Croatia performed consistently well to qualify from the very difficult Group E which included, among others, Russia and England. The team managed to qualify with one game still left to play thanks to Israel’s win over Russia in Tel Aviv, even though Croatia themselves lost on the same day to F.Y.R. Macedonia - their one and only defeat in the qualifying matches.

Croatia’s impressive Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, the first for manager Slaven Bilic began with a very creditable 0-0 draw in Moscow against Russia and was followed by a thumping 7-0 demolition job against Andorra, with Mladen Petrić scoring four of the goals. Things got even better for Croatia four days later, with a great 2-0 home win against group favourites England.

Brazilian-born forward Eduardo da Silva, who managed to score in the game against England, followed that up with a wonderful hat-trick against Israel as Croatia went on to win 4-3 in Tel Aviv in the very next game. These goals helped Eduardo finish the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign as second top scorer behind David Healy of Northern Ireland.

Croatia’s best performance of the qualifying matches came in their last one, on November 21^st 2007 with3-2 win at Wembley against England, a game which also happened to end England’s chances of making it through to the finals.