What are Croatia’s chances?
Entering Group F, Croatia have Belgium as their main rivals for supremacy, and progress to the round of 16 is all but assured for Canada and Morocco, who complete the group.
According to the latest FIFA ranking, Croatia is the seventh best team in the world, well capable of causing a stir in the knockout stages, as they did in 2018 when they reached the final.
After that, the side seemed to decline, after poor performances in the 2020 Nations League campaign and the 2021 European Championship. Recently, however, Croatia won their Nations League group, ahead of France, Denmark and Austria.
Dalic recently integrated debutants in an attempt to refresh the team that reached the final of the tournament in Russia four years ago. He gave starts to the likes of Josip Stanisic, who plays for Bayern Munich at club level, and Kristijan Jakic of Eintracht Frankfurt.
After a shaky start to their qualifying campaign, Croatia topped their group ahead of Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and runners-up Russia, who were later suspended from the tournament.
Following their successful Nations League campaign, Croatia has just one game left – the friendly against Saudi Arabia on November 16 – before the World Cup kicks off against Morocco 17 days later.