Quote from: Sithara007 on April 28, 2023, 03:10:13 AM

Quote from: rdluffy on April 27, 2023, 04:20:12 PM

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May I add something to your post Sithara007?
Croatia also deserves to be mentioned as a team that has grown stronger in the last decade.
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I would agree partially. Croatia is one of the strongest teams within the UEFA confederation. And during the last one decade, they have made massive improvements. But what will be your take, if I take the last 4-year period instead of the last 10 years? Their performance in the FIFA World Cup suggests that the quality has remained as such. They were the runners-up in 2018, and finished at the 3rd place in 2022. However, they are dependent on players who are close to the retirement age, such as Ivan Perišić, Luka Modrić and Dejan Lovren. Will they be able to perform at the same level once these players retire?

The same questions were asked after Croatia was third at the 1998 World Cup, with a great generation in which Suker, Boban, Prosinecki and other great players played.
After them came a great generation with Modric, Mandjukic, Perisic and other great players.
Who will replace Modric, Perisic and Lovren? The Croatian national football team is currently very high-quality and has a lot of talented and young players that the best clubs in the world are looking for.
Livakovic is already one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Guardiol and Stanisic can already replace Lovren.
There are also Juranovic and Sosa.
In midfield we have great players like Kovacic, Brozovic, Majer or Pasalic.
Croatia may be a little weaker in attack right now, but we have Kramaric, Petkovic, Orsic and Perisic will still play for a while.
Croatia currently has the right combination of youth and experience and I think they will be a very serious candidate to win the League of Nations in June and to win the EURO next year.