Croatia U21

England ended Croatia's run in the quarter-finals of the 2021 European Under-21 Championship, and the exit still stands as the furthest the Mladi Vatreni have gone in the competition since the side was formed in 1992, in the first years after Croatian independence. Getting that far took nearly three decades of trying: the team reached the finals stage only five times, in 2000, 2004, 2019, 2021 and 2023, and group-stage exits were the more common outcome than the breakthrough of 2021.

The 2023 finals brought a harder lesson. Croatia co-hosted that tournament alongside Georgia, then finished bottom of its group at home, beaten 4–0 by Spain and 1–0 by Ukraine. Spain has become the opponent Croatian media reach for when they want to describe stakes rather than geography — pundits call the fixture a "big derby" despite the two countries sharing no border and little history, because matches between them at this level have tended to decide who advances and who packs up early.

What the age group has done more reliably than win is supply the senior team. Luka Modrić and Mateo Kovačić both came through this side before their names meant anything outside Croatia, part of a pipeline that also produced Ivan Rakitić, Ivan Perišić and Mario Mandžukić. Ivica Olić, once among the strikers who made that same step up, now manages the side himself, having taken over from Dragan Skočić; before him, Igor Bišćan spent four years in the role.

There is no single ground the team calls its own. Home fixtures move between Rijeka's Stadion Rujevica, Split's Stadion Poljud, Osijek's Stadion Gradski vrt and Zagreb's Stadion Maksimir, with the Croatian Football Federation choosing a venue to suit the opponent and the occasion rather than settling the side in one city.