when was the last time croatia made it to semi finals
11 July 2018
title: Croatia national football team text: before finally advancing further than the group stage at the 2018 World Cup. On 11 July 2018, Croatia won their semi-final match against England, advancing the national team to their first FIFA World Cup final wherein they secured second place as runners-up against winners France. Supplanting their third place positioning in 1998, this is the nation's best performance to date. Dario Šimić was Croatia's first player to reach 100 appearances, doing so before his retirement in 2008. This allowed him to surpass Robert Jarni's previous record of 81 appearances. On 6 February 2013, captain Darijo Srna, Josip Šimunić and Stipe title: Croatia at the FIFA World Cup text: Croatia at the FIFA World Cup Croatia national football team have appeared in the FIFA World Cup on five occasions (in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018) since gaining independence in 1991. Before that, from 1930 to 1990 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. Their best result thus far was silver position at the 2018 final, where they lost 4-2 to France. In the draw for the final tournament, held on 4 December 1997 at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, Croatia was drawn to play in Group H, along with two other teams which qualified for the World Cup for the first title: Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest text: participated as a member of Magazin) was fifth in 1998, Doris Dragović (who finished 11th for Yugoslavia in ) was fourth in 1999, Goran Karan was ninth in 2000, and Vanna was tenth in 2001. Since then, Croatia has failed to reach the top ten. Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Croatia has failed to reach the final on six occasions, including four years in succession from 2010 to 2013. Croatia then withdrew from the contest in and , but returned in , when they qualified for the first time since . Croatia participated at Eurovision ten title: Croatia at the FIFA World Cup text: taking over as Bosnia and Herzegovina manager in 2008 and sensationally leading them to the verge of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Luka Modrić is the only Croatian player to ever win the Golden Ball award. He was team captain in 2018, when Croatia reached the World Cup final. Team Awards Individual Awards Croatia at the FIFA World Cup Croatia national football team have appeared in the FIFA World Cup on five occasions (in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018) since gaining independence in 1991. Before that, from 1930 to 1990 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. Their best result title: Croatia Davis Cup team text: 2002 where they beat Germany and earned its first quarterfinals. In 2005 Croatia won its first Davis Cup over Slovakia as the first unseeded nation to win the title, and also reached No. 1 at the ITF rankings for the first time. Croatia reached semifinals in 2009 but lost to Czech Republic 4-1. In 2016 Croatia reached the finals for the second time, again as unseeded nation, but lost to Argentina. Two years later, in 2018, Croatia won its second title by beating defending champion France, thus becoming the last Davis Cup champion in the old best-of-five competition format, and