It should not be underestimated how important it was for Croatia to pick up a victory in yesterday's matinee match, and Croatia Coach Slaven Bilic was quick to emphasise it,"Some players were overwhelmed by playing at a great tournament but we started off with the best possible way - with a win".
It's an old cliche that it's great teams that win when playing badly, but I feel in this case, it was just a lucky team. Croatia have the ability, and the potential to cause any team trouble. Although England weren't the greatest of competition in their Qualifying Group, Croatia did come to Wembley and play them off the park.
Regardless of the performance, the win was essential if Croatia want to make it through to the next stage. With the next round of fixtures seeing Croatia face Germany, and Austria host Poland, only picking up a point against a lucklustre Austria would have put Poland in the driving seat to qualify from second place, as they somehow managed to hold Germany to just two goals. Poland didn't seem to turn up to their opening game, but they were also faced with the daunting task of opening against the Tournament favourites.
Germany performed as expected, and seemed to justify their favourite tag, but the rest of Europe will not have much fear in facing them in the latter stages, particularly the likes of Italy and Spain who will defend much more solidly than Poland, and have prolific strikers in great goalscoring form.
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