Croats ready to surprise

Eliminated in the first round of World Cup 2006, Croatia has turned its football fortunes around going into the European Championships thanks to a new wave of players.
Some of them -- like Eduardo da Silva, Mladen Petric and Ivan Rakitic -- have been successfully drafted into the national squad after having been coached by senior team coach Slaven Bilic at youth level.
That approach has been credited with giving Croatia the tag of "dark horses" for the Euro 2008 championships, which kick off in Austria and Switzerland on June 7.
"Croatia is a hit!" said Ivica Osim, a former Japan coach who hails from neighbouring Bosnia.
"Slaven Bilic is doing a very good job, he has an excellently composed squad and Croatia are among the dark horses. They can certainly go very far," Osim told the newspaper Sportske Novosti.
Such optimism has stirred Euro 2008 fever in Croatia, where football fans are snapping up as many tickets as they can get their hands on ahead of the competition.
"Bilic made a logical choice of players" for the Euro 2008 finals, local football commentator Tomislav Zidak said.
"He choose those who led him to Europe. However, he continued to develop and has put forward some new names such as Nikola Kalinic, Manuel Pamic and Anas Sharbini," he added.
To make room for them, however, Bilic has had to give up an old guard that included Marko Babic, Bosko Balaban, and Jurica Vranjes.
"I have talked to them ... and these talks were not pleasant at all. They were disappointed, some even got angry, which is understandable," Bilic said.
Introduced into Croatia's senior squad as soon as Bilic took over after the 2006 World Cup failure, Arsenal striker Eduardo was ruled out of Euro 2008 as he is still recovering from a serious injury.
Eduardo, 25, suffered a compound fracture of his left leg in an horrific tackle by Birmingham defender Martin Taylor at St Andrews in February.
The absence of the Brazilian-born star, who has scored 13 goals in 18 matches for Croatia, was a great disappointment for Bilic.
Chosen in place of his main forward was Petric, who has been at German side Borussia Dortmund since August 2007.
The Bosnian-born Petric, 28, briefly played for the Croatian national team in 2001. He was again called up by Bilic in 2006 to play in Euro 2008 qualifying.
Known for his pace, he scored the third goal for Croatia's 3-2 victory against England at Wembley which eliminated their high-profile opponents from the Euro finals.
So far he has scored nine goals in 22 matches for Croatia.
Petric is not the only one in the Croatia squad from the "Swiss school," as there is also midfielder Rakitic, 20, and a talented sharp-shooter currently at Bundesliga outfit Schalke 04.
Dynamo's captain, Luka Modric, who recently signed a five-year contract with Tottenham from next season, is considered the "brains" of the team.
He is so highly rated at home that not only is he considered the best player in the Croatian league, but also one of the best midfielders in Europe, by some local experts.
Another from the new wave of stars is 22-year-old Vedran Corluka, the Manchester City defender who moved to England in August 2007 from Dynamo Zagreb.
Corluka has 18 international caps and is one of the Croatia squad's most popular players among fans.
But despite the optimism about Croatia's chances of going far in the tournament, fans are furious with the football association after it only offered them 18 per cent of the total tickets they received.
These were put up for sale on the Internet, while the rest are to be handed out to sponsors, as well as former players and officials.