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THREE REASONS WHY CROATIA DESERVE TO WIN THE WORLD CUP FINAL

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BY VJEKOSLAV PAUN.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Final is slated for this Sunday as 1998 winners France prepare to face first-time finalists Croatia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Ahead of kick-off, let’s take a closer look at why this Vatreni (The Blazers) team are deserving of lifting the coveted Russia 2018 trophy and writing their names in the history books of Croatia forever.

  1. A miraculous collective and maximum motivation

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic has done something incredible. The atmosphere in the team has never been better, something the players have repeatedly said.

They have felt like a real family during this World Cup, having been together for 50 days. The players look like they would die for each other on the pitch in the effort they put in.

Despite playing in three consecutive extra time matches, they have shown that their desire to win as a collective is very high.

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  1. Mental strength and character

Denmark, Russia and England — those were three come-from-behind wins for Vatreni, with two of them coming from winning in penalty shootouts.

The Croatian comeback kings dominated those games from a mental and physical perspective.

Captain Luka Modric repeatedly said: “We have shown our character.” Croatia’s strength of personality will serve them well in the final against France. Every World Cup winning team throughout history has had to have a great amount of character.

  1. Experience equals self-confidence

Modric is the leader of this great Vatreni generation. Besides the Real Madrid talisman, there are other stars in Dalic’s squad, including players from Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Liverpool like Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic, Ivan Perisic, Mateo Kovacic and Dejan Lovren.

With an average age of 27 years and ten months, Croatia have a lot of experience and self-confidence as well, because almost everyone has their place in their clubs’ first XI. They are all well aware of their capabilities.

 

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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