Croatia national under-20 football team

Croatia under-20
Nickname(s) Mali vatreni
Association Croatian Football Federation
Confederation UEFA (Europe)
Head coach Dinko Jeličić
Top scorer Domagoj Abramović (6)
FIFA code CRO
First colours
Second colours
First international
 Croatia 1–1 Italy 
(Poreč, Croatia; 8 February 1995)
Biggest win
 Hungary 0–6 Croatia 
(Hungary; 5 September 1995)
 Croatia 6-0 Italy 
(Umag, Croatia; 15 March 2006)
Biggest defeat
 Brazil 4–0 Croatia 
(Calabar, Nigeria; 14 April 1999)
 Slovenia 4–0 Croatia 
(Brežice, Slovenia; 4 April 2006)
FIFA U-20 World Cup
Appearances 3 (First in 1999)
Best result Round of 16, 1999 & 2013

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.

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.

FIFA U-20 World Cup record

FIFA U-20 World Cup record
Year Round Pld W D L GF GA GD
Qatar 1995 Did not qualify
Malaysia 1997
Nigeria 1999 Round of 16 4 1 2 1 6 6 0
Argentina 2001 Did not qualify
United Arab Emirates 2003
Netherlands 2005
Canada 2007
Egypt 2009
Colombia 2011 Group stage 3 0 0 3 2 8 −6
Turkey 2013 Round of 16 4 2 1 1 4 4 0
New Zealand 2015 Did not qualify
Total 3/11 11 3 3 5 12 18 −6

Previous squads

FIFA U-20 World Cup

See also

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