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 Croatia
Reaching major tournaments is hardly a novelty for Croatia. Croatians have
failed to make a World Cup or European Championship only once since
1996 (Euro 2000). But reaching Austria/Switzerland was nevertheless met
with euphoria, partly because of the style in which the team did it and
the fact they had comfortably bettered England and Russia in the
process.
Many fans were so uplifted that they predicted Croatia could even win
Euro 2008. But then came a terrible blow – the broken leg suffered by
Eduardo Da Silva, top scorer in the qualifiers and the team’s most
important player, which will keep him out of the finals.
Goalkeepers:
Stipe Pletikosa (Spartak Moscow)
Vedran Runje
(RC Lens)
Mario Galinovic (Panathinaikos)
Defenders:
Vedran Corluka (Manchester City)
Dario Simic (AC
Milan)
Robert Kovac (Borussia Dortmund)
Josip Simunic (Hertha
Berlin)
Dario Knezevic (Livorno)
Hrvoje Vejic (Tom Tomsk)
Midfielders:
Danijel Pranjic (Heerenveen)
Darijo Srna
(Shakhtar Donetsk)
Niko Kovac (Salzburg)
Luka Modric (Dinamo
Zagreb/Tottenham)
Niko Kranjcar (Portsmouth)
Jerko Leko
(Monaco)
Ivan Rakitic (Schalke 04)
Ognjen Vukojevic (Dinamo
Zagreb)
Nikola Pokrivac (Monaco)
Forwards:
Mladen Petric (Borussia Dortmund)
Ivica Olic
(Hamburg SV)
Ivan Klasnic (Werder Bremen)
Igor Budan (Parma)
Nikola Kalinic (Hajduk Split)
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