Wednesday 11 June 2014

World Cup 2014: Could Croatia be a dark horse?

By Steven Oldham

The 2014 Fifa World Cup finally gets underway tomorrow with hosts Brazil taking on Croatia in Sao Paulo.

Brazil are one of the favourites to win the World Cup, and home advantage gives them an extra boost before a ball is kicked in search of a unrivalled sixth victory at the tournament.

However,in every group there is at least one team waiting to show the favourites there are 32 countries at the tournament, all who have earned their place at the top table.

This is the first of a mini series profiling the dark horses in each group.

Group A - Croatia

The manner in which Croatia deal with their game against Brazil tomorrow could be key to their whole tournament.  They are expected to lose, but if they put in a spirited performance it should boost them ahead of winnable games against Cameroon and Mexico. 

Mexico toiled to qualification, needing a favour from the USA to eliminate lowly Panama in the last game of their section, before saving face and comfortably beating New Zealand in the intercontinental playoff. Cameroon, meanwhile, had a less troubled path to Brazil, but remain weighed down with their unenviable record at the finals, only making it out of the group stages once in six attempts to date.

While unlikely to match their brilliant third place at France 98, the Croats will be quietly confident of making the knockout stages.  Key striker Mario Mandzukic will be available for their last two group games; he is banned for the opener after being sent off in their play-off match against Iceland.  He scored four goals in the qualifiers and hit an impressive 18 goals in 30 matches for Bayern Munich this season, but coach Niko Kovac will hope his desire to leave Bayern over the summer will not distract him from the matter in hand in Brazil.

Mario Mandzukic (fifazine.com)
In theory, other household names such as Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Eduardo should be at the peak of their careers.  Modric has had one of his best ever seasons with Real Madrid and will be looking to replicate his Champions League form on the biggest stage of all.

Brazil 2014 is likely to captain Darijo Srna's international swansong and they will want to leave their mark on a tournament. Fittingly, the Shakhtar Donetsk defender scored the goal that sealed his country's qualification to Brazil against Iceland in Zagreb last November.

They will be disappointed to have finished a distant second in their qualifying group to Belgium, but heartened by pre-tournament victories over Australia and Mali.  There were worries in qualification: double defeat to Scotland, and two of their three defeats came at home, with their lengthy unbeaten home run now in danger of being forgotten.

Should they make it through to the round of sixteen, it is likely they could come up against Spain.  The World and European champions will expect to top their group, and in reality, Croatia are in a three way fight for second behind Brazil.  If their big players perform however there's no reason they can't produce a shock. Brazil and Spain are not invincible. Their attitude and application in their games against Mexico and Cameroon could prove to be the difference maker in their progress this summer.

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