I'd have thought "half decent side that really needs to win and is prepared to make the maximum effort and have a real go at them" would have been a reasonable description for Croatia.

The bottom line is, this World Cup is going to be won either by Brazil, or whoever can beat Brazil.

The traditional way of beating them would be by opponents coming in hard and kicking them to bits. Fortunately it looks as if the referees are determined to knock that kind of play on the head, so their chances of winning are pretty good. However Croatia didn't play that way, and still came surprisingly close to winning tonight, so it can be done.