Why Croatia feel right at home in this World Cup

HOME advantage is big in World Cups. Not just being at home, either. Feeling at home matters, too. This is the first time the tournament has been held in eastern Europe, and the first time in six editions that two teams from that part of the world have reached the quarter-finals. Russia and Croatia will meet in Sochi on Saturday, emulating the achievement of Romania and Bulgaria, who progressed to the semi-finals in 1994. That is surely not coincidence.

Of course, it helps to have Luka Modric as your main man. Certainly it is not merely location, location, location. It does not follow that every South American nation thrives at a South American World Cup, just as Serbia and Poland —the other eastern European nations here — did not make it out of the group stage.

Yet there has been some unlikely success in World Cups past for nations that just seemed to fit their surroundings. Think of Costa Rica and Uruguay’s progress from Italy and England’s group in Brazil in 2014; or that Chile utterly outplayed Spain, and qualified at their expense.

In 2010, at the first African World Cup, Ghana would have been the only nation from that continent ever to reach the tournament’s semi-finals, had it not been for Luis Suarez’s handball on the line in the last minute of extra time against Uruguay. Since then, no African nation has returned to the quarter-finals, and none emerged from the group stages here.

At the first Asian World Cup, in 2002, Japan and South Korea — against all expectations — won their respective groups and the Koreans made it as far as the semi-finals, eliminating Spain and Italy in the process. Russia’s progress here has amazed, but South Korea’s was stunning, as was some of the refereeing.

Comfort is important on tour. On the night before they played Spain, Chile took over the Dom Rosso Grill Bar at the Radisson hotel in Barra da Tijuca. Kids ran amok. Wives and girlfriends sashayed between tables with caipirinhas.

Their coach, Jorge Sampaoli, held court with his feet on a table, among pals in the lobby. This was a completely South American scene. By contrast, Spain played as if rigid with fear.

And, yes, 760 miles separate Croatia and Russia, roughly as much as lies between London and Oslo. Yet the Vikings and the Angles were not so very different, just as Croatia would identify as an east European nation, despite being closer to Italy.

Vedran Corluka now plays for Lokomotiv Moscow and assistant coach Ivica Olic, a hero at CSKA Moscow, was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship.

Three other Croatian players have spent time with Ukrainian clubs and the Croatian league is peppered with names recognisable from Russian football: Lokomotiva, Dinamo.

So Croatia isn’t Russia, just as Costa Rica isn’t Brazil — but nor is this an away fixture, as it is for others. East is east, and Russia could not come up against more troublesome opponents in the next round than a team that also appear to have their feet under the table. YOU will be hearing a lot in the coming days from Richard Freeman, the doctor who gave Bradley Wiggins the corticosteroid triamcinolone under therapeutic use exemption before his 2012 Tour de France win. He was also responsible for the infamous Jiffy bag, that made its way across Europe, the contents unknown due to ‘a lack of accurate medical records’. Freeman ducked the internal probe at British Cycling and also a parliamentary hearing, giving only written evidence, but, glory be, he has a book out so is doing the rounds. Well, some of them. For the only interview with Freeman worth reading would be with my colleague Matt Lawton, who has a forensic knowledge of this case, and many others affecting British Cycling. Yet despite ‘countless’ — Matt’s words — requests for formal interviews, or just comment, Freeman will not respond. So allow me. Dr Freeman, Matt says he is ready for a good old chinwag any time you fancy. He’ll even leave his number for you again, just in case you’ve lost that, too.