Croatia national under-21 football team

The Croatia national under-21 football team, also known as Croatia under-21(s) or Croatia U21(s), is a youth association football national team which represents Croatia at this age level and is a feeder team for the Croatia national football team.

Croatia Under-21

Nickname(s)	Mladi Vatreni (The Young Blazers)
Association	Croatian Football Federation
Head coach	Igor Bišćan
Captain	Nikola Moro
Most caps	Tomislav Bušić (29)
Top scorer	Tomislav Bušić (12)
First colours Second colours
First international
Croatia 0–0 Italy  13 February 1993
Biggest win
Croatia 10–0 San Marino  Zagreb, 8 October 2020
Biggest defeat
Spain 6–0 Croatia  Alicante, 10 September 2012
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	3 (first in 2000)
Best result	Group stage (2000, 2004, 2019)

This team is for Croatian players aged 21 or under at the start of a two-year European Under-21 Football Championship campaign, so players can be, and often are, up to 23 years old. Also in existence are teams for Under-20s (for non-UEFA tournaments), Under-19s and Under 17s. As long as they are eligible, players can play at any level, making it possible to play for the U21s, senior side and again for the U21s, as Ivan Rakitić and Nikola Kalinić have done recently. It is also possible to play for one country at youth level and another at senior level (providing the player is eligible). For example, Ivan Rakitić is a former Switzerland U21 player who later became a Croatia international.

The under-21 age category came into existence with the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976. The Croatia U21 team was formed following Croatia's independence from SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 and is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation (from 1976 to 1990 Croatian players played for Yugoslavia U21). A goalless draw in a friendly against Italy played on 13 February 1992 was Croatia U21s' first result.

Competition history

As a European U21 team, Croatia compete for the European U21 Championship, with the finals held every odd-numbered year, formerly even-numbered years. There is no U21 World Cup, although there is an U20 World Cup. Since the Croatian Football Federation was recognised by UEFA in June 1993, in the middle of the two-year European Championship cycle, Croatia U21s began their first competitive campaign in 1994, in which they tried to qualify for the 1996 finals. They eventually finished fourth in a six-team group, with five wins out of ten games and four points behind group winners Italy.

They failed to qualify for the next tournament in 1998, but then managed to win their first qualification for the 2000 tournament. However, they finished bottom of a four-team group in the group stage, losing to Netherlands and Czech Republic and drawing with Spain.

In their next five campaigns Croatia U21 managed to qualify for the finals only one more time (for the 2004 finals), but again they failed to progress past the group stage. They came close to qualifying for the 2002 and 2006 tournaments, as they had reached the qualification playoff round, but did not progress further. On October 15th 2018 the team had qualified for their first major tournament since 2004 by beating San Marino 4–0. They topped the group with twenty-five points and were among the top few for most goals forward throughout the entire qualifying campaign. The youth team will now compete in the 2019 Under-21 European Championship in Italy & San Marino next June.

UEFA U-21 Championship record

UEFA U-21 Championship record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Squad		Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Manager
1996	Did not qualify										4/6	10	5	2	3	13	12	Martin Novoselac
1998											3/5	8	4	0	4	13	9	Ivo Šušak
2000	Group stage	4/4	3	0	1	2	4	6	Squad		1/5	10	7	2	1	28	9	Ivo Šušak
2002	Did not qualify										2/4^OFF	8	3	4	1	10	7	Martin Novoselac
2004	Group stage	4/4	3	0	1	2	3	5	Squad		1/4	8	4	2	2	11	5	Martin Novoselac
2006	Did not qualify										1/6^OFF	12	8	1	3	16	11	Slaven Bilić
2007											3/3	2	0	0	2	2	4	Dražen Ladić
2009											2/6	10	7	1	2	20	12	Dražen Ladić
2011											1/5^OFF	10	5	2	3	18	15	Dražen Ladić
2013											4/5	8	2	1	5	7	16	Ivo Šušak
2015											1/5^OFF	10	6	1	3	22	9	Niko Kovač / Nenad Gračan
2017											3/6	10	6	2	2	24	11	Nenad Gračan
2019	Group stage	4/4	3	0	1	2	4	8	Squad		1/6	10	8	1	1	31	5	Nenad Gračan
2021	Qualificated										2/6	10	6	2	2	37	7	Nenad Gračan / Igor Bišćan
Total	Group stage		9	0	3	6	11	19				126	71	21	34	252	132

Notes

• ^OFF = Lost in play-offs.

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	10	6	3	1	20	4	+16	21	Final tournament		—	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	6–0
2	Croatia	10	6	2	2	37	7	+30	20			1–2	—	1–2	5–0	7–0	10–0
3	Scotland	10	5	3	2	16	5	+11	18			2–0	2–2	—	0–1	0–0	2–0
4	Greece	10	5	1	4	10	11	−1	16			0–2	0–1	1–0	—	1–0	5–0
5	Lithuania	10	3	1	6	9	15	−6	10			0–1	1–3	0–1	2–0	—	3–0
6	San Marino	10	0	0	10	0	50	−50	0			0–6	0–7	0–7	0–1	0–3	—

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Recent results

2019

14 November UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Lithuania	1–3	Croatia	Vilnius, Lithuania
17:30 CET (18:30 EET)	Antanavičius  60'	Report	Ivanušec  9' Posavec  73' Bistrović  89'	Stadium: LFF Stadium Attendance: 243 Referee: Kristoffer Hagenes (Norway)

18 November UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Croatia	1–2	Czech Republic	Velika Gorica, Croatia
18:00 CET	Ivanušec  30'	Report	Krejčí  39' Bucha  72'	Stadium: Stadion Radnik Referee: Espen Eskås (Norway)

2020

3 September UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Croatia	5–0	Greece	Varaždin, Croatia
19:00 CEST	Moro  2' Majer  6', 25' Musa  15', 53'	Report		Stadium: Stadion Varteks Attendance: 0 Referee: Marco Di Bello (Italy)

7 September UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Czech Republic	0–0	Croatia	České Budějovice, Czech Republic
18:00 CEST		Report		Stadium: Stadion Střelecký ostrov Attendance: 0 Referee: Ivaylo Stoyanov (Bulgaria)

8 October UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Croatia	10–0	San Marino	Zagreb, Croatia
18:00 CEST	Kulenović  2' Majer  23' Špikić  34' Ivanušec  40', 44', 73' Nejašmić  52', 56' Vizinger  78' Gvardiol  81'	Report		Stadium: Stadion Kranjčevićeva Referee: Ivar Orri Kristjansson (Iceland)

13 October UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Greece	0–1	Croatia	Athens, Greece
16:00 CEST (17:00 EEST)		Report	Majer  27'	Stadium: Leoforos Alexandras Stadium Attendance: 0 Referee: José Luis Munuera Montero (Spain)

12 November UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Scotland	2–2	Croatia	Edinburgh, Scotland
16:00 CET (15:00 GMT)	Middleton  54' McLennan  70'	Report	Moro  20' Bistrović  25'	Stadium: Tynecastle Park Referee: Michael Fabbri (Italy)

17 November UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualification	Croatia	7–0	Lithuania	Pula, Croatia
17:00 CET	Špikić  13' Musa  29', 66' Šverko  36' Šutalo  57' Moro  70', 76'	Report		Stadium: Stadion Aldo Drosina Referee: Ian McNabb (Northern Ireland)

Players

Current squad

The following is the list of players for the UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 qualifying fixtures against  Scotland on 12 November 2020 and  Lithuania on 17 November 2020.
Caps and goals as of 17 November 2020 after match against  Lithuania; only matches as FIFA member are included.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	GK	Adrian Šemper	12 January 1998	11	0	ChievoVerona
	GK	Dominik Kotarski	10 February 2000	2	0	Ajax
	GK	Ivan Nevistić	31 July 1998	1	0	Rijeka
	DF	Borna Sosa	21 January 1998	19	0	VfB Stuttgart
	DF	Boško Šutalo	1 January 2000	10	1	Atalanta
	DF	Marin Šverko	4 February 1998	8	1	Saarbrücken
	DF	Martin Erlić	24 January 1998	4	0	Spezia
	DF	Joško Gvardiol	23 January 2002	5	1	Dinamo Zagreb
	DF	David Čolina	19 July 2000	4	0	Hajduk Split
	DF	Bruno Bogojević	29 June 1998	3	0	Slaven Belupo
	DF	Krešimir Krizmanić	3 July 2000	2	0	Gorica
	DF	Mario Vušković	16 November 2001	2	0	Hajduk Split
	DF	Daniel Štefulj	8 November 1999	1	0	Rijeka
	MF	Luka Ivanušec	26 November 1998	24	8	Dinamo Zagreb
	MF	Nikola Moro	12 March 1998	20	5	Dynamo Moscow
	MF	Lovro Majer	17 January 1998	16	5	Dinamo Zagreb
	MF	Kristijan Bistrović	9 April 1998	14	4	Kasımpaşa
	MF	Darko Nejašmić	25 January 1999	8	2	Hajduk Split
	MF	Ivan Lepinjica	9 July 1999	5	0	Rijeka
	MF	Neven Đurasek	15 August 1998	4	1	Varaždin
	MF	Bartol Franjić	14 January 2000	1	0	Dinamo Zagreb
	MF	Marko Đira	5 May 1999	0	0	Lokomotiva
	FW	Sandro Kulenović	4 December 1999	13	6	Rijeka
	FW	Petar Musa	4 March 1998	8	4	Slavia Prague
	FW	Dario Špikić	22 March 1999	6	2	Gorica
	FW	Ivan Dolček	24 April 2000	6	0	Hajduk Split
	FW	Marko Divković	30 June 1999	1	0	DAC Dunajská Streda
	FW	Matej Vuk	10 June 2000	1	0	Istra 1961
	FW	Josip Mitrović	11 June 2000	0	0	Gorica
	FW	Dion Drena Beljo	1 March 2002	0	0	Osijek

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Croatia squad in the last 12 months and are still eligible for selection.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
DF	Krešimir Krizmanić	3 July 2000	1	0	Gorica	v.  San Marino, 8 October 2020
DF	Branimir Kalaica	1 June 1998	9	1	Benfica	v.  Scotland, 27 March 2020
DF	Vinko Soldo	15 February 1998	4	2	Slaven Belupo	v.  Scotland, 27 March 2020
DF	Domagoj Bradarić	10 December 1999	10	0	Lille	v.  Czech Republic, 18 November 2019
MF	Mihael Žaper	11 August 1998	5	0	Osijek	v.  San Marino, 8 October 2020
MF	Tonio Teklić	9 September 1999	0	0	Hajduk Split	v.  Scotland, 27 March 2020
MF	Ante Palaversa	6 April 2000	0	0	Getafe	v.  Scotland, 27 March 2020
FW	Dario Vizinger	6 June 1998	3	1	Wolfsberg	v.  Scotland, 12 November 2020
FW	Mario Ćuže	24 April 1999	8	0	SC Dnipro-1	v.  Greece, 13 October 2020
FW	Ivan Posavec	5 July 1998	5	2	Varaždin	v.  Scotland, 27 March 2020
FW	Leon Kreković	7 May 2000	0	0	Hajduk Split	v.  Scotland, 27 March 2020
FW	Josip Brekalo	23 June 1998	17	9	VfL Wolfsburg	v.  Czech Republic, 18 November 2019
FW	Antonio Marin	9 January 2001	5	0	Monza	v.  Czech Republic, 18 November 2019

Key

• ^INJ = Injured.
• ^WD = Withdrew from the current squad.
• ^SUS = Suspended from participating.
• ^RET = Retired after latest call-up.
• ^U21 = Joined the Croatia U21 team instead.

Personnel

Current technical staff

Position	Name
Head coach	Igor Bišćan
Assistant coaches	Ante Tomić Renato Pilipović
Goalkeeping coach	Hrvoje Sunara
Fitness coaches	Ivan Krakan Vedran Naglić
Technical director	Josip Tomaško
Analyst	Nikola Buzadžić

Past squads

• 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squad
• 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squad
• 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squad

Statistics

Managers

The following table provides a summary of the complete record of each Croatia manager including their results regarding European Under-21 Championship.

Key: Pld–games played, W–games won, D–games drawn; L–games lost, %–win percentage

Bilić is one of two former U-21 managers who later coached Croatia's senior team

Manager	Croatia tenure	Pld	W	D	L	Win %	Major competitions
Martin Novoselac	1994–1996 2000–2004						1996 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2002 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2004 European Championship – Group stage
Ivo Šušak	1997–2000 2011–2013						1998 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2000 European Championship – Group stage 2013 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Slaven Bilić	2004–2006	20	11	3	6	055.0	2006 European Championship – Play-offs
Aljoša Asanović (c)	2005	1	0	0	1	000.0	2006 European Championship – Failed to qualify[1]
Ivica Grnja (c)	2005	1	0	0	1	000.0	2006 European Championship – Failed to qualify[2]
Marijan Brnčić (c)[3]	2005	1	0	1	0	000.0	—
Dražen Ladić	2006–2011	32	20	6	6	062.50	2007 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2009 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2011 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Niko Kovač	2013	7	5	0	2	071.4	—
Nenad Gračan	2013–2019	41	21	9	11	051.2	2015 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2017 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2019 European Championship – Group stage
Igor Bišćan	2019–	10	7	2	1	070.0	2021 European Championship – Qualified
Totals

Last updated: Croatia vs Lithuania, 17 November 2020. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only.

Most capped players

Before joining the senior team Vida played 19 matches for the U-21 team

#	Name	Croatia career	Caps	Goals
1	Tomislav Vranjić	2002–2005	26	0
2	Tomislav Bušić	2005–2008	25	12
3	Luka Ivanušec	2017–	24	8
4	Josip Tadić	2005–2008	22	5
5	Ivan Leko	1994–2000	21	5
	Mato Jajalo	2007–2010	21	4
7	Nikola Moro	2017–	20	5
8	Tomo Šokota	1997–2000	19	10
	Nikola Vlašić	2015–2019	19	7
	Dejan Lovren	2007–2010	19	3
	Davor Vugrinec	1994–1997	19	3
	Mario Lučić	2002–2004	19	2
	Domagoj Vida	2007–2010	19	2
	Dario Smoje	1997–2000	19	1
	Mario Carević	2001–2004	19	0
	Luka Vučko	2004–2006	19	0
	Borna Sosa	2017–	19	0

Last updated: Croatia vs. Lithuania, 17 November 2020

Source: Croatian Football Federation

Top goalscorers

Brozović scored 7 goals for the U-21 team before he was promoted to the senior team

#	Name	Croatia career	Goals	Caps
1	Tomislav Bušić	2005–2008	12	25
2	Tomo Šokota	1997–2000	10	19
3	Josip Brekalo	2016–	9	17
4	Stipe Perica	2013–2016	8	12
	Eduardo da Silva	2004–2005	8	12
	Luka Ivanušec	2017–	8	24
7	Marcelo Brozović	2011–2014	7	13
	Nikola Vlašić	2015–2019	7	19
9	Ante Rukavina	2007–2008	6	9
	Sandro Kulenović	2019–	6	13
	Mario Pašalić	2014–2016	6	14
	Mihael Mikić	1999–2001	6	15

Last updated: Croatia vs. Lithuania, 17 November 2020

Source: Croatian Football Federation

See also

• Croatia national football team
• Croatia U19 national football team
• Croatia U17 national football team
• UEFA U21 European Championship

References

1. He coached the U-21 team during the first play-off to 2006 European Championship lost 1:3 to Serbia HNS: Serbia-Croatia 3:1, 2005
2. He coached the U-21 team during the second play-off to 2006 European Championship lost 1:2 to Serbia HNS: Croatia-Serbia 1:2, 2005
3. As a temporary manager he coached the U-21 team during the friendly 1:1 draw against Italy HNS: Croatia-Italy 1:1, 2005

External links

• Under-21 at UEFA.com
• U-23/U-21 Tournaments at the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website
• Croatia youth teams players' statistics at the Croatian Football Federation website