Croatia: Defining a Nation: Croatia’s achievement in coming 3rd at the 1998 World Cup in France was staggering. A nation barely established took on and beat the world’s powerhouse nations, coming within a whisker of lifting the trophy. But, this is much more than just a story about a talented football team, it is the tale of a nation emerging from the wreckage of the Balkan war and the disintegration of Yugoslavia to stand proudly as an independent country on football’s grandest stage.