Croatia have defied the odds in the footballing world, as such a small country. They have earned medals at three FIFA World Cups, including recently the silver medal in 2018 and the bronze in 2022.
Even so, they arguably still underperform at times, based on the quality of their player pool, which is mostly due to the negative tactics of their national team coach Zlatko Dalić. Here, we assess Croatia’s World Cup prospects in 2026 ahead of the group stage.
Croatia’s World Cup Prospects: A Look at Group L
As is the case for every other team that will be there as well, Croatia’s World Cup prospects will be greatly boosted or diminished, depending on their group stage performances, and if they do advance, on how favourable their side of the knockout brackets will be from then on.
The Vatreni have been drawn into Group L, with England, Panama and Ghana, which is usually regarded as one of the most difficult groups of this World Cup, although by no means the most difficult.
England vs Croatia open the tournament on June 17 in Dallas, before taking on Panama in Toronto on June 23 local time, and ultimately finishing the section on June 27 in Philadelphia vs Ghana.
The Two Faces of Croatia’s Group Opponents
One can look at this group and Croatia’s role in it in one of two ways: Either it is a group with tournament favourites England, followed by a potential dark horse in Panama, who, while not being the hosts, are at least playing the World Cup inside their home confederation of CONCACAF.
Then last, but certainly not least, come the Ghanaians, always a formidable side.
The other way of looking at this group is that England were lucky to have been drawn into an easy World Cup qualifying group, while struggling in the friendlies since then. Meanwhile, Panama were poor at the 2018 tournament, their only prior participation.
As for Ghana, they failed to qualify for the most recent AFCON tournament and were struggling so much during the March international break, that their then-coach Otto Addo was sacked and recently replaced by Carlos Queiroz.
But regardless of whether one wants to talk Croatia’s group stage opponents up or down, most experts agree that any points gained from that game against England would be a huge boost, maybe even for Croatia’s World Cup prospects overall.
It is also obvious that the Vatreni must get a win against Panama, especially if they fail to upset England. They will then go into the Ghana match with a general idea of what they will need to advance.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Erling Haaland Form Remains a Constant in Manchester City’s Campaign
Croatia’s Problems
The side’s star defender, Joško Gvardiol, should hopefully be ready to play once the tournament in North America gets underway. However, with the time the Manchester City man has spent on the sidelines due to injury, he surely won’t be fully fit if he does return.
Another issue that may hurt Croatia’s World Cup prospects is their lack of a lethal number nine. Regardless of whether they go with Ante Budimir, Igor Matanović or someone else up front, it will not be an attacking line that is on the same level as the rest of the squad.
But even so, Croatia have far too good a team to always be parking the bus in big games, as coach Dalić tends to have them do.
Also, as great a career as team captain Luka Modrić has had, he is showing some natural signs of slowing down. The team relying on him as they did in the past, doesn’t seem the best idea.
Despite all these problems though, the one good thing that Dalić has brought to this side is an unbreakable team spirit. That has helped them move mountains at the last two global tournaments. That is why no one should sleep on Croatia’s World Cup prospects.
Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / Newscom World
Recording Date: 31.03.2026
Leave a Reply