Croatia has one of the best midfields in the competition, but their defense is highly suspect. I have to say, this makes the whole Lovren situation even more inexcusable from both sides – he is his country's best CB by a mile and he is missing the tournament because a stupid misunderstanding about a warm-up and two men's inability to say sorry and move on.
Had Lovren been there, I would have Croatia as one of the favorites of the competition, because their midfield is just so talented. Modric, Rakitic, Perisic and Brozovic and firing on all cylinders at the moment. But the CB partnership of Corluka and Vida – two full-backs playing as CBs – has just been badly exposed by the Czechs and you can't win anything with a dodgy defense.