Croatia enters the final phase of its preparations for World Cup 2026

After holding its last practice in Rijeka on Saturday, the Croatian national football team departed for Zagreb. On Sunday they will play Slovenia in their last friendly ahead of the World Cup. Opening kick-off is at 8:45 in Varaždin.

Speaking at the final press conference in Rijeka, national team head coach Zlatko Dalić commented on the final stage of his team’s preparations, including touching on the loss to Belgium in Rijeka on Tuesday: "I am very happy with how we have been training and practicing and everything that we have achieved. Obviously, the result against Belgium wasn't a good one, and it did disrupt our plans somewhat given that we didn't expect to lose. However, it's called a warm-up or a friendly game that serves its purpose. Obviously, a loss is not good but we wanted to make sure that a large number of players got some playing time."

For defender Josip Stanišić the team always has the same approach to any game, regardless of the opposing team: "We want to win every game, unfortunately we didn't win this last one, but we'll go into tomorrow's game with the same mentality, to show our best and try and secure the win."

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković visited the national team in Rijeka today, wishing the coaches and players success in their campaign at the 2026 World Cup. On Tuesday the team will depart for their World Cup base camp in Virginia. Croatia's first game of the tournament will be against England on June 17th.

Source: HRT