Group B Preview- Croatia

The conquerors of England boast a quality squad throughout the pitch. With the Kovac brothers and Simic providing safety for goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa and a midfield with creativity, width and flair with Srna, Luka Modric (recently signed by Tottenham for £16 million) and Niko Kranjcar the only worry should be the absence of an out and out striker in Eduardo. Having said that the likes of Ivica Olic, Mladen Petric and Kalinic should be enough to fill in as the proud valcan nation of Croatia attempt to surpass the wonderful achievemts of the class of 1998. That team boasted world class players like Davor Suker, Zvominir Boban and Prosinecki. The common ground between the two teams. Charismatic manager and player in France '98 Slaven Bilic


PROS:
1)Great squad, quality throughout with mixture of youth and experience
2)Luka Modric probably the best midfielder in the world at his age
3)Spirits are high after beating England at Wembley in an impressive qualifying campaign, good finals draw

CONS:
1)No Eduardo
2)Can sometimes be a little naive defensively
3)Bilic has no real experience of managing at that level


Goalkeepers

1 Stipe Pletikosa
12 Mario Galinović
23 Vedran Runje

Defenders

2 Dario Šimić
3 Josip Šimunić
4 Robert Kovač
5 Vedran Ćorluka
6 Hrvoje Vejić
13 Nikola Pokrivač
15 Dario Knežević

Midfielders

7 Ivan Rakitić
8 Ognjen Vukojević
10 Niko Kovač
11 Darijo Srna
14 Luka Modrić
16 Jerko Leko
19 Niko Kranjčar
22 Danijel Pranjić

Forwards

9 Nikola Kalinić
17 Ivan Klasnić
18 Ivica Olić
20 Igor Budan
21 Mladen Petrić