Photo by Slobodan Kadić
September 25, 2023 – Croatia national team coach Zlatko Dalić has invited 23 players for the October EURO 2024 qualifiers against Turkey and Wales.
Croatia will play at home against Turkey on October 12 in Osijek and visit Wales on October 15 in Cardiff. Coach Dalić has eight players on standby in addition to 23 invitations, announces HNS.
The player list does not include vice-captain Ivan Perišić, who suffered a serious ACL injury during a Tottenham training session.
“Of course, we will miss Ivan very much, both as a player and as one of the leaders of this generation. That does not change our ambition to take two more big steps towards our goal through these two matches, which is to qualify for EURO 2024. We did an excellent job in September, but now the two toughest rivals in the group are waiting for us, and we have to repeat the level of concentration, desire, and quality approach we had against Latvia and Armenia,” coach Dalić said.
“Taking into account the injuries of Perišić, Oršić, and Ivanušec, we expanded the options on the wings by inviting Brekalo, who thus gets the opportunity to show that he deserves to be part of the national team again, for which he has the necessary quality. I have repeatedly pointed out that the door of the national team is not closed to anyone and that everyone can return to the team with good playing time and national team behavior,” emphasized the coach.
Coach Dalić also announced a new addition to the Vatreni staff, as former Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subašić joins the coaching staff to work with the goalkeepers alongside Marjan Mrmić.
Croatia will gather on October 9 in Zagreb, where they will train until October 11, when they will travel to Osijek. On October 12, they will play for the first time at the new Opus Arena. Two days later, Croatia travels to Cardiff to meet Wales. After four games played, Croatia shares first place in the group with Turkey (five games), both with 10 points, while Armenia and Wales have seven points from five games. In last place is Latvia, without any points after five games played.
Croatia player list
Goalkeepeers: Dominik Livaković, Ivica Ivušić, Nediljko Labrović
Defenders: Domagoj Vida, Borna Barišić, Josip Juranović, Joško Gvardiol, Borna Sosa, Josip Stanišić, Josip Šutalo, Martin Erlić
Midfielders: Luka Modrić, Mateo Kovačić, Marcelo Brozović, Mario Pašalić, Nikola Vlašić, Lovro Majer, Luka Ivanušec
Attackers: Andrej Kramarić, Josip Brekalo, Bruno Petković, Marko Livaja, Petar Musa
Standby: Duje Ćaleta-Car, Marin Pongračić, Luka Sučić, Nikola Moro, Martin Baturina, Dion Drena Beljo, Matija Frigan, Dominik Kotarski
