Upbeat Croatia out to exceed 1998 feat

DAVID DAVUTOVIC CROATIA’S 1998 bronze medallists are regarded as their golden generation, but Luke Modric’s class of 2018 has the potential to surpass them.

Standing between Croatia and a semi-final berth is a Russian team running on adrenalin and buoyed by a partisan home crowd, as will be the case in Sochi tomorrow morning.

The 1998 team made a quarter-final statement, sending German soccer into a spin with a 3-0 win, and were 1-0 up against hosts France in the semi-final before losing 2-1.

Ex-Real Madrid striker Davor Suker won the golden boot, while captain Zvonimir Boban (AC Milan), Robert Prosinecki (Barcelona and Real Madrid), Robert Jarni, Slaven Bilic (West Ham) and the underrated Aljosa Asanovic (Napoli) were part of the rock-star squad that was missing injured superstar Alen Boksic.

Real playmaker Modric is the 2018 pin-up boy, with Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona), Ivan Perisic (Inter Milan), Mario Mandzukic (Juventus) and Dejan Lovren (Liverpool) part of the big-club batch of players.

“It’s a dream to be in a similar situation,” Perisic said.

“Now is the time and hopefully we can achieve a similar result. We are really looking forward to the game against Russia.

“We’ve come close and hopefully we can go a bit better now. We believe in ourselves.”