The Archive

What are the expectations for the team?
They are a very promising side who are expected to peak for the 2010 World Cup but should be able to make it past the group stage this summer. Even without the injured Eduardo da Silva we have plenty of goal options. Mladen Petric scored seven in the qualifiers, including the winner at Wembley, while Ivan Klasnic showed he can still knock them in after returning from a kidney transplant. Plus Vedran Corluka and Niko Kranjcar have good seasons in the Premier League and it was surprising that no one picked up Dinamo Zagreb midfielder Luka Modric during the January transfer window. Now he’s joining Spurs for a hefty fee, albeit for rather less than the £20m his club wanted at one point.

Are there any players who have appeared in TV commercials?
Commercial activities tend to focus on the whole Vatreni (the On-Fire Ones) rather than individuals. As with previous tournaments, Zagreb brewery Ozujsko is one of the main sponsors. The current campaign features the national squad in their Euro 2008 strip and is presented as “a prayer to the divine shirt”.

Is the coach popular?
In Croatia, Slaven Bilic is a legend, and he’s probably an honorary citizen of Russia, too. He refused to accept anything above the minimum salary when he signed on, saying that it was an honour to coach Croatia. Plus he plays in a rock band, Rawbau, whose Euro 2008 song, Vatreno Ludilo (Flaming Madness), is expected to be a big hit.

Do any of the players have famous girlfriends or wives?
Unsurprisingly several of the players live with models, while Robert Kovac is married to Miss World runner-up Anica Martinovic. Bilic left his wife for TV presenter and ex-model Mirjana Hrga.

Will there be any rehearsed goal celebrations?
Expect to see some kind of T-shirt message for the injured Da Silva, whose ten goals made a crucial contribution in the qualifiers.

Are there any players involved in politics?
This was much more common during the first few years after independence. These days it tends to be players from the diaspora who get involved politically. For instance, it will be interesting to see how Ivan Rakitic is received in Switzerland. He grew up there before causing some dismay among the Swiss by opting to play for Croatia.

Will there be many fans travelling to the tournament?
The numbers will be massive, not least because of the large Croatian communities in both host countries and neighbouring Germany. There will be as many outside the stadium without tickets as there are inside. One classic chant is Jebo te koliko nas ima (Damn how many of us there are here) while another is about how few Croats there are in the world generally: Malo nas je al nas ima/Nije vazno strusit ce mo snove svima (We’re not many, but it doesn’t matter/ We’re capable of destroying anybody’s dreams).

Zvonko Katic

As Barcelona break more records, their often flawless football has a downside

Soon there will be a Lionel Messi-related statistic for every number up to four figures. In eight successive games between February and mid-March he scored 18 times – more than Wayne Rooney managed in the whole of 2010-11 – and now has 55 for the season. In fewer than seven complete seasons he has become Barcelona’s all-time top league goalscorer.

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With synthetic surfaces being considered again, Oldham fan Dan Turner looks back at their controversial heyday

Sliding tackles were very big in the 1980s everywhere but Boundary Park. Every other week we were treated to the same spectacle. The opposition enforcer would turn up and launch into his “reducer”, no doubt hoping to render one of Oldham’s more creative players lame. Five seconds and half a yard of skin later, the visiting hard man would return gingerly to the perpendicular with a few doubts about his likely effectiveness over the remaining 80-odd minutes. The plastic pitch had claimed another victim.

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Sepp Blatter causes a stir with his views on part-time refereeing, writes Steve Menary

When Sepp Blatter announced that referees at all World Cup finals from 2014 onwards must be full-time, he caused consternation among many ambitious match officials. “Some people say there’s not enough money to pay them, but there always seems to be plenty in the professional leagues,” said Blatter. This prompted particular concern among Germany’s part-time officials. When Blatter recently clarified his position he did not back down, insisting that German football association must “establish a system in which the referees are its employees”.

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Visiting teams complain about the pitch, but the Luzhniki Stadium deals with the Russian weather, writes Sasha Goryunov

In May 2008, Chelsea and Manchester United contested the Champions League final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. There was something unusual about the playing surface: it was grass. For one match only, turf was brought in from Slovakia. In fact, this was the second set of imported grass. The original failed to take root and had to be replaced just two weeks before the game. John Terry might wish they hadn’t bothered.

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