Croatia has had a prominent international football team since the country gained independence in 1991. Around that time, the team contained many fantastic players, some of whom had helped Yugoslavia win the FIFA Youth World Championship in 1987. (They beat Germany 5-4 on penalties after 1-1 in full time.) The Croatian stars of the youth team included Zvonimir Boban (who was captain), striker Davor Suker, Robert Jarni, Robert Prosinecki and Igor Stimac.
Having been unable to participate in qualifying for Euro '92 and World Cup '94, the first major football competition that Croatia competed in was the Euro '96 Championships, which were held in England. Croatia reached the quarter-finals of the tournament, where they lost 2-1 to Germany, who went on to win the competition. In the group stages of the tournament, Croatia beat reigning champions Denmark 3-0 in a thrilling victory - below is Davor Suker's famous goal from that game, which ranks as one of his best ever.
Croatia had even more success at the next tournament, the 1998 World Cup held in France. After progressing through the group stages and beating Romania 1-0 in the second round, the team produced the upset of the tournament by beating Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals in a masterful display. In the semi-finals, they met host nation - and eventual winners - France, to whom they lost 2-1. The game included a controversial moment when defender Slaven Bilic fell dramatically after slight contact by French player Laurent Blanc, which saw Blanc get a red card meaning he missed the final. Croatia went on to win third place in the tournament, by beating Holland 2-1 in the third place play-off. Davor Suker also won the Golden Boot (the award to the player that scores the most goals) of the tournament, with six goals.
Croatia failed to qualify for Euro 2000, and in the 2002 World Cup, failed to go beyond the group stages, despite beating Italy in one of the group games.
In Euro 2004, the team also failed to get beyond the group stage - two draws against Switzerland and France seemed to set them up nicely to progress further, but a 2-4 defeat by England knocked them out.
In the 2006 World Cup, Croatia once again failed to go beyond the group stage, in an uninspiring campaign which included a loss to Brazil, and draws against Japan and Australia. The game against Australia was reasonably bad-tempered - three players were sent off and, rather famously, Croatian player Josip Simunic received three yellow cards from English referee Graham Poll! (A useful bit of trivia to know for quizzes!)
At Euro 2008, Croatia started in rather stunning form. Wins in all three group games - against Austria, Germany and Poland - saw them receive maximum points and top their group. The quarter-final match against Turkey was a rather boring affair - 0-0 after full time forced the game into extra time. Croatia thought they had won it by scoring in the 119th minute (i.e. the last minute of the game), but Turkey managed to equalise in injury time (their goal is officially timed as occuring at 120 + 2 minutes in the game!), and the game went onto penalties which Croatia lost 1-3.
Unfortunately, Croatia failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, as they finished third in their group, behind England and Ukraine. They have, however, qualified for Euro 2012 (via the play-offs) and find themselves in the same group as the Republic of Ireland, Italy and Spain. Good luck Croatia!
Domestic Football
Football is a very popular sport in Croatia, and its domestic league is the HNL (hrvatska nogometna liga - Croatian football league), of which there are three divisions. The top division is the Prva Liga (first league), which contains 16 teams. The most famous Croatian clubs - which we are sure you have heard of! - are Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb.
These two teams are also the most successful - between the two of them they have won the league each year, bar once, since the league's inception in 1992!
