UK and French Media Praise Croatian National Team

Even without Modric they’re a force to be reckoned with, international sport journalists agree.

After the first round of Euro 2016 was completed, power rankings started appearing in international media, and Croatia is ranked high in every single one of them. According to The Guardian and their Euro 2016 Power ranking that was published on June 23, 2016, Croatia was the best national team in the first phase of the competition.

Here’s what the UK sports journalists had to say: The most notable thing from beating Spain is that without Luka Modric they remain a force to be reckoned with. Their record should have been 100% only for that bizarre collapse against the Czech Republic – and, really, the disruptive element in their fanbase deserve as much blame as the players. Based on what we have witnessed so far, calling them dark horses is playing their chances down, especially now their path in the knockout stages is moderately easier on account of finishing above the reigning champions. While Modric and Ivan Rakitic are the star turns, Ivan Perisic has arguably been their best player. Defensively they are sound. And Mario Mandzukic could yet have a big impact in attack.

French L’ Equippe seems to share the opinion of their UK colleagues since they also placed Croatia in the top spot. Two Croatian players, Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic were in the ideal 11 of the first round, Ivan Perisic was the best player overall while Ante Cacic, Croatian head coach, was named the best coach.

 

 

L’équipe type à l’issue de la phase de groupes. #EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/u2sJ8JWPnZ

— L’ÉQUIPE (@lequipe) June 23, 2016

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!