Undervalued and underrated but there is no doubt Mandzukic encapsulates the fighting spirit of this Croatian team
His coach Zlatko Dalic labels him as the soul of the Croatian team and it’s hard not to see why. Anybody who has seen the way Mario Mandzukic’s career has developed will tell you that this is a man who works his socks off for any team that he plays for.
Against England despite being thought to look fatigued, he rose to occasion to thump in a goal in extra time to seal Croatia’s passage into the finals, and create history for his small nation.