{"id":669799,"date":"2026-05-18T08:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=669799"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:37:44","slug":"croatia-preliminary-world-cup-2026-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/18\/croatia-preliminary-world-cup-2026-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatia Preliminary World Cup 2026 Squad Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Croatian national team have officially<\/a> confirmed the Croatia Preliminary World Cup squad for 2026, with the main squad already whittled down to the allowed 26 but with a set of call-up\/stand-in players on hand in case of injuries. The squad will be finalised when the nation leaves for the tournament with them set to open their campaign in Group L against England on June 17.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Spain Preliminary World Cup 2026 Squad Announced<\/a><\/p>\n

33-Man Croatia Preliminary World Cup Squad Revealed<\/h2>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Goalkeepers<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Dominik Livakovic<\/li>\n
  • Dominik Kotarski<\/li>\n
  • Ivor Pandur<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Defenders<\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Josko Gvardiol<\/li>\n
    • Duje Caleta-Car<\/li>\n
    • Josip Sutalo<\/li>\n
    • Josip Stanisic<\/li>\n
    • Martin Eric<\/li>\n
    • Luka Vuskovic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Midfielders<\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Luka Modric<\/li>\n
      • Mateo Kovacic<\/li>\n
      • Mario Pasalic<\/li>\n
      • Nikola Vlasic<\/li>\n
      • Luka Sucic<\/li>\n
      • Martin Baturina<\/li>\n
      • Kristijan Jakic<\/li>\n
      • Petar Sucic<\/li>\n
      • Nikola Moro<\/li>\n
      • Toni Fruik<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Attackers<\/h3>\n
          \n
        • Ivan Perisic<\/li>\n
        • Andrej Kramaric<\/li>\n
        • Ante Budimir<\/li>\n
        • Marco Pasalic<\/li>\n
        • Petar Musa<\/li>\n
        • Igor Matanovic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Stand-By Roster<\/h3>\n
            \n
          • Lovro Majer<\/li>\n
          • Franjo Ivanovic<\/li>\n
          • Dion Drena Beljo<\/li>\n
          • Ivan Smolcic<\/li>\n
          • Karlo Letica<\/li>\n
          • Adrian Segecic<\/li>\n
          • Luka Stojkovic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            The national team has gone for a heap of experience with timeless midfielder Modric being joined by some veteran names like Kocacic in the middle of the park. With a lot of young talent in the nation like Vuskovic, there were some tough decisions to make with the manager preferring something a bit more tried and true.<\/p>\n

            The addition of Gvardiol comes after he has been dealing with injury problems for Manchester City for most of 2026, but the defender has returned to action and looks fit to see out the term with his club. Having him available will do wonders for the country’s hopes of getting deep into the tournament despite being tasked with facing England and Ghana in the group stage.<\/p>\n

            The Euros was a relative success for the nation, they’ll be hoping to use their veteran know-how and talent to make the 2026 World Cup just as successful internally.<\/p>\n

            Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n

            IMAGO \/ HANZA MEDIA,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            The Croatian national team have officially confirmed the Croatia Preliminary World Cup squad for 2026, with the main squad already whittled down to the allowed 26 but with a set of call-up\/stand-in players on hand in case of injuries. The squad will be finalised when the nation leaves for the tournament with them set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":641262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,2132],"tags":[798,801],"class_list":["post-669799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-croatia"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669801,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669799\/revisions\/669801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}