Zlatko Dalic is the great architect of Croatia's historic achievement in the 2018 World Cup by qualifying for the final, for the first time in its history, against France on Sunday, July 15 at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Things happened very quickly for Dalic. He was unexpectedly called to lead Croatia when they were on the brink of being eliminated from the World Cup during the European qualifiers. He assumed his role in the match against Ukraine, where the Balkans won 2-0, coming in second place in Group I (behind Iceland) and thus advancing to the playoff round, which they played against Greece in a home and away tie that ended with a 4-1 aggregate, earning them the ticket to Russia.
The team led by Zlatko Dalic arrived at the friendly matches as a team that was still getting used to the coach's methodology and style of play. It was under these conditions that Croatia faced the Peruvian National Team on March 23 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, United States, where Croatia fell 2-0 against a solid Peruvian team that had performed exceptionally well in the final stages of the South American qualifiers.
The defeat against Peru brought a series of questions about Dalic from both the Croatian press and the fans. The main argument was the coach's lack of experience in more competitive leagues, as his previous coaching experiences were in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, there were criticisms as to why a team like Peru, without top players and absent from the World Cup for 36 years, was able to defeat a World Cup team like Croatia with such ease.
A change had to be made. And that's how Zlatko Dalic clearly expressed in a press conference at the Luzhniki Stadium that "one of the reasons why we are in the World Cup final are the friendly matches we played," in a press conference the day after Croatia secured their place in the final of the 2018 World Cup by defeating England 2-1.
In this regard, he highlighted that the friendlies against Peru, Mexico, and Brazil were key matches to improve ahead of the World Cup debut in Russia. He said, "The experiences we had against Peru, Mexico, and Brazil were very enriching. They helped us review many aspects of our game. If I have to talk only about the match against Peru, I can say that after that defeat, there was a lot of debate among journalists and the Croatian people. There were doubts about how we would arrive at the World Cup. What I said was that we had to improve. And we did. We did better against Mexico."
In another excerpt from the interview, Dalic emphasized that his dream has always been to coach his country and that when he took over as the coach of the Croatian team, he didn't sign a contract and worked for free, only to negotiate in the event that they secured qualification to Russia 2018. He said, "I told the directors that we would sit down after the match against Greece, that I didn't need a salary. I wanted to first enjoy the moment of coaching my national team in a crucial moment, and that's how it was."