In his last address before the clash with Armenia, Zlatko Dalić made it clear that the Croatian team will not follow the match in Cardiff. Instead, they will focus solely on their own performance. However, someone on the bench will not be following the development of the situation in Wales and will inform the players if the Turks lead, they can do it ‘a little easier’.

According to Dalić, this change is purely due to tactics and not because anyone was bad in Latvia. The reason for the changes in the composition after the 2-0 victory in Riga was not there. No one got hurt, no one got a card or wasted too much energy. But Dalić still announced a small change – Joško Guardiola’s return to the stopper position, which would mean Erlić returning to the bench and Sosa being brought back into the first team.

The man who two years ago with a cross forced Russia to score an own goal and push them out of Qatar is Juranović, while Sučić will also be in the squad but will start on the bench as he has just recovered. There should be no rain at Maksimir on Tuesday, and over 20,000 fans are expected to turn up for this celebration of qualifying for a major competition. Ivica Ivušić missed the last training due to personal reasons but will be included in the squad for this match.

One interesting aspect of this match is that it appears that no journalists have come from Armenia to follow it competitively or any other countries outside Croatia have shown interest in covering this game publicly as well as fans support from other parts of Europe won’t be present due to travel restrictions and quarantine rules are still in place across Europe.