Euro 2008 is in 24 days: Is Croatia Ready?

Ever since their defeat of England in November, the Croatian national team has ended 2007 on a high note, but with Eduardo da Silva's recent injury and not winning one friendly so far in 2008, I'm starting to think that the team has a lot more work to do and with only 24 days left to do it.

For Euro 2008, Croatia was drawn into Group B with co-host Austria, Germany, and Poland. Only two teams qualify to advance to the quarterfinals. Many of my Croatian friends think that they will definitely make it out of this group and that Germany will be their only threat, but have they not learned from the 2006 World Cup? In 2006, Croatia was in a group with Brazil (lost 1-0), Japan (everybody thought we would beat them but they ended the match in a scoreless tie), and Australia (they would have advanced with a win but they tied again 2-2).

While Austria is seems to be an easy team being that they have not qualified a major tournament for a while and the fact that they are co-hosting is the only reason that they qualified. This match may seem like a easy 3 points, but with Austria's home field advantage, Croatia may not leave this one with a win. I'm only hoping that they don't take Austria lightly. When comparing friendly results, Austria looks really dangerous. In Croatia's first match of 2008, they lost 3-0 to Netherlands (a team with a very similar style to Germany). Austria, however, fought the Dutch to a 4-3 loss. Austria also played against Germany who they lost to with a score of 3-0. Based on these results, it seems as if Austria and Croatia are almost equal, but Austria may have a edge on Croatia being that they scored three goals against the Dutch. However, being that these are friendlies, they may not mean much and Germany may not have been using their best players due to risk of injuring them before the tournament. Austria have two friendly matches to play before the tournament against Nigeria and Malta before they play their first match of the tournament against Croatia.

If Croatia doesn't shape up soon, the match against Germany will be an automatic loss, and Croatia's recent 3-0 loss to the Dutch (a team with similar styles to the Germans) does not look good. Germany has two friendlies on their schedule before they play their opener against Poland. Germany will play Belarus and Serbia. Serbia has a style very similar to Croatia but lately have not been able to get any significant wins lately and they have not qualified for the Euro. I will be tracking this match very closely though.

Poland is also a very good team, but none of my friends seem to notice the damage the Polish can do. The Polish team also seems to be the smartest in the group--playing three friendly warm-ups (while the others in the group are only playing two) between now and the tournament against Denmark, Albania, and Macedonia. However, there is one result result that does not look good on Poland's record and that is the 3-0 loss to the United States in March. We will see if Poland's one extra friendly will help as they get ready to face Germany in the first round.

Croatia has not won a match yet in 2008 starting out the year with a 3-0 loss to the Dutch as I have mentioned previously and a 1-1 tie against Scotland that in my opinion, felt like a loss. Croatia has two friendlies before they play Austria in their opener. They will play Moldova and Hungary, two fairly easy teams, but at this point, Croatia should not be looking for easy teams to play friendlies with, but instead should be playing tougher teams so that they can prepare more effectively for the Euro. I would have liked them to play France, who they tied in last Euro Cup, or defending Euro Cup champions Greece. Even a rematch against Russia would have been a better idea in my opinion.

It will also be interesting to see who will step up to the plate with Eduardo da Silva out with the injury. Right now, Croatia has pretty much the same team they did in the World Cup with only one addition--Rakitic--a player that I have not yet seen play too much yet. However, with Bilic as coach, I do still have a little bit of faith left.