FIFA World Cup 2018: Five reasons why Croatia can shine at the tournament

#3 Fitness

Croatia does not have any major injuries to worry about

While other teams might be missing some of their top stars, that is not the case for Croatia. Head coach Dalic has the luxury of being able to name every player he would wish in his 23-man squad for the competition, with no major fitness concerns hanging over the team.

While Egypt are left to sweat over Mohamed Salah’s readiness days before the competition begins, France are missing Kingsley Coman, Dimitri Payet and Laurent Koscielny, Brazil will have to do without Dani Alves and have Neymar going into the competition largely short of match sharpness. Every team seems to have their headaches - except Croatia.

Indeed, the biggest issue it could be argued that they have is that some of their players have simply played too much football this season.

This is particularly evident for Real Madrid pairing Modric and Kovacic, who were both playing competitively up until the middle of May as they helped Zinedine Zidane’s side become kings of Europe once again.

But the team has been together now for a couple of weeks and they have had the opportunity to prepare in an optimal manner and should be well rested before they take to the field against Nigeria on June 16 in what is their opening fixture in the competition.

Over a competition lasting a month, fitness will be vitally important and have a deep pool of quality players to select from can only help their cause.