Croatia

Croatia are in Group B and play Switzerland on June 13 followed by champions France on June 17 and England on June 21.

Experts reckon Croatia have little chance of matching their outstanding third-place finish at the 1998 World Cup campaign.

After taking over a team low on confidence following an early exit from the 2002 World Cup finals, coach Otto Baric travelled across Europe looking for a striker and a playmaker.

Their roller-coaster qualifying campaign ended on a high in November's playoffs when they beat Slovenia 2-1 on aggregate to justify the faith shown in the 70-year-old Baric.

He used 40 players in qualifying but discovered a deadly forward in Monaco's Dado Prso, who got four goals in his team's 8-3 Champions League win over Deportivo Coruna in November.

Baric's team is solid at the back but he still needs "one creative genius to enrich our game" if they are to beat the Swiss in their opener to have a chance of qualifying.

Reuters

Best performance: Quarter-finals in 1996

Recent performances:
1996 Quarter finals
2000 Did not qualify

SQUAD:

Goalkeepers: 1-Stipe Pletikosa (Shakhtar Donetsk), 12-Tomislav Butina (Club Bruges), 23-Joey Didulica (Austria Vienna)

Defenders: 13-Dario Simic (AC Milan), 21-Robert Kovac (Bayern Munich), 5-Igor Tudor (Juventus), 6-Boris Zivkovic (VfB Stuttgart), 3-Josip Simunic (Hertha Berlin), 4-Stjepan Tomas (Fenerbahce), 14-Mato Neretljak (Hajduk Split), 2-Mario Tokic (Graz AK)

Midfielders: 10-Niko Kovac (Hertha Berlin), 7-Milan Rapaic (Ancona), 15-Jerko Leko (Dynamo Kiev), 16-Marko Babic (Bayer Leverkusen), 8-Darijo Srna (Shakhtar Donetsk), 22-Nenad Bjelica (Kaiserslautern), 20-Giovanni Rosso (Maccabi Haifa),