Croatia captain Luka Modric is happy with his team's role as contenders as they start another bid for a maiden big football title at Euro 2024 in Germany.
Croatia kick off their campaign on Saturday against triple champions Spain in tough group B which also includes title holders Italy and Albania.
Modric, 38, led Croatia to second place at the 2018 World Cup and to third in 2022, plus into the 2023 Nations League final.
Croatia were also third at the 1998 World Cup while at the Euros they have never gone beyond the quarter-finals.
Coming off a sixth Champions League title with Real Madrid, Modric said on Friday they like their role.
"It doesn't bother us. We are here to achieve great things. We have showed on several occasions that we are among the top teams in international football," Modric said.
"It is a last and final step to get the best possible result," Modric said, naming the unity of the team their biggest strength.
The 2018 World Footballer of the Year Modric has won a national record 175 caps since a 2006 debut, with an international title the only thing missing in his CV which apart from the Champions League titles includes for La Liga titles with Real and three Croatian titles with Dinamo Zagreb.
"if someone had given a piece of paper to write down my career wishes then I would have been scared instead of writing down what I have achieved now," he said.
Modric is onen of the oldest players at the Euros and could face the youngest ever at the Euros if 16-year-old Lamine Yamal is fielded by Spain coach Luis de la Fuente.
So far Poland's Kacper Kozłowski has the age record at 17 years 246 days but de la Fuente heaped praise on Barcelona's Yamal.
"He's a lad with incredible talent. It's almost like a gift from God, very few players have his quality," de la Fuente said.
"We're trying to deal with the situation in a normal way. But we also have to teach him to stay humble, because he's going to get so much better."
De la Fuente said that centre back Aymeric Laporte would miss the game as a precaution in the wake of muscular problems but that all other players were ready.
