Croatia reveal Euro 2012 squad

There were no major surprises in Croatia coach Slaven Bilic’s provisional 27-man squad for Euro 2012.

The only real concern for the 43-year-old is the fitness of Dejan Lovren, who injured his foot playing for Lyon in the club’s 1-0 Coupe de France final win over Quevilly a fortnight ago.

However, despite the knock, Bilic has opted to include the defender in his selections in the hope he will recover in time to play in Poland and Ukraine.

Elsewhere, there is room for Nikola Kalinic and Ivo Ilicevic with the trainer toying with the idea of selecting one of the forwards in his eventual 23-man squad alongside his usual frontline of Ivica Olic, Eduardo, Mario Mandzukic and Nikica Jelavic.

Croatia have a warm-up friendly versus Estonia on May 25 before travelling to Oslo eight days later to face Norway in their final fixture ahead of the tournament.

Bilic’s men have been drawn in Group C alongside Spain, Italy and the Republic of Ireland with the coach expected to announce his final squad within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, Bilic announced that he will step down as coach after Euro 2012.

Bilic has been at the helm of the Balkan country since 2006 after taking over from Zlatko Kranjcar following an unsuccessful World Cup campaign.

“This is my last tournament in charge of Croatia. I have always given my best and, now, I am fully focused on the Euros. Afterwards I will be the biggest Croatia fan – I have been a part of the national team for my whole life,” he told UEFA.com.

Despite deciding to make his decision public before the European Championship, Bilic claims he is fully focused on the task at hand and the coach is confident his team can perform well in a group consisting of Spain, Italy and the Republic of Ireland.

“We showed in 2008 that we know how to play and we will be ready again. I can’t say that this side are better than in 2008, but I can say that I think I am better. We went to Austria (and Switzerland) to win the Euros and we are going (to Poland and Ukraine) with the same ambitions now,” he said.

“In qualifying more than 30 per cent of our players didn’t have enough playing time with their clubs. I am not hiding from that problem but at the Euros it will not be such an issue as it was in qualifying. We will have a better preparation and we will be together for longer.”

The former defender has been heavily linked with a move to Besiktas while he has also declared his interest in a possible move to either the Premier League or the Bundesliga.