Nine days after Croatia’s elimination, FIFA released the final rankings of teams at the World Cup, according to which Zlatko Dalic’s side finished in 20th place. This marks Croatia’s weakest result at a World Cup since 2006.
Croatia exited the tournament in the round of 16, suffering a 2-1 defeat to Portugal in a match where a late goal was disallowed. Earlier, they defeated Panama (1-0) and Ghana (2-1) in the group stage, before losing to England (4-2) in the opening match.
Teams that did not reach the semi-finals are ranked by the stage at which they were eliminated: quarter-finalists share places 5 to 8, those eliminated in the round of 16 occupy places 9 to 16, and teams like Croatia, which fell in the round of 16, are ranked from 17th to 32nd. Within each group, the order is determined by points, goal difference, goals scored, fair-play points, and finally, position on the FIFA ranking list.
With six points, Croatia finished fourth among the 16 teams eliminated in the round of 16. Only the Netherlands and Germany, who accumulated more points, and the Ivory Coast, which had a superior goal difference, finished ahead of them.
The 20th place is Croatia’s lowest finish since 22nd place at the 2006 tournament in Germany, excluding the 2010 edition for which Croatia did not qualify. After 2006, they finished 19th in Brazil in 2014, followed by two medals: silver in Russia in 2018 and bronze in Qatar in 2022. The national team also won bronze on their debut in France in 1998, while at the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea, they finished 23rd.
