Croatia's Lovren says the team will 'fight to the end' in the World Cup

Croatia's national soccer team have started the last phase of their build-up for the June 14-July 15 World Cup tournament in Russia this week.

Although the star-studded team, captained by Real Madrid's Luka Modric and featuring the likes of Barcelona's Ivan Rakitic, Juventus' Mario Mandzukic, and Liverpool's Dejan Lovren, suffered a 2-0 defeat last Sunday (June 3) in a friendly against Brazil at Anfield, the players are confident that this team might reach the knockout stage for the first time since the nation's tournament debut in 1998.

"Well, as I said, we will fight to the end. We have quality, we have experience, we just need to show that on the pitch," Lovren told reporters in Rijeka on Tuesday (June 5).

He was one of two Croatians who played the Champions League final last month, the other being Modric, who won his fourth title with Real Madrid in Europe's top club competition.

But Lovren added that an exhausting season behind them is not a problem, as playing in the World Cup for one's national team is an experience any player dreams of.

This will be Croatia's fifth appearance in the tournament, and even though they were a surprise of the tournament in 1998 when they finished third, they failed to progress out of the group stage in 2002, 2006, and 2014.

Manager Zlatko Dalic, who took over the team last October, had announced on Monday (June 4) the final 23-man squad that he would take to Russia, dropping Club Brugge defender Matej Mitrovic for lack of fitness and picking Red Bull Salzburg's young Duje Caleta-Car instead.

After their return from Liverpool, the Croatian squad will continue training in the Adriatic city of Rijeka before leaving for the eastern city of Osijek to play Senegal in a friendly on Friday (June 8).

The match is meant to prepare them for their opening World Cup match against Nigeria on June 16 in Kaliningrad, before facing Argentina on June 21 in Nizhny Novgorod and Iceland on June 26 in Rostov-on-Don.