Croatia knows its path at the 2026 World Cup. The Vatreni will be in Group L alongside England, Panama, and Ghana.
The campaign begins on June 17 against 4th ranked England, with the opener officially set for Dallas, Texas, at AT&T Stadium. It’s a demanding start for the Vatreni.
On June 23, Croatia meets 30th ranked Panama in Toronto at BMO Field. The Vatreni can expect a sea of Croatian-Canadian fans in the stands, giving them strong support on foreign soil.
The group stage concludes on June 27 against 72nd ranked Ghana in Philadelphia at Lincoln Financial Field. They can expect a ton of Croatians in the stands as well, with strong backing from the Pennsylvania-based diaspora.
Group L lays out a clear and challenging road. Let’s hope the Vatreni can push for another strong World Cup run.
England introduced soccer to Croatia. It will be fitting to beat them at their own game in front of the World.
Yo, stop complaining about where the games are going be and the temperature. They are professionals. I literally live five minutes away from MetLife Stadium. It’s gonna be hot everywhere. Especially Philadelphia Northeast. It’s fucking disgusting hott…… but it is what it is.
It doesn’t matter what stadium we play in. We just have to fucking play. No excuses man. Let’s just enjoy Luka for the last time. What more could he have possibly done for us? He’s a once in a generational player.
More importantly, these American commentators need to stop talking smack about Croatia. I see Lana Donovan got the implants on so he’s feeling brave. Goofy ass clown.
Hey, hearing all these American commentators from the golden 94 generation (clowns) shit on Croatia. One more old joke, and I’m about to break Lana Donovan’s jaw. Goofy ass motherfuckers.
These American Soccer legends be talking reckless about Croatia. Lana Donovan, despises Croatia. And I do remember when he commentated the Croatia Italy game in 2024. He was extremely disrespectful.
He is such a hater. Goofy ass bitch.The 1994 “golden generation” (fucking clowns) for America just talks about how old the Croatian players are. It’s getting disrespectful. Who the fuck do you think you are?
Goofy ass clowns 🤡
Funny thing is that the best scenario is Croatia gets third place in the group (as long as they are one of the best 8 of 12 third place teams). If they win the group, they play a third place team, but the round of 16 could be against Mexico in Mexico City. If they get 2nd, they would play the 2nd place team from Portugal/Columbia but then would likely play Spain. If they are 3rd, they would play the winner of the Portugal/Columbia group but then the round of 16 could be the winner of the Canada group, so no great team in that group. And that round of 16 game would be in Vancouver.
We need to be on par and even better than the squad in 2018.
We need a mandzukic in our striker department..in WC2022, we are lucky to have defenders and attackers like orsic stepping up and scoring goals to help tie games. For WC2022, we rely more on defence with the.experience of lovren and superb gvardiol to bail us out time and time again.
But in current squad, i dont see any striker like mandzukic striking fear in opp defenders. We need dalic to utilize the strengths of strikers like budimir and musa.
Similar for CB to replace lovren and vida, we need a defender who is less error prone and is a no nonsense defender. Vuskovic is not on that level yet.
For midfielder, we have lost brozovic and rakitic now..modric is ageing and cannot play 3 full matches in a week. Kovacic is iniury prone and need to step up. Sucic is not yet at brozovic level yet. Brozovic and rakitic are classy midfielders bringing stability to centre of park.
At the same time i hate the fact we are in last grp which means we start our first match 5 days later. If we can progress to subsequent rounds esp as runner up, we dont have many days to rest esp for our ageing players.similarly we do not have many quality of players on bench. England is more in advantageous situation as they can afford to send 2nd team or rotate players more often given we have 8 games instead of 7 games.
If we lost first game, it means we have to win nx 2 games while many pot 1 teams would sealed qualification early.
Again, it also depends on luck. In WC2018 we are fortunate to meet russia who knocked out spain in QF. We are also fortunate to meet japan in 2nd round in WC2022..so in the end, luck also plays an important role.
@Anonymous, Z and Dannyj
Loving those Jagusic comments, keep ’em coming! Looks like dude can play CM and all offensive positions except CF. If he stays on this trajectory, I want him on the WC roster. Also, I like that his goal celebration (take-a-picture hand sign) is short and sweet without too much self-indulgence or drawing attention to himself.
***
As for the WC draw, I feel that our group is fairly tough. I don’t know what to expect from Ghana, I read here that they have dangerous attackers? Also, can we continue this good streak against African teams? And playing a top team like England in our opening game is a bit scary imo (recall our opening defeats to England and Spain in the past two Euros). Agree with analysis by @Maminjo that we have a difficult knockout path especially if we finish second. In short, we didn’t have any luck with this draw.
PS I am reminded of what Maminjo said previously about Belgium who have often benefited from being a Pot 1 team in the major tournaments – once again, they have found themselves in an easy group.
They have Semenyo, an attacking mid who’s been tearing it up for Bournemouth in the EPL this season.
Jagusic is a massive Sp*rs fan (it’s the only ex-HNL club he follows on IG)
That’s the Son Heung-Min celebration he’s mimicking 😉
***.gettyimages.ca/photos/son-heung-min-celebration
Ah, nice…
another small factor, location of knockout round games.
1st place
-Atlanta-Mexico City -Miami-Atlanta
2nd place
Toronto-Dallas-LA-Dallas
1st set has 2 brutal outdoor temp games,
2nd set has 1 “OK” outdoor temp game
Rest are doomed/retractable
Is Atlanta brutal weather?
Other than LA (which has dry summers) you could argue that the second place path has worse humidity levels.
Mexico City and Miami would be outdoors, in heat/humidity.
Atlanta is indoor Dallas is indoor.
What does this mean ?
2nd place
Toronto-Dallas-LA-Dallas
If they get second they play in Toronto.
yes. If they finisn 2nd, their round of 32 game would be in Toronto.
If they win that game, their round of 16 game would be in Dallas, etc etc….
Have fun and don’t forget to write@
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Croatia will be Word cup champions next year
How is Fifa determining which teams play in which stadiums? Seriously asking if anyone knows what criteria they are looking at aside from money lol
We have a very difficult path.
We have to play a top-5 ranked team for first place.
Odds are, we finish second and we play Portugal or Colombia in the Round of 32 (who are a top-6 and top-12 team).
Pretty harsh path to have to already play two of the top-12 teams in the tournament before even getting past the R32.
If we manage to get past Colombia/Portugal…then we play Spain in the Round of 16.
Brutal, brutal set of teams… and we’re not even at the Quarterfinals.
So, we essentially need to finish first in this group to avoid all this (something FIFA will work hard against, in England’s favor).
Never thought that Czech draw would bite us so hard haha.
Irony is usually; we make it through a last-minute playoff effort. This was our cleanest result to date by far.
One goal away from really setting us up for an easy run to the final 8.
You’re assuming nobody falters. Uruguay could easily beat Spain. Portugal will collapse, Columbia who knows.
Speculation at this point is meaningless. What you just posted could be completely unraveled.
We’re in a great spot. Let’s enjoy it
Still.
Even if Portugal falters, it means we play them in R32 instead of Colombia.
Same goes for Uruguay or Spain.
Just a lot of good teams in our knockout bracket BEFORE we even reach the R32.
Then you have teams like Belgium who only have to play Iran, Egypt and New Zealand and then (likely) Senegal in the R32 and (likely) USA in the R16.
Not a top ranked team in sight until they’re deep into the tournament.
I know. I betcha England fans are saying the same thing. Bielsa will have uruguay ready for war in that group. They will physically destroy Spain. Spain will get injuries as will all.
England will tie us . Then we both can maneuver around to see what’s happening.
Portugal will not get out of their group imo. Infighting will persist for them.
Portugal will not get out of their group? lol. There is zero chance they don’t get out of their group. They have Uzbekistan and a minnow from the inter confederation playoff. And those are also their first two games, so they will have 6 points without breaking a sweat. Portugal and Spain have the two easiest paths to get out of their groups by far. Because of the dilution and idiocy of expanding this WC, there are no great groups and there will be a lot a bad games. The 32 team set up was perfect. And the Euros were great with 16 teams. But money and corruption rule the day.
It won’t be easy for us . We have a difficult path . We are not as strong as the other teams . We have been in great spots before and collapsed .
You mean like they did for Portugal ?
Ronaldo was supposed to miss the first 2 games from a red card – fifa decided to postpone it until after the WC (arbitrarily – there is no existing “rule” which allows for this(
And the funny thing is Portugal is better without Ronaldo, plus they will easily win their first two games with a goal differential of 10+, so they don’t need him.
I agree , it will be extremely difficult. People should not under estimate Ghana . It’s not a guarantee that England can beat Ghana. There will definitely be surprises. England media already have them winning the group. We can beat Panama , but we need to work for it. Ghana for us may be the determining game . We cannot lose to England , draw is okay but we would have to win the next 2 . The game with Colombia and Brazil will be extremely important and will measure just how good we are, both games should be taken extremely serious by Dalic and the team . If we can get out of the group and beat Portugal or Columbia in real time , we have a chance against anybody . As you said, it will be very difficult.
You’re assuming portugal will be waiting for us. Maybe at the airport waiting for the first TAP flight to Lisbon while we go to Santa Clara
I don’t agree here. All sorts of upsets will/can happen. But if look at some baseline facts:
First place in group L gets a 3rd place team (not a 2nd place team, like alot of groups).
Second place in group L gets….another 2nd place team (not a 1st place team). Also, its not totally crazy to think group K might finish Portugal-Jamaica, and then we get Jamaica in round of 16.
Compare that with Argentina. Whether they finish 1st OR second…..they almost for sure will get either Spian or Uruguay already in the round of 32.
Jamaica in the round of 32 I mean
They have to win each game, one step at a time… They got this relax folks… First game against England is perfect as both teams will likely be cautious and a tie is a realistic outcome. If Croatia cannot then beat Ghana or Panama then we don’t deserve to be continuing anyways. We got this… 1-1, 2-0, 3-0 in order
Vjeruj……. Luka’s last stand.
Dear brother Martin, don’t underestimate Ghana. They are a good team and will fight to the death. We got a punchers chance sure. As long as dalic fields the right personal.
A punchers chance? Lol that implies that we are the underdog. I’m not underestimating or disrespecting Ghana as they will be hungry and want to win. But we are the better team through and through and should win that game. Again if we don’t, then we don’t deserve to continue to the next round. Somehow when our players put on our checkers, it’s like a superhero vest… We got this 😉
Jagusiic looks a bit kova esque out there how he runs and is really tight with the ball but looks much more forward focused. Of course those are highlights and In a much lower league but it looks like he is always pushing forward
And I love his left legged shot
Seems like great power in it
How good is this Michael Ružić kid ?
Pretty good.
His mom was the best female volleyball player in the World during the 90s.
Croatian women’s volleyball is pretty mediocre, but she was pretty much Air Jordan out there scoring all their points. They finished a couple times in the quarters of the Olympics and she was always leading scorer of the tournament. They also medaled a couple of times at the Euros and World Cup.
His dad was an okay basketball player (played for Zadar, Bešiktaš and in France), but there is a lot sporting history on his mom’s side of the family.
I think he works his way up into the first round of the NBA draft, but will probably end up being better than our recent guys like Šarić and company.
So some of my buddies are breaking my balls for me calling our group the group of death. Sure there are 48 teams and it’s not like previous tournaments with more quality teams in each group BUT
Pot 1 – after the 3 host nations, England is fourth in the world
Pot 2 – we’re first
Pot 3 – Panama was ranked second
Pot 4 – Ghana was ranked third
I don’t think any one else comes close. Only France Senegal Norway but when you looked at each countries rankings we’re still higher than Senegal and Norway and Panama are one spot apart and their playoff spot 2 is Iraq, Suriname or Bolivia. I don’t see how Iraq is ranked higher than Bolivia and Ghana.
Yes, it is not great, agreed.
To je to. can only look forward at this point, still grateful we made it through.
Our knockout path is even worse
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Why are folks so smitten with Ghana….they are a bad team. They were good in the early 2000’s and have been on the decline ever since.
If we are not good enough to get a good result against England we would most likely get bounced in the next round anyways. We had one of the easiest qualifying groups of all time so this will be a good test.
Were going into are 3rd straight tournament with an aging lineup. Hopefully Jagu & Vusko can continue with their breakout seasons and be included in the WC squad.
Agreed, if we go went with Subasic vs Pletikosa, WC 2014, would have had a different result. I am on board for the two forementioned for not only incorporation, but for utilization as warranted by their future play in the next 6 months.
Ante nailed it. If that game ends up in Toronto, it will be mayhem.
Jagusic vs. Gorica compilation
x.com/Lhmdmd_70/status/1997029795494797680
Re-try Anon. Link not work
It works – just copy and paste the whole thing – try again
got it– ty
Forget the draw what was that nauseating display before the pots were chosen…absolutely cringeworthy I was ready for infanti to get on his knees for Trump.
Shocked they didn’t change the name of this World Cup to the Trump tournament SRAMOTA!
Toronto would be a great place for the Vatreni to play. They should enjoy a big crowd of supporters in Toronto.
Meh. Didn’t do much for them at the Euros.
What are the chances we can get a za dom going in TO and get us banned??
50/50 is my guess
As long as players are not leading or encouraging chants, or attendance are not throwing fireworks onto the pitch, political climate and media has hopefully changed since infamous Simunic incident, in not overly reacting to national pride by attendances, and not classifying it as inherently evil automatically.
Still to be safe, we should stick to Nepalese patriot fight songs to appease international media.
Football Meets Data odds:
Croatia 28%
England 47%
Tie 25%
Croatia 55%
Panama 22%
Tie 23%
Croatia 75%
Ghana 9%
Tie 16%
Compare contrast Croatia vs. Germany and Belgium odds [below assumes Croatia steps into their shoes i.e. if we beat Czech and moved higher in FIFA ranking]
The [+x%] next to win represents Germany/Belgium win % vs. Croatia [based on like-by-like matches]
Germany 39% [+11%]
Ecuador 35%
Tie 26%
Germany 66% [+11%]
Ivory Coast 15%
Tie 20%
Germany 76% [+1%]
Curaçao 8%
Tie 15%
#######
Belgium 46% [+18%]
Iran 29%
Tie 25%
Belgium 58% [+3%]
Egypt 20%
Tie 22%
Belgium 62% [-13%]
New Zealand 17%
Tie 21%
Belgium got Iran, Egypt and NZ? Geez talk about an easy group.
Marc Rochon will figure all this data out for us before the England game.
He’s from John o’ Groats
Looking ahead:
SECOND place out of our group plays second place in group K (likely Portugal or Colombia), and then likely Spain in the round of 16.
FIRST place in our group plays a 3rd place team in the next round. And then possibly Mexico in the round of 16 (though in Mexico City).
Seems pretty crucial to try to win the group.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Croatia has not beaten England since the WC 2018, the main reason Croatia did not make Pot 1 status, and why we are in this predicament.
From a positive perspective, we are overdue for a good result.
We beat them I think in one of Those League of Nations matches as well
But they did have our number after the 2018
But we all know 2018 is what matters most
Nope. We had a loss and a draw, we’ve never beaten them since.
They didn’t have our number we weren’t good enough had Covid not happened. We would’ve beaten them.. that euro we had shit team, dalic completely mis handled the campaign.
Did we even play them since 2018?
Euro2020 and that’s it really.
I count three results : (2)2018 Nations League Tie/Loss (1) 21 Euro Loss
I understand you repressing the nations league campaign where we lost 6-0 to Spain but it still happened im afraid. We played them twice there and then also in group stage of euro 2021.
The limey’s know we have their # they can’t be too happy with us in their group!
Honestly, I’m a little upset that we got screwed at the finish line by getting Ghana of all Pot 4 teams there. If we don’t beat them (and Panama), then we deserve nothing out of this group there.
That being said, it could’ve been worse for sure, but I’m still not that happy with getting Ghana (and therefore the group as a whole) in the end. And I’d bet my left nut that Ghana could beat Italy in its current state like 2-1 or something like that. I mean, that’s how highly I rate Ghana in all of this there!
Ghana is a tough team . people think that they are bad or they suck they don’t . they should not be taken lightly . Let’s face it. It won’t be easy. This is the World Cup. We have to run the gauntlet.
Hope we institute and have faith in some of our younger guns who are developing well. We can handle only so many Brazil conditioned Stipe Pletikosas, with this fast group.
Hopefully, the Ghana team will get frustrated and karate chop one of our players in broad daylight, for a red card and penalty kick.
Looks like a Brazil friendly is in play, in which to test the Croatian team.
Not really what I was after. Dont know much about Ghana but suspect they could be a challenge for sure.
They used to have a bunch of top-tier players, but many of them don’t seem to be playing for the national team anymore. Wakaso, Partey and Iñaki Williams don’t seem to be playing for the national team anymore. They still have some good players, but not the players who defined their success at WC 2022 and earlier. And anyway, what always gets in Croatia’s way is good defending and counterattacks, so a team that doesn’t defend well will not likely beat Croatia
Now they’re in the world cup, watch those players come back to the national team.
Not a bad draw. It could have been worse. I can see us winning all three matches and winning the group. But Croatia will need to play fast and strong players and defend very well against England. There’s a reason Ghana is ranked so low: they don’t win against decent teams. Panama has a high ranking because they play in CONCACAF. They could be a problem if they bunker well, but I trust our Vatreni to break them down and get the win.
Agreed. Not the best draw. Not the worst. Always good to have a chance to beat the Englanders.