The coach of the Croatian national team, Zlatko Dalić, invited 26 players and sent nine pre-invites for the friendly matches that the Vatreni will play in Orlando in March.
The Croatian national team is waiting dual program in Orlando where they will measure the forces with Colombia March 26, and then s Brazil March 31. The matches will be played as part of the “Road to 26” friendly series, in which, along with Croatia, Brazil and Colombia, France will also participate.
Coach Dalić remained faithful to the well-known forces, and in addition to the 26 players, he sent nine pre-calls that he will activate as needed ahead of the national team meeting, which is scheduled for March 23.
In the past weeks, we succeeded visit a large number of representativesand I am glad that a few of them fought for a better club status, which I asked of them in November. I felt that the players they live for the World Cupthat they have a huge motivation and I wish them to meet the preparations in the best possible shape, mood and above all in good health. These games in America will serve as a great test for us to see where we are three months before the World Cup and what we need to work on the most during the preparations, but we will also use those ten days in Orlando for community empowerment which is always our trump card compared to other nations.
Therefore, we are also loyal to the staff that has imposed itself in the past period, and we deeply believe that we will be at the World Cup stronger for Mateo and Joško who are our core players and I am happy that they are recovering well from the operations. With a larger number of invitations, we want to show that we are following a number of serious candidates for the national team, with several of them also in the young national team, which is awaiting a very important match with Turkey. There are still many matches until the WC and enough opportunities for all candidates to fight for their status with form, performance and energy, the door of the national team is not closed to anyoneannounced coach Dalić.
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We have never shied away from tough exams before big competitions, so we look forward to these challenges as well. Brazil has probably the strongest roster in the world with one of the greatest coaches in history and will certainly come to the World Cup as one of the main favorites for gold, while Colombia defeated both Brazil and Argentina in the qualifiers and finished the group with the same number of points as Brazil, which speaks volumes for the strength of that team. But with all due respect to both opponents, we have our trump cards, quality and togethernessand we want to show ourselves in the best possible light, while we will take care to give as many players the opportunity as possible and to try out certain ideas that we have before the World Cupcoach Dalić said, it was announced from of HNS.
Croatia has played with Brazil five times so far, and the best memory remains the previous meeting at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, when Vatreni celebrated in a great quarter-final match after penalty kicks. The first meeting was played in Split in 2005, ended with a friendly 1:1, and a year later the Brazilians celebrated with 1:0 at the beginning of the WC in Germany. Brazil was better with 3:1 at the opening of the domestic WC in 2014, and the South Americans were better in the friendly meeting in 2018 in Liverpool (2:0). Croatia, on the other hand, has not yet played Colombia.
The representatives will March 23 will arrive in Orlando from their respective destinations, and on the same day, the headquarters and delegation of the Association, along with players from the SuperSport Croatian Football League, will depart from Zagreb.
List of invited players:
Gatekeepers: Dominik Livaković, Dominik Kotarski, Ivor Pandur
Defenders: Duje Ćaleta-Car, Josip Šutalo, Josip Stanišić, Marin Pongracić, Kristijan Jakić, Martin Erlić, Luka Vušković, Ivan Smolčić
Midfielder: Luka Modrić, Mario Pašalić, Nikola Vlašić, Lovro Majer, Luka Sučić, Martin Baturina, Petar Sučić, Nikola Moro, Toni Fruk
Strikers: Ivan Perišić, Andrej Kramarić, Ante Budimir, Marco Pasalić, Petar Musa, Igor Matanović
Pre-calls: Bruno Petković, Mislav Oršić, Franjo Ivanović, Domagoj Bradarić, Toma Bašić, Dion Drena Beljo, Franko Kovačević, Karlo Letica, Luka Stojković
Match schedule:
Thursday, March 26:
16:00* Brazil – France (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough)
19:30* Colombia – Croatia (Camping World Stadium, Orlando)
Sunday, March 29:
15:00* Colombia – France (Northwest Stadium, Landover)
Tuesday, March 31:
20:00* Brazil – Croatia (Camping World Stadium, Orlando)
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Stefan Ivanovic/Pixsell)
