Croatia secured a berth at their fourth World Cup finals next year with a 2-0 win in the second leg of their playoff against Iceland on Tuesday.
With last week’s first leg finishing without a goal, Iceland arrived in Zagreb full of hope of becoming the smallest country ever to make it to a World Cup.
Those dreams were extinguished with goals from Mario Mandzukic in the 27th minute and Darijo Srna’s 47th minute contribution.
Photo: EPA
Croatia made it hard for themselves when Mandzukic was sent off for a dangerous tackle not long after his goal.
However, in the second half it could have gone unnoticed on the pitch that they had 10 players as they never stopped attacking.
“My respect to players who left their souls and hearts on the pitch, they all made me proud,” Croatia coach Niko Kovac told HRT television after the match.
“We had a vision and a goal. We insisted on that and we succeeded. We showed a modern football,” the 42-year-old said.
The former Croatia captain made his bow as national team coach in Reykjavik on Friday last week, replacing Igor Stimac in the dugout last month. Kovac stressed that in the two play-off legs his squad demonstrated “team spirit, motivation.”
“I hope that we will continue like this,” he said.
Kovac, who took over a team in poor form and under pressure from the local media and public, added he also hoped to have “restored faith in Croatian football.”
“We are thrilled to have qualified for the World Cup. We fully deserved it,” midfielder Luka Modric said. “When we show unity as we did today we can cope with the best world teams.”
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Kumar Rocker, a first-round pick in both the 2021 and 2022 drafts, on Thursday won for the first time in the major leagues. Rocker struck out a career-best eight in a career-best seven innings as the Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-3 to complete a three-game sweep. Rocker (1-2) threw a career-high 78 pitches and allowed three runs on five hits without a walk. The 25-year-old right-hander was drafted third overall by Texas in 2022, a year after concerns over a physical led to him going unsigned by the New York Mets as the 10th overall pick. He made his major
RSS