Osijek, Croatia This will be their third successive appearance to the final stage of the tournament since they are an independent country. Croatia finished on top of the qualifying round in group 8 from the Europe zone. In teams news Croatia's coach Zlatko Kranjcar announced on Friday an expected 24-man squad for the FIFA World Cup in Germany next month where he said he hoped his team would reach the second round at least.
"I earlier said I would pick the players who carried the burden of qualifying so I've had a pretty clear picture of who to choose for some time," Kranjcar told a news conference.
In the group stage Croatia face Brazil, Australia and Japan and Kranjcar said he saw his team progressing. "I can feel a great team spirit in the squad and I think we're well capable of doing it," he said. As we see the Croatian team is very motivated toward the start of the World Cup and is a team that can give big surprises if they keep playing like they did in the qualifying round. Three times Asian Champions, Iran qualified for the first time in 1978 in Argentina, then classified again in 1998 in France. In both occasions they couldn't get through the first round. This year they'll match Mexico, Angola and Portugal; despite being a very difficult group the Iranians have the talent and the willingness to make this world cup the best in their history and pass to the next round. The Iranian team will have their camp prior to the world cup in Switzerland after that they will be traveling to Croatia to have a final test before the start of the World Cup and fix those little errors that could be so important once the tournament starts. Most sports books will have lines for these friendly matches that might not be as exciting as the World Cup matches but still it's a chance for the sports betting fans to track the progress of their favorite teams. |
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