August 21, 2023 – Croatia national team coach Zlatko Dalić has selected 23 players for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Latvia and Armenia.
The Euro 2024 qualifiers continue in September. On September 8, Croatia will host Latvia in Rijeka. Three days later, they will visit Yerevan near Armenia. After two games played, Croatia is in third place in Group D with four points, behind Turkey (nine points, four games) and Armenia (six points, three games). Croatia played fewer matches than its competitors as they played in the Nations League Finals, where they won the silver medal, reports HNS.
Coach Dalić invited 23 players for the upcoming gathering, to which he added five on standby (Kotarski, Ćaleta-Car, Medić, Moro, and Baturina).
“We had an excellent performance at the Nations League Finals, and we remained loyal to the team that won the silver medal there. Of course, we are all happy that the captain is still with us; with Luka, we are much stronger on and off the field. I am happy that almost all the players have solved transfers with their clubs, so they can come to the gathering with a calm head. That used to be a problem in the past with September matches. I congratulate Mate, Joško, Lovro, and Josip on big transfers and I am sure that they will improve even more at Manchester City, Ajax, and Wolfsburg. It’s nice to see that we have an increasing number of players at big clubs again, and I believe that this is to a large extent the result of the great success of the national team in the past period,” coach Dalić said.
“In addition to Gvardiol, who missed the Nations League Finals due to injury, we added Frigan in order to further expand the attacking options with a fast, modern striker who has a great spring behind him. We have two extremely important games ahead of us, in which with two wins we can make a big step toward the Euros. Of course, we accept the role of favorites, but we know very well that in the qualifiers it doesn’t mean much if you don’t go into the match with maximum concentration and focus. We expect from the players exactly the same approach we had in June from the first training session. We want to see that kind of Croatia again – loose, aggressive, and high-quality, to justify the role of favorites against Latvia and Armenia,” the coach added.
The national team gathers on Monday, September 4 in Zagreb. On September 5 they will head to Rijeka and travel to Armenia on September 9. The two best national teams from the group will secure direct placement in the final tournament, which will be held in the summer of 2024 in Germany.
Croatia Player List
Goalkeepers: 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
Strikers: Ivan Perišić, Andrej Kramarić, Bruno Petković, Petar Musa, Matija Frigan
Standby: Dominik Kotarski, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Jakov Medić, Nikola Moro, Martin Baturina
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