Nickname(s) Mali vatreni Top scorer Domagoj Abramović (6) Appearances 3 (first in 1999) Confederation UEFA | Head coach Dinko Jeličić FIFA code CRO Location Croatia | |
Best result Round of 16, 1999 & 2013 Association Croatian Football Federation | ||
The Croatia national under-20 football team is the national under-20 football team of Croatia and is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Croatia.
Contents
History
The U20 team is the de facto under-19 of the previous year, and it acts mainly as a feeder team for the U21s and provides further international development for youth players. The team qualified for its only official match, FIFA U-20 World Cup, depends on U19 result.
Under-20 national team of Croatia was formed in 1994. First match was played against team of Austrian region Styria, and first match against FIFA member was against Italy on 8 February 1995.
Croatia managed to qualify for 1999 FIFA U-20 World Cup. That was second appearance from Croatian football team on FIFA competition, after A-team appeared on FIFA World Cup in France in 1998. They passed the group, and then lost to Brazil by 4-0 in Round of 16.
On 24 July 2010, after trashing Portugal 5-0 in 2010 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship group game, Croatia qualified to semi-final and also secured spot in 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia.
Another good performance by U19 team at 2012 championship saw Croatia qualifying for the World Cup, this time to be held in Turkey in 2013.
Competitive record
Croatian under-20 team played most of its matches competing in regional cup called Mirop Cup, also known as Cup Alpe-Adria, with teams of Slovenia, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and teams of some Austrian and Hungarian regions. Croatia won that cup three times in a row, in 1994, 1995 and 1996, and bever after.
Previous squads
FIFA U-20 World Cup