WIN AGAINST BULGARIA

Croatia opened World Cup qualifying with three points

03.03.2026.

Photo by: HNS

The Croatian women’s national football team opened the qualifiers for the World Cup, which will be held from 24 June to 25 July 2027 in Brazil, with a victory. In the first round match of Group C2, Nenad Gračan’s players prevailed against Bulgaria in Sofia 1:0.

BULGARIA – CROATIA 0:1

Stadium: Slavia (Sofia), Bulgaria
Referee: Araksya Saribekyan (Armenia)
Goals: 0:1 Vunić (80’)
Yellow cards: Spajić (19’), I. Naydenova (76’)

BULGARIA

Karakoleva, B. Demirova, Karaivanova, N. Dimitrova, Dineva (Y. Ivanova 63’), D. Ivanova (Demirova 75’), Petrova, I. Naydenova, İsmigül Yalçıner (Aleksandrova 75’), Stefanova, Rasina (Yaneva 49’)

CROATIA

Bačić, Jelenčić, Orkić (Pezelj 59’), Vunić, Čanjevac, Kurkutović, Živković (Slipčević 59’), Spajić (Nevrkla 59’), Galić (Ljuština 75’), Joščak, Rudelić (Mikulica 86’)

Croatia’s women’s national team opened the World Cup qualifiers with an away victory against Bulgaria by a score of 1:0.

The winning goal was scored by the youngest international in the lineup, Lucija Vunić, in the 80th minute, giving Croatia valuable three points on the road in Sofia.

“This was a tough match, the first opening match is always tough. The qualifiers are starting, you want to win, you can see that we are the better team, but we just couldn’t score the goal that would open it all up. But we managed to score and the most important thing is to win. I congratulate our girls on this victory. We need to prepare for the next match against Kosovo,” said coach Nenad Gračan.

“I’m truly overjoyed because of the goal. The match was difficult and demanding, but we were the better team and deservedly won. Now we’re going to beat Kosovo as well,” said Vunić.

The next match is scheduled for 7 March at 17:00 in Karlovac against Kosovo.

“These are all unknowns for us because new players are appearing in the new cycle. It certainly will not be easy. We played Kosovo two years ago. They are a very aggressive team, and some players play in the German league, so you have to be very smart and responsible and wait for the situation to score a goal. We play in front of our fans and I hope the attendance will be good and that they will give support to our players who deserve it, and then I believe it will be much easier for us,” Gračan added.

GROUP C2

Croatia 3
Gibraltar 0
Kosovo 0
Bulgaria 0

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