Croatians are dark horses

– Croatia might have been under the radar coming into the World Cup finals but there will be few sides relishing the possibility of playing them after they showed their quality with a 3-0 thumping of Argentina in Group D on Thursday.

The convincing result put Croatia into the second round for the first time since their run to the semifinals in their maiden World Cup appearance in France in 1998.

The latest generation – headlined by the attacking skills of Luka Modric (above), driving play of Ivan Rakitic and imposing presence upfront of Mario Mandzukic – will be looking to emulate the achievement of 20 years ago.

The individual quality of their key players was backed up by solid wingback play and an understated, but highly effective, effort in midfield by Marcelo Brozovic, brought in to use his speed to restrict space for Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

“This result and Argentina’s poor display was due to our good game, our compact block all over the pitch, particularly when we didn’t have the ball. We cut off the lines of passing, we wanted to avoid Messi getting the ball,” Modric told a news conference.

Thursday’s victory followed an efficient display in their opening game against Nigeria in Kaliningrad on Saturday where a 2-0 triumph laid a solid foundation.

Not even the sending home of Nikola Kalinic on Monday – after he refused to come on as a substitute against Nigeria – seemed to put the squad off its stride.

Croatia had shown glimpses of their potential at the last European Championships in France two years ago when they beat Spain but went out in the second round to eventual winners Portugal after conceding in extra time.

They recovered from a patchy start – and brought in Zlatko Dalic as coach late last year – to finish behind Iceland in their qualifying group for Russia but in the November play-offs easily disposed of Greece over two legs.

Croatia are now looking ahead to playing Iceland again in their last Group D match in Rostov-onDon on Tuesday and if they top the standings will return to Nizhny Novgorod on July 1 to play the runner-up in Group C in the last16. –

We cut off the lines of passing, we wanted to avoid Messi getting the ball. Luka Modric Croatian captain