Croatia name their squad

Otto Baric, the Croatians' coach, has announced an initial 21-man squad for his side's trip to take on England at Portman Road this Wednesday, although he has still to name two members of the party.

And, of the 19 players on the list, only one is currently plying his trade in the FA Premiership, Portsmouth's new signing from Bayer Leverkusen, Boris Zivkovic.

Zivkovic is expected to lead his country out on 20 August when an international is being staged at Ipswich Town for the very first time, although he must first come through his new club's opening-day fixture at Fratton Park against Aston Villa this Saturday lunch-time in a game that kicks off the new Premiership.

However, other well-known, English-based players of the present or the past, such as Mario Stanic, Alen Boksic, Davor Suker, Igor Bišcan and Bosko Balaban, have all been excluded from the recently-appointed manager's plans either due to retirement or loss of form.

Chelsea midfielder Stanic, former Middlesbrough forward Boksic and one-time Arsenal and West Ham United striker Suker have all called it a day at international level, while Aston Villa frontman Balaban and Liverpool midfielder Biscan have not been playing regularly enough for their clubs to warrant selection, despite the latter's expected start in Gérard Houllier's midfield in this Sunday's showdown with Chelsea at Anfield.

The visitors, like England, are currently lying in second place in their European Championship qualifying group with three games remaining this autumn that will decide their Euro 2004 fate, hence this East Anglian match-up with Sven-Göran Eriksson's men.

And, with tough-looking opponents in the shape of Belgium and Bulgaria to come, we can expect the team that came third at the 1998 World Cup to be a stiff test for David Beckham and co.

Croatia may have moved on from their 'Golden Generation' of Zvonimir Boban, Boksic, Suker, Robert Jarni and the mercurial Robert Prosinecki, but this squad still contains a number of highly-skilled individuals who are currently playing for some of Europe's biggest clubs.

The Kovac brothers, Niko and Robert, play for Hertha Berlin and Bayern München respectively in the Bundesliga, Dario Simic used to play for Internazionale, but now sweeps up for the European champions AC Milan, Igor Tudor was a member of the Juventus side that lost last seasons Champions League final to his compatriot's team, while Marko Babic and Dado Prso both had outstanding campaigns last seasons for Leverkusen and Monaco respectively.

And, although this is a Croatia squad clearly selected with one eye on the future, Baric has still found space for the sublime skills of veteran playmaker Milan Rapaic, who is currently dazzling audiences back in his homeland playing for Hajduk Split.

by Richard Morgan

Croatia's Squad:

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