Man, sometimes you just get dragged into these stupid arguments, you know? Last Friday, I was just trying to relax, watching some random highlight reel of the old Euro tournaments when my neighbor, Steve, came over. He sees the clip of Modric playing against Cristiano Ronaldo and immediately starts barking about how Croatia has this mental block over Portugal and that they hardly ever lose to them when it really matters.
I looked at him like he was nuts. I immediately told him, “Steve, you are absolutely talking garbage. Portugal owns Croatia. Like, absolutely owns them.”
He scoffed. We got into it. Like a proper, loud, pointless shouting match about which mid-level European powerhouse has historically dominated the other. Since Steve refused to take my word for it—and frankly, I couldn’t instantly recall the exact score of the 2005 friendly—I had to stop everything and prove him wrong. That’s what started this whole digging process. I had to compile the complete, messy history of Portugal vs. Croatia.
The Messy Process of Digging Up Old Scores
I figured this would take five minutes. Just type it into Google, right? Wrong. Every website had a different count. Some included matches that were clearly just internal training sessions organized by some obscure Portuguese youth league director. Others completely ignored a crucial friendly from the late nineties. It was a complete disaster, exactly like when I tried to figure out how many actual official goals Zlatan scored for AC Milan—the data is fragmented and conflicting.
I started by trying the big, reliable sources, but even they fell short. The FIFA archive pages looked like they were rendered on a Commodore 64. I spent a good hour trying to cross-reference data points from four different sites, including some Croatian language forums which I had to machine translate, and the grammar was so rough it made the scores look suspicious.
I had to manually verify every single match, making sure it was recognized by FIFA or UEFA as a proper senior international fixture. I was basically building my own master database just to win an argument against a guy who still thinks the offside rule is a suggestion.
What I eventually pieced together showed a clear, brutal truth, and Steve was dead wrong. The sheer dominance of Portugal over the years is pretty astounding, given the quality of the Croatian team.
The Final, Verified Head-to-Head Record
After filtering out the questionable training games and the youth fixtures, I managed to lock down the real, official numbers. It required a ton of cross-checking, especially on the early friendlies which nobody seemed to care about documenting properly back then. But here it is, the cold hard history.
Total Official Matches Played: 9
Portugal Wins: 7
Croatia Wins: 1
Draws: 1
Look at those numbers! Seven wins to one! It’s not even a rivalry, it’s a systematic beatdown!
Here’s the breakdown of those official games I tracked down. This is the stuff that cost me hours of my life, but finally brought me peace:
- Match 1: Euro 1996 Group Stage – This was the first time they officially met. Portugal crushed them, 3-0. No arguments here.
- Match 2: 2004 Friendly – Portugal won again, 1-0. A tight game, but another Portugal win notched up.
- Match 3: 2005 Friendly – A slightly more exciting affair. Portugal took it 2-0. Still clean sheets.
- Match 4: Euro 2012 Warm-up Friendly – Portugal keeps rolling, winning 1-0. See a pattern forming yet?
- Match 5: Euro 2016 Round of 16 – This is the big one Steve always tries to forget. It was painful, late, and decided in extra time, but Portugal won 1-0 and went on to lift the trophy. Talk about when it matters!
- Match 6: 2018 Friendly – Finally, a tie! They managed a 1-1 draw in Portugal. I guess that’s something for Steve to hold onto.
- Match 7: 2020 UEFA Nations League – Portugal dominated, 4-1. Absolutely smashed them.
- Match 8: 2020 UEFA Nations League – Portugal won again, 3-2. This was a closer one, but still Portugal.
- Match 9: 2024 Friendly (Pre-Euro) – Ah, the one win! Croatia finally managed to snag one, winning 2-1 just before the recent Euros started.
The Aftermath and Proving Steve Wrong
I took this fully compiled list, printed it out on a single sheet of paper, and waited for Steve to come back over to borrow my lawnmower. He walked in, smiling, ready to keep up the trash talk, and I just slapped the paper on the counter.
He read the totals—seven wins to one—and the look on his face was priceless. He started mumbling about how the recent 2-1 win proves they’ve turned the tide, and that only matters. But history is history, man. You can’t just erase seven losses because you finally got one back twenty-eight years later.
The whole exercise was way more effort than it should have been. I probably wasted six hours doing research that should have taken twenty minutes. But honestly? It was worth it. Not only did I prove my point, but now I have the definitive record locked down. If anyone else ever tries to tell me that Croatia has the historical edge on Portugal, I just point them to this log. That’s why you always keep a record of your deep dives, even the petty ones.