Croatia's win over Turkiye took them to second place in Group D and we will also have to wait for June for the next match as there will be a long break. Several surprises occurred in the qualifying round this time, where Spain and the Netherlands got unsatisfactory results.
In fact, it is not unexpected that Croatia always has problems in qualifying for major competitions, but they always safely and without problems qualify for every major football competition.
I actually think Croatia played better against Wales, in a game they didn't win, than against Turkey, when the goalkeeper saved them in the first 15 minutes of the game.
However, these are the characteristics of great teams, which win even when they are not playing at the highest level.
On the other hand, I would have to say that there is a good case to be made about Turkey being a better team than Wales as well, and yet Wales and Turkey games looked different, sometimes football doesn't really care about which team ranks where and looks how much better and all that, it's just wildly different when everyone is on the field.
Croatia has so many extraordinary players in the team that they win even if not all players play well, but only a few, like in the game against Turkey. In that match, Croatia won on the basis of the greater individual quality of its players and not on the basis of a much better game, and that is the characteristic of great national teams, that they win even when they do not play well.
Croatia has the necessary quality to be the first in the group without major problems, and I think that the Turkish team is still better than Wales and that in the end they will be second and qualify for the EURO.