France vs Croatia. Croatians have us in our throats

Zagreb .- Despite the well-known talent of their footballers, few expected before the World Cup that Croatia could reach the grand final: since the title of Uruguay in 1950, such a small country had never been so successful in the tournament

Independent country since 1991, after having belonged to Yugoslavia, it can become the ninth Sunday to put his name on the list of winners of the World Cup football .

– Little known about football ]

Croatians do not play football, they play " nogomet ". A clean word created from the term "noga" (legs). They are one of the few people in the world who have not integrated or adapted to their language the English term "football", as they did for example their Serbian neighbors, whose language is almost identical but they use "fudbal". So the Serbs have "Fudbalski Klub" as the Red Star FK, when the Croatians have "Nogometni Klub", like the NK Rijeka.

– The Link

The French would do well in think before the end of Sunday in the phrase of Norman Davies in his book "Europe, a story": "People who deny it" influence of the small nations of Europe should remember that the Croats have us in the throat ".

The historian refers to the tie, whose origins are Croatian. In this country, it is forbidden that this dress accessory was at first a symbol of love: Croatian women tied scarves around the necks of their loved ones when they went to war.

The tie arrived in France, where it was popularized, imported by Croatian mercenaries, who came to fight alongside King Louis XIV in the Thirty Years War in the 17th century.

– The Dalmatians

These famous white-tinged black or brown dogs owe much of their universal fame to the animated film of the Disney Factory "101 Dalmatians" (1961). Its origin has to be found on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. Since the sixteenth century, texts have been found in church archives and paintings on this dog breed of medium size, agile and slender.

– Carnivore coin

Croatia is a member of the European Union but not it is still in the euro zone and keeps its currency, the "kuna", in progress since 1994, during the war of independence, to replace the dinar.

The word that gives the name to the piece also refers to an animal, the Marta The skin of this little carnivore was used as currency in the Middle Ages.

This election sparked controversy in its time: "Kuna" was the currency chosen by the pro-Nazi regime during the Second World War.

– Athletes Career

This is a small country of 4.2 million inhabitants, but Croatia has been an impressive producer of great athletes. Obviously, football players, but also the stars of water polo or handball, two sports where he can boast of having won the Olympic gold.

He also gave big names in basketball like Drazen Petrovic or Toni Kukoc, athletes such as Blanka Vlasic or tennis players like Goran Ivanisevic or as one of the current stars of ATP, Marin Cilic.

In tennis, the country won the Davis Cup in 2005 and was on the cusp of reaching it in 2016, but fell in the fifth point of the final in Zagreb against Argentina.

In winter sports, although it does not have very high mountains unlike its Slovenian neighbors, it has great alpine skiing champions such as Janica and Ivica Kostelic.

– The sea, omnipresent

If there is something irremediably related to Croatia, it is the sea, with almost 6,000 kilometers of coast, there including those of more than 1,000 islands and islets in the Adriatic. This helps to attract 17 million tourists a year and many of them also venture to visit other jewels of the country, the inner Istria, the Velebit massif or the lakes of Plitvice, among others, in a country where tourism accounts for 20% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Croatia is also the country of "prsut", the local smoked ham, the first product of the country to have received the European seal of origin.

Truffle of Istria, many wines or fish dishes are also famous in its gastronomy.

The local fish soup ("gregada") rivals many with the Marseillaise bouillabaisse. Another symbolic pulse between the Croats and the French to warm up for the final of the World Cup Sunday in Moscow.