Before the semi -final of the 1998 World Cup, they had never met on the international stage, but since then they have built up a solid rivalry.
For more than 20 years, France and Croatia have produced some epic encounters and unlikely stories, starting in the Stade de France in '98 when Lilian Thuram became a national hero with two goals.
He would not score another with Les Bleus for the rest of his international career, although he played in another World Cup semi-final eight years later when France defeated Portugal (1-0).
Both France and Croatia have, since that memorable 2-1 semi-final triumph in '98 nine times, with the French rising victor six times and only one defeat.
There was the notorious fight between Laurent Blanc and Slaven Bilic in that semi -final of '98, which led to the first removal of the Frenchman after the Croats fell despite little contact.
The outcome of France-Croatia has often been a good sign of things coming for those who win.
When these teams met in a friendly friend of May 2000, France came away with a 2-0 win and won the euros a few months later in Rotterdam.
In 2018, France claimed their second World Cup title with a 4-2 victory in the final against a Croatian team that had played six hours of football in the knockout phase for that match.
Every time these parties have confronted each other in a major competition, and when a team originated as a victor, the victors have made it all the way to the final.
The men of Didier Deschamps won both Nations League Group lovers against the Croats in 2020, as a result of which the trophy finally lifted for the first time later that season.
In the previous edition of that tournament, Croatia claimed a 1-0 win in a group match in June 2022 versus France, but eventually lost in the last next year on penalties to Spain (5-4).
The two parties queens in the quarterfinals of the Nations League, with the opening leg on March 20 in Split, followed by the second stage in the Stade de France three days later.
GFFN | Joel Lefevre
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