At this time last year when the qualification tournament for Euro 2008 began, the players of the Croatian National Soccer Team would have never believed that they would be able to top their group's standings despite the fact that England is in their group, but the quality of performance of the Croatian team of today is looking very different than it was in the 2006 World Cup and may even be returning to the glory days of the 1998 World Cup, which was when Croatia made its debut and earned third place in the tournament. This is all thanks to Croatian coach Slaven Bilic, who happened top be a retired memebr of the 1998 sqaud, and Eduardo da Silva, a Brazilian-born player who currently plays for the London-based soccer club Arsenal.
On October 11, 2006, Croatia (who was at the time ranked 19 in the world) defeated England (then ranked 5) 2-0 in the a crucial match played in Zagreb. Croatia took the three points from the win and never looked back, winning 4 of their qualification matches and tying one since then and has not been defeated since they lost to Brazil 1-0 in teh last World Cup on June 13, 2006.
The national team's latest qualification matches took place on Saturday Septemebr 8 against Estonia and Wednesday September 12 against Andorra. The matrch against Estonia was the most impressive of the two. Much of the first 39 minutes of the match saw many chances for Croatia but no goals and even a disspointing missed penalty kick from Darijo Srna in the sixth minute but the game quickly turned around during the last six minutes of the first half when Arsenal FC forward Eduardo da Silva made a powerful low shot into the back of the net. Da Silva returned and doubled Croatia's advantage a minute for the referee's whistle to end the first half. No gaols were scored in the second half by eitehr side, but da Silva's heroics carried Croatia into another win and another three points in the standings. In the next match, Croatia defeated Andorra 6-0. The next qualification sees Croatia playing host to Israel in Zagreb's Maksimir stadium on October 13. The last time Croatia played Israel was in Tel Aviv which ended in a 4-3 win for Croatia and an Eduardo da Silva hat trick on November 15, 2006.
Croatia currently sits in first place with 23 points above England who currently has 20 after defeating Russia 3-0. Being that England has made a rather quick come back since their slow start to their qualifying campaign, Croatia's final qualifying match against England in London on November 21st may very well be the deciding match aas to which team will end the qualifying round in first place. Even though both of the top two teams will have a spot in the final tournament next summer, neither team wants to be left behind and both teams have something to fight for which will make this match a must see.
For Group E standings, results, and schedule, click here.
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