On this day 25 years ago the Croatian football team played its first match under its own flag…

The first modern-day Croatia team met the USA at Zagreb’s Maksimir stadium on 17 October 1990 in front of over 30,000 fans. Since 1990 Croatia has appeared at 4 World Cups and has been ranked as high as 3rd in the world.

The first match under the modern-day Croatian flag ended in a 2-1 victory, thanks to goals from Aljoša Asanović and Ivan Cvjetković. Croatian legends Zvonimir Boban, Davor Šuker, Alen Bokšić, and Robert Jarni were unable to play in the fixture as they were playing with the Yugoslavia U-21 side against USSR. Croatia will face USA again next month in London in a friendly.

Croatia’s side in that match was:

Dražen Ladić (71′ Tonči Gabrić) – Zoran Vulić, Saša Peršon (70′ Gregor Židan), Vlado Kasalo, Drago Čelić, Darko Dražić – Marko Mlinarić, Aljoša Asanović (58′ Mladen Mladenović), Zlatko Kranjčar (C) – Ivan Cvjetković, Kujtim Shalla