So, in about two weeks the qualification games will start. Since I'm from Croatia, I will follow my team more closely than others. Yesterday Croatia's manager Dalić said that he wants to keep the same team which won the bronze medal at the World Cup last year. The only real change is that Lovren said goodbye to the national team. We will see who will get to the starting lineup instead of him.
As for the games, Croatia is in the group D with Turkey, Wales, Latvia and Armenia. I dare to say that Croatia is the group's number 1 favorite. It will be interesting to see how will they play their first two games against Turkey and Wales. I see Turkey as second favorite in this group.
Ideally Croatia should be able to top the group, but you can never predict matches involving Turkey. They are such a volatile team. On their day, thy can defeat strong teams such as Germany. And on other days they will go down to teams like Latvia and Armenia. BTW, I am surprised that Belarus is taking part in the competition. They were banned by FIFA, because they were seen as too "close" to Russia. I am glad that at least UEFA took the right decision here, by distancing sport from politics. They are placed in Group I, along with Switzerland, Israel, Romania, Kosovo and Andorra.