Recently, the Balkan Peninsula has been considered a valuable source of human resources for world football. National teams from this territory look very decent at major championships. Therefore, the Croatian national team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup faced serious challenges.
Croats were in the first group of the World Cup. In addition to European footballers, the national teams of Brazil, Mexico and Cameroon also played in Quartet A.
The Croatians played their first match in the tournament with the Brazilians. This game was the opening of the 2014 World Cup. With the deafening support of the fans, the championship hosts, the Brazilians, won the game (3 - 1).
In the second match of the group stage, the Croatian team showed their best performance in the tournament. The Europeans inflicted a crushing 4-0 defeat on Cameroon's national team. The match was marked by a scandal within the African national team, and on the field, Cameroon footballers were presented with four red cards. This victory was the first for the Croats in the tournament. To reach the next stage of the World Cup, the Europeans had to beat the uncompromising Mexican national team.
Unfortunately for the Croatian fans, the match against the Mexicans was the final match for the European team. The Croatian team failed to beat the Central American footballers. The final score of the meeting 3 - 1 in favor of Mexico brought the latter to the stage of the playoffs of the tournament.
After three games in the tournament, the Croatians scored only three points and took third place in group A. Such a result cannot be considered acceptable for the fans, the coaching staff and the players of the Croatian national team themselves. The football federation of this country was very disappointed that the national team could not show their full potential in the games in Brazil. The fact that the players did not leave the group at the football world championship is considered a disastrous result for the Croats.
