Croatia World Cup Betting Preview: Latest odds, squad and tournament history

The "dark horses" tag will likely be used for several sides at the 2018 World Cup including Croatia although they are by no means assured of a place in the knockout stages given the strength of Group D.

2018 World Cup qualification

After a change of manager in October 2017 Croatia needed a play-off to secure their place in Russia, albeit they rarely looked troubled during a 4-1 aggregate win over Greece.  

20 points in the group stage wasn't enough to finish above Iceland during qualification and the two will meet again this summer.

Mario Mandzukic top scored with five goals but it was at the back where the Vatreni excelled, conceding just five times during qualification (four in the group and one in the play-off round).

World Cup History

Having made the semi-finals in France 98 and going on to finish third in that tournament, subsequent World Cups have been disappointing affairs for Croatia with group stage exits in 2002, 2006 and 2014.

However, with a FIFA World ranking of 18, there will be plenty of people expecting more from Zlatko Dalic's side this time around despite their tricky group draw.

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2018 World Cup Squad

GK	DEF	MID	ST
Danijel Subasic	Vedran Corluka	Luka Modric	Mario Mandzukic
Lovre Kalinic	Domagoj Vida	Ivan Rakitic	Ivan Perisic
Dominik Livakovic	Ivan Strinic	Mateo Kovacic	Nikola Kalinic
	Dejan Lovren	Milan Badelj	Marko Pjaca
	Sime Vrsaljko	Marcelo Brozovic	Ante Rebic
	Josip Pivaric	Filip Bradaric
	Tin Jedvaj
	Duje Caleta-Car

Latest World Cup odds

Market	Price
To win the World Cup	33/1 (34.0)
To make the World Cup final	12/1 (13.0)
To win Group D	11/5 (3.20)
To Qualify from Group D	1/2 (1.50)
To the top European team	22/1 (23.0)

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