Ara_sport

Croatia (CRO)

Profile

Founded	1912
Affiliated	1992
WC participations	2 (1998, 2002)
WC honours	3rd place (1998)
Continental Titles	None
Facts Croatia's FIFA World Cup experience so far has been short but very sweet. On their first attempt, they qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, where they left an indelible impression. In the quarter-finals Croatia defeated Germany, and an early goal by Davor Suker put them ahead against the hosts and eventual champions France in their semi-final tie. But Lilian Thuram's two goals for France ended the dream of reaching a World Cup final, and in the dying moments, Croatia failed to capitalise when France went a man down for the last 15 minutes of the game. Four years later Croatia qualified again but were unable to repeat their 1998 success. They followed an opening defeat by Mexico with a win against Italy but lost to Ecuador and failed to reach the last sixteen.

Players:

1 PLETIKOSA Stipe (GK)
2 SRNA Darijo
3 SIMUNIC Josip
4 KOVAC Robert
5 TUDOR Igor
6 VRANJES Jurica
7 SIMIC Dario
8 BABIC Marko
9 PRSO Dado
10 KOVAC Niko
11 TOKIC Mario
12 DIDULICA Joe (GK)
13 TOMAS Stjepan
14 MODRIC Luka
15 LEKO Ivan
16 LEKO Jerko
17 KLASNIC Ivan
18 OLIC Ivica
19 KRANJCAR Niko
20 SERIC Anthony
21 BALABAN Bosko
22 BOSNJAK Ivan
23 BUTINA Tomislav (GK)

Coach: Zlatko ‘Cico’ Kranjcar Nationality : Croatian
Date of Birth : 15 November 1956

General Information

FIFA Trigramme: CRO
Country: Croatia
Country (official name): Republika Hrvatska
Continent: Europe
Capital: Zagreb
Major cities: Rijeka, Split, Osijek, Zadar, Brod, Vukovar, Dubrovnik Currency: Kuna
Official languages: Croatian
Motto: Not known

Population (in millions): 4.42
GDP per inhabitant (in US dollars): 8,800
Density (inhabitants per km2): 78.21
Average age (in years): 38.9
Life expectancy at birth (in years): 74.37

Internet code: .hr
Number of internet users: 480,000 (2001)



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