-reducible Balkan War.

If the Croatian team in 1998 became the symbol for Croatian birth, then the 2018 team would be about the story of the future of a country that eventually realized promises to reach the highest level in the World Cup final.

Akan halnya 2022, adalah kesempatan untuk menbuktikan bahwa prestasi Croatia pada 2018 bukan kebetulan.

In fact, despite surrendering 0-3 to Argentina in the semifinals, Croatia has proven itself not a team that reached the top level by chance.

The third place in the 2022 World Cup is proof.

This is not the first time they have done this because even in 1998 they had taken it, even in 2018 they almost entered the elite ranks of countries that won the World Cup.