After England and France, Croatia is the third European team to qualify for the World Cup. The "Fiery Ones" overcame the Faroe Islands (3:1) last night in Rijeka, and will participate in the planetary parade for the seventh time in history.
Croatia was losing 1:0 last night from the 16th minute, as the guests took the lead with a goal from Turija, and then Gvardiol, Musa and Vlašić turned things around.
"Once again we qualified for the World Cup, congratulations to the boys. This was a tough game, at the end we celebrated and relaxed. We were under pressure for three or four months, we got over it, we're moving on. We didn't start well, we ran poorly, there was no aggression. The Faroe Islands are a tough opponent, a very tricky team, they run and work. In the end we won and celebrated qualifying for the World Cup, thank you all," said Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić.
Croatia's qualifiers end on Monday (20:45) in Podgorica against Montenegro. Zlatko Dalić's team needs a win against Montenegro to keep their chances of winning the first hat in the World Cup draw.
"Montenegro? We'll see, we want to win, we'll see what and how, we want to play the best qualifiers in history," said Dalić.
And next summer, the team will be led by the masterful Luka Modrić, who will be playing in his tenth major competition, tying him with Lothar Mateusz on the all-time list of most appearances by a national team player in major competitions. He played his 193rd match for the national team against the Faroe Islands.
"I am proud and happy with everything I have achieved with the national team, the number sounds really incredible. I think that appearing at the World Cup is a big deal. Sometimes we forget how big a deal it is considering the successes we have achieved, so we take the placement itself for granted. However, that is anything but normal," explained Modrić.
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