Croatia participated in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This was their fourth appearance having missed out on 2010.
See also: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group A.
Croatia was in Group A of UEFA's World Cup qualifications. They played alongside Belgium, Serbia, Scotland, Wales and Macedonia. Croatia finished as runner-up in the group and entered the Second Round play-offs where the team beat Iceland and qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Croatia national team was led by manager Igor Štimac until October 16, 2013 when he was, due to a series of bad results, replaced by Niko Kovač.[1]
The complete results of the group stage
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The final standings were the following:Croatia qualified for the Second round where they eliminated Iceland with a 2-0 aggregate score after a two-round play-off series.
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Stipe Pletikosa and Mario Mandžukić are the only players that appeared in all 12 qualifying matches. Further more Pletikosa played the full 90 minutes of all the matches while Mandžukić was the top scorer with 4 achieved goal. Midfielder Marcelo Brozović and goalkeepers Danijel Subašić and Oliver Zelenika did not appear in any of the qualifying matches but made the final World Cup squad.
Complete list of players in the qualifying matches
| width=50px | Name | width=50px | Games Played | width=50px | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mario Mandžukić | 12 | 4 | |||
| Stipe Pletikosa | 12 | 0 | ||||
| 3 | Darijo Srna | 11 | 1 | |||
| 4 | Ivan Perišić | 10 | 1 | |||
| Luka Modrić | 10 | 0 | ||||
| 6 | Vedran Ćorluka | 9 | 1 | |||
| Ivan Rakitić | 9 | 1 | ||||
| Ivan Strinić[2] | 9 | 0 | ||||
| Josip Šimunić[3] | 9 | 0 | ||||
| 10 | Eduardo | 7 | 2 | |||
| Dejan Lovren | 7 | 1 | ||||
| Ivica Olić | 7 | 1 | ||||
| Ognjen Vukojević | 7 | 0 | ||||
| 14 | Nikica Jelavić | 6 | 1 | |||
| Niko Kranjčar[4] | 6 | 1 | ||||
| Mateo Kovačić | 6 | 0 | ||||
| Domagoj Vida | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 18 | Nikola Kalinić | 5 | 0 | |||
| 19 | Gordon Schildenfeld | 4 | 0 | |||
| 20 | Milan Badelj | 3 | 0 | |||
| Sammir | 3 | 0 | ||||
| 22 | Danijel Pranjić | 2 | 0 | |||
| Ante Rebić | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 24 | Leon Benko | 1 | 0 | |||
| Ivo Iličević | 1 | 0 | ||||
| Josip Radošević | 1 | 0 | ||||
| Šime Vrsaljko | 1 | 0 | ||||