More than just a game: Croatia's run to final has revived national pride

More than just a game: Croatia's run to final has revived national pride

More than just a game: Croatia's run to final has revived national pride on Business Standard. Ahead of the final against France, we trace the role football has played in the making of Croatia

Latest News Croatia's achievement in reaching the finals of the World Cup has revived national pride in the team which for more than a quarter of a century has played a crucial role in the young nation's identity.

How it happened A late goal from striker Mario Mandzukic helped Croatia overcome England with a 2-1 victory here on Wednesday to enter the final of the FIFA World Cup 2018 for the first time.

Mandzukic scored in the 109th minute to give Croatia the winning goal after Ivan Perisic (68th minute) cancelled out Kieran Trippier's goal for England in the fifth minute from a free-kick.

Miroslav Ciro Blazevic, who was the coach when Croatia played its first World Cup as an independent nation in 1998, told AFP Croats had "found themselves" in football.

Ahead of the final against France in Sunday, we

look at the role football has played in the making of Croatia since the 1980s: Stadiums mirror national decay The death of Yugoslavia's leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980 marked the start of the communist federation's decay and the rise of often politicised 'ultra' supporters.

The stadiums were "becoming places to express opposition to the regime," said Loic Tregoures, the French author of a political thesis on the subject of football and national identity in the former Yugoslavia.

The phenomenon was especially prevalent in CroatiavsEngland where people came to football matches to express a "Croat nationalism that was repressed" elsewhere, Tregoures told AFP. The rivalry between the republic's two main clubs -- Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb -- has remained but they "stand together " against

Serbian teams, he said.

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