On French soil in their debut World Cup Croatia were massively impressive. This did not come as a complete surprise, as many of their players were already known to the world of football due to their appearances in foreign leagues, particularly Serie A in Italy. Boksic at Lazio and Boban at AC Milan were particularly highly rated, their flair and technical ability leading some to label Croatians as the 'Brazilians of Europe'.

This time around the Croatian team certainly looks weaker and is relatively unfancied. Age has robbed them of Boban and Prosinecki, and blunted the effectiveness of France 98 Golden Booter Davor Suker. However, they conceded only 2 goals during qualification so it would be fair to say that the defence is tight, maybe tight enough to maintain their record of conceding less goals per game than any other team in World Cup history.