I don't think Iceland would match well for an African team.
Croatia has been overrated since that 98 tournament and the worst part is they don't realize it (check back last tournament against Mexico)
Argentina is a mess and Nigeria is due against them.
Croatia's players are fine. We had a drop in quality post-98/2000 and before the 2008 generation came (Modric, Eduardo, Rakitic, Corluka, Klasnic, Srna, etc.).
Ever since then it's been a very talented generation of players getting obstructed by an inept and corrupt FA - appointing inexperienced or just bad managers. The fans are against the NT because they want the corruption out, the stadiums are empty, it's a complete farce - but the one time the government tried to get involved they were warned of by UEFA, under threat of sanctions.
Now Mamic (the boss of, well, everything) is on the run in Bosnia, after a 6.5 year sentence, so we'll see if something changes.
Anyway, give Ante Cacic the 2011 Barcelona or 2017 Madrid, both of those teams would end up fighting just for a CL spot.
He was absolutely the worst quasi-coach I've ever seen.
The current manager, Dalic, is another unknown. He only coached in the Middle East (albeit successfully), he's saying the right things, but his friendlies were spent with Modric playing CAM and being wasted there. Or experimenting with Vida at LB.
In the end, Croatia is what it always was, a tier 2 team, a dark horse, who can compete with anyone and beat anybody and look convincing doing it... Or they just can just flop and underperform and be shockingly bad.
