The Croatian national football team has played since Croatia's independence in 1990-1992 and is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation.
The team played in their first major tournament in 1996 and have been a strong force in international football ever since, finishing third in the 1998 Euro 2008, led by Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker.
The team was FIFA's "Best Mover of the Year" in 1994 and 1998, and have been more volatile in the FIFA World Rankings than any other nation, having been rated as high as third, and as low as 125th (though this low rating was only because Croatia were not ranked prior to their independence, and it therefore took some time to build up points when they started playing independently). They are still undefeated in all competitive matches they played on home soil since 1994. They also qualified for both 2002 and 2006 World Cups without losing a qualifying match.
Croatia will be playing in Group B with Austria, Germany and Poland.
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