Modric wants to finish his international career on a high note at Euro 2024.
Croatia, with captain Luka Modric as a role model, wants to shσck the football world again at Euro 2024 in Germany.
Overachievers who never stop Croatia often goes against predictions and makes the odds before an event look silly. Many teams would love to have their World Cup record, but they have never quite reached the same heights in the European Championship.
The fact that Croatia, a country of only about 3.8 million people, made it to the 2018 World Cup final and then to the quarterfinals four years later is one of the great underdog stories in the history of the sport.
But they haven’t had as much success in Europe’s continental competition. They’ve never made it past the semifinals, and the last 16 in the last two competitions.
At Euro 2024 in Germany, they will try to make things right. This will almost certainly be Luka Modric’s last game as leader.
The 38-year-old Croatian star player and mastermind has won every club prize there is to win with Real Madrid. He would love to finish off his amazing career with international honors.
The 2018 Ballon d’Or winner has won multiple LaLiga and Champions League titles. He hasn’t played much for Real this season, but he is still the most important player on a Croatian team that doesn’t have as many stars as some of their opponents.
Last year, Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said that Modric was “perfect at football” and “better than others in every way.” But he has also shown that he is a master at putting together a team of lesser-talented players that is almost always better than the sum of its parts.
Before taking over as Croatia’s coach in 2017, Dalic worked as a freelancer coach. His success at the World Cup and in the Nations League final in 2023 make him the country’s most successful coach ever.
Croatia placed second in Group D, one point behind Turkey, and qualified for the Euros. They won five of their eight games and lost two.
Their best scorer was Andrej Kramaric with four goals. Those goals were important, but their 13 goals in the qualifiers were scored by seven different players, which shows how they worked as a team.
