Russia 2018: Croatia can emulate ‘France ’98 feat ―Lovren

They were a side who offered some of the most dazzling moments in the history of the modern World Cup and their own country – but Dejan Lovren believes their modern successors can still go one better. The centre-half believes this Croatia can surpass the feats of their great 1998 semi-finalists and actually have a better squad, after their 3-0 demolition of a dismal Argentina.

Lovren also asserted that their now prepared to take on and beat any side, and didn’t rule out winning the whole competition.

To even trump 1998 would represent quite a triumph. In what was the country’s first World Cup after independence, the side of Davor Suker, Zvonimar Boban and Robert Jarni reached the last four of France 98 with some supreme football, before ultimately going out to the hosts. The quarter-final win over Germany however had many parallels with Thursday’s victory over Argentina, right down to the 3-0 scoreline, and eviscerating a side of such standing has only further emboldened Lovren.

“I said we can do it, of course better,” Lovren said of 1998. “And when you look on the team sheet, the players, we have better players than the previous [side] of 20 years ago, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t perform well. But if we are like today, through all the tournament, I believe we can go far.

“I think the teams and people will realise they should respect Croatia. And also I would say we have one of the toughest groups, but also we showed we can manage to play under pressure. Yeah, we deserve this win today.

“It’s quite tough to be honest, there’s no easy games, no. When you look, of course, there are still Germany here, Spain, France. The big teams, big names. I would say we are the underdogs, and this helps us.