Croatia U-21 coach Gračan hopeful after Spain, Sweden draw

Croatia U-21 national team will face current champions Spain, Sweden, Georgia, Estonia and San Marino in the qualifying round for 2017 UEFA U-21 European Championships to be held in Poland.

"We can be satisfied. We did not want to have Spain in our group, but we can still hope to achieve positive results and believe that this team can reach the final tournament", said Croatia U-21 head coach Nenad Gračan after the draw in Nyon.

"Sweden is a very potent, hard-working and disciplined team, but I have plenty of trust in our selection of players. This generation can cope with any opponent. Spanish team is a slight favourite considering its quality, yet we do not plan to surrender in advance in both those matches. The group is interesting, and allows us to leave a mark", he added.

Croatian Football Federation technical director Romeo Jozak agrees that Spain was the team to avoid, but emphasizes that Croatia is no rollover either.

"It's a tricky group. Of course, everybody wanted to avoid Spain, but everybody wanted to avoid Croatia from the third pot. We have a promising generation and the main task is to have all our best players available. Then we can make life difficult even for Spain. We will surely give our best, and we will stay in touch with the senior team coaching staff in order to select the best possible squad".

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