Luka Modrić, Croatia’s football G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time), will lead his team in their opening match of this year's World Cup in Dallas, Texas, where they will face an England side captained by Harry Kane.
England Five, Croatia Three
In their nine previous encounters, England holds a narrow lead with five wins to Croatia's three, promising an intriguing match. For an equally interesting white wine, characterized by high acidity and focused fruit flavors, one should try wines made from the Dalmatian Pošip grape, wrote Tina Gellie, Decanter’s Content Editor, in her article World Cup of Wine: Pairings for Each Wine-Producing Nation’s Opening Match.
The mineral-rich 2024 Stina Pošip features vibrant citrus notes that will keep the viewer focused on the match. The English team’s nickname is The Three Lions, and three lions also appear on the coat of arms of Dalmatia, the region where this wine originates. Which three lions will triumph in Croatia's opening match?
Two true wine pairings
Tina thus concluded the story about Croatia with a question whose answer we will discover on June 17. In the article, Decanter also notes that Croatia vs. England and Australia vs. Turkey are the only two true wine pairings among the opening matches of the World Cup's first round.
Decanter apologized for omitting certain wine-producing countries from the article. They explained that the exclusions included countries with lower production volumes, those lacking sufficiently broad global distribution and those whose wines the Decanter team is not sufficiently familiar with or does not review often enough.
Apologies and promises
They promised Morocco, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Japan, Czech Republic, Belgium, Mexico and Brazil that they would do their utmost to feature them next time. They might also want to apologize to us, given that the Croatian flag is missing from the article's illustration.