Euro 2020: Croatia ‘home’ team against Spain but will wear black kit
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
Croatia will wear black again
Croatia’s black and navy reserve kit brought them luck at the 2018 World Cup, winning 5 out of 5 matches in it. At Euro 2020 it looks like the opposite.
In the opening two matches against England and Czech Republic at Euro 2020, Croatia’s reserve all black kit has not proved as lucky.
Soon as they wore the red and white checkers, which they have become world famous for, there was a turn in fortune.
Croatia’s famous red and white checkers
For the last 16 match against Spain on Monday night in Copenhagen, Croatia has been formally named as the ‘home’ team, which usually means ‘home’ or first kit.
Unfortunately for fans of the red and white checkers Croatia will return to the black kit for the match. This is because Spain’s away kit is all white and their home kit is red.
“If the opponent’s kit has white or red as the base colour, UEFA automatically does not allow (Croatia) to play in the red and white checkers. Whether they are the home team or not. We will play against the Spaniards in black,” referee expert Marijo Strahonja said on HRT’s Euro show.
One of Strahonja’s co-hosts in the HRT studio, former Croatia midfielder Robert Prosinečki, does not buy into any superstitions with the kit and said the players would not worry about what kit they are in when they get on the pitch and play.
The reserve kit was lucky in Russia (Photo credit: Анна Нэсси/Soccer.ru/CC license)
After the first match in Russia in 2018 against Nigeria, Croatia were forced to play in the black and navy kit because of kit colour clashes. They went on to beat Argentina, Iceland, Denmark, Russia and England in it before returning to the red and white checkers for the final against France.
Croatia has played Spain 8 times before, winning three times, drawing once and losing four times. Croatia are big outsiders with the bookies.
