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Croatia - Road to Euro

Luka Modrić - star of the Team

Luka Modrić – a Croatian footballer born on 9th September 1985 in Zadar. He plays as a midfielder. He was trained by Dinamo Zagreb and from 2003 he played in its junior teams. Then he moved to HŠK Zrinjski Mostar from Bosnia. He became the best player in the team and in 2004 was awarded the player of the season award. In the same year he returned to his home club, Inter Zaprešić, and played one season there. After that season he returned again to Dinamo Zagreb and played there during 2005-2008 seasons. At present Croatian midfielder plays in the best league of the world in Tottenham. Modric made his debut in national team in 2006 in the beginning of March in a game against Argentina won 3 : 2. He was called up for World Cup in Germany and played well there. The whole Croatian national team made enormous progress. The event which drew attention of a whole Europe was their win over England which meant that the British didn’t qualify for Euro in Austria and Switzerland. Modric was chosen the best player of Croatia in 2007. In this year’s European Football Championship Modric will bear responsibility for creating and carrying out actions. He will have to make up for Eduardo who got injured. Modric is a real warrior on the pitch. With a few shouts at colleagues he can fully mobilize them. He is a really good player.

Croatia - National Team

Player	Club	Position	Age	Value
Stipe Pletikosa	FC Spartak Moskva	Goalkeeper	29	4,750,000E
Vedran Runje	RC Lens	Goalkeeper	32	3,500,000E
Mario Galinović	Panathinaikos FC	Goalkeeper	31	1,500,000E
Vedran Ćorluka	Manchester City FC	Defender	22	11,000,000E
Josip Šimunić	Hertha BSC Berlin	Defender	30	6,000,000E
Dario Knežević	AS Livorno Calcio	Defender	26	2,800,000E
Robert Kovač	BV Borussia Dortmund	Defender	34	2,500,000E
Dario Šimić	AC Milan	Defender	32	2,000,000E
Hrvoje Vejić	FC Tom Tomsk	Defender	30	1,000,000E
Luka Modrić	Tottenham Hotspur FC	Midfielder	22	18,000,000E
Darijo Srna	FC Shakhtar Donetsk	Midfielder	26	11,000,000E
Niko Kranjčar	Portsmouth FC	Midfielder	23	7,500,000E
Ognjen Vukojević	NK Dinamo Zagreb	Midfielder	24	5,000,000E
Danijel Pranjić	SC Heerenveen	Midfielder	26	4,500,000E
Ivan Rakitić	FC Schalke 04	Midfielder	20	4,500,000E
Jerko Leko	AS Monaco FC	Midfielder	28	3,500,000E
Nikola Pokrivač	AS Monaco FC	Midfielder	22	3,000,000E
Niko Kovač	FC Salzburg	Midfielder	36	1,250,000E
Ivica Olić	Hamburger SV	Forward	28	8,000,000E
Mladen Petrić	BV Borussia Dortmund	Forward	27	8,000,000E
Nikola Kalinić	HNK Hajduk Split	Forward	20	6,000,000E
Igor Budan	Parma FC	Forward	28	5,500,000E
Ivan Klasnić	Werder Bremen	Forward	28	4,000,000E
Averages:			27.1	5,430,000E

Formations

Croatia - Picks

Date	Time	Team	Score	Team
8 June 2008	18:00	Austria	0-1	Croatia
Pick:	2	Odd:	1.95: Bet1128
Austria in spite it is the organizer of European Football Championship has small chances for qualifying from the group and even for a victory in one of three matches. They seek their chances in the match against Poland, but it is overestimation, because the team of Leo Beenhaaker plays recently very well and Austria just the opposite. First Austrians rival is the team of Croatia which played exceptionally well in qualifications. They even managed to win the game for nothing with England, when they deprived them of their participation in this event. I believe the favourite of this clash is Croatian team and that’s why I bet on them.
12 June 2008	18:00	Croatia	2-1	Germany
Pick:	1X	Odd:	1.77: Bwin
This for sure is the most interesting game in the group B where Poland plays as well. If this was the last round of group phase, then we could have said that this really would be a game for nothing, however these teams will meet in second match what gives the various possibilities standing in the table after this fixture. Germany, which is said to be in the group of favourites for winning this tournament, seems to be favourites of this clash. Every formation of this team is really gifted. The same can be said about Croatian national team, which created a big consternation in Europe lately. However the Croats morale can be strongly damaged with the lack of Eduardo who is recovering from injury. Nevertheless there are also great players similar to Eduardo, such as Modric or Krancjar, who with the rest of players can cause real trouble for the Germans, that is why I bet on Croats with support.
16 June 2008	20:45	Poland	0-1	Croatia
Pick:	1X	Odd:	1.39: Bwin
So long have Croatia been regarded as a dark horse of the tournament and it is so. They grabbed a win 2 : 1 against Germany in their latest match. You can see that even without Eduardo, who was supposed to lead this team, they are doing great. On the other hand, Poland lost chances of qualification ‘thanks to the judge’. After a loss of a goal from penalty in 93rd minute of the game the dream about quarter-final faded away. For that kind of jostling in penalty area you just can’t give penalty. What’s more, Webb referees in English Premiere League where no referee would have done something like that because he would be mocked. There is no doubt that our team was playing really poorly for the first 25 minutes, nevertheless they managed to score in 29th minute which completely broke Austrians down. Even this draw was hard to keep but great parades by Boruc kept us in game. The only thing left was to save a penalty, which he didn’t, but I think he will be a great transfer target for the biggest European clubs after this game. I reckon that if we played like at the beginning of the second half we can beat Croatia which isn’t fighting for anything.