August 17, 2020 – The coach of the Croatia national team, Zlatko Dalic, has published a list of 23 players he is counting on for the upcoming Croatia matches against Portugal and France.
HNS announced that after a break of almost 10 months caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Croatia national football team would gather in Zagreb again on August 31, with two appearances at the opening of the new edition of the Nations League in September.
The 2018 World Cup runners-up will play in Porto on September 5, where the European champions Portugal await them, and three days later in Paris (St. Denis), at the Stade de France, they will once again face France in the rematch of the 2018 FIFA World Cup final.
Dalic invited 23 players for this international round, with six reserves and two new names on the list – goalkeeper Ivo Grbic and defender Marin Pongracic.
“Although the circumstances are not great given the coronavirus epidemic, it is certain that we are all very much looking forward to reuniting after such a long break. The term is not ideal because many players will practically come from their breaks to reunite, but we are all in the same situation on that issue. It is important for the players to rest as well as possible, because they have a tough competition season ahead of them, at the end of which the EURO is waiting for us, and that is our primary goal,” said coach Dalic.
“Our opponents can’t be harder – suffice it to say that in three days we will play away against European and world champions. We respect Portugal and France to the maximum, but we have a lot of trump cards and we will certainly try to break the negative tradition we have against both teams. We will see in what condition the players will come to the gathering and we will act accordingly, because although the result in the Nations League is important to us, our priority is the health of players and preparation for World Cup qualifiers and then EURO 2020,” concludes coach Dalic.
You can see the full list of players below.
?⬇️ The Croatia squad list for the September UNL matches is out now
Just 2️⃣ weeks left until the Vatreni are finally back in action and we are EXCITED ??? pic.twitter.com/ymnlNaRlao
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) August 17, 2020
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