Croatia: consistency is key

By Elvir Islamovic

Croatia made heavy weather of qualifying for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, displaying two different faces throughout their campaign. It was not easy predicting which Croatia would turn up match-by-match, and their erratic performances could be summed up in two contrasting Group 8 games. A 2-0 away win against a strong Belgian team was followed by a goalless draw against Estonia, who collected just two points in the whole qualifying stage.

Availabilty headaches
Coach Martin Novoselac was constantly kept guessing by his senior team counterpart Otto Baric. With key midfielders Marko Babic of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, NK Dinamo Zagreb's Niko Kranjcar and Darijo Srna of FC Shakhtar Donetsk all candidates to play for the senior team, Novoselac’s team selection always depended on whether or not Baric freed them to play for the U21s.

Scottish test
The play-offs paired Croatia against Scotland, who appeared confident of victory. But, with Kranjcar and Babic, along with excellent young players Goran Ljubojevic of NK Osijek and Grasshopper-Club's Mladen Petric, Croatia showed great skill in the first-leg in Varazdin to win 2-0. The second match in Edinburgh was afar tighter affair but although Gary O'Connor gave the home team the lead after just eleven minutes, the Croatian defence held firm to seal a 2-1 aggregate win.

Citizen Da Silva
Novoselac has been boosted by Baric's decision to let Srna, Babic and Kranjcar - who have all been included in a provisional 26-man senior squad - play in Germany, as well as the NK Zagreb forward Eduardo da Silva's recent receipt of Croatian citizenship. Da Silva and Goran Ljubojevic, who scored twice in Croatia's 3-0 victory against England, look set to lead the attack.

Quality midfield
Croatia's strength is their quality midfield - arguably the weakest part of Baric's team. Babic, who has shown great potential for Leverkusen, will captain the side and will probably be in the team for UEFA EURO 2004™. NK Osijek player Danijel Pranjic will line-up alongside Babic, Kranjcar and Srna to form a strong midfield line.

'Achievements continuing'
A confident Novoselac said: "This generation have confirmed their quality. They qualified for the UEFA European Championships in their two previous age categories and are now continuing with their excellent achievements. If we have a full-strength team it will be excellent. But it will be very difficult to win one of the first three places that leads to the Olympic Games, especially without good preparations."

For profile of coach Martin Novoselac click here