Croatia boss Zlatko Kranjcar could have been forgiven for letting out a howl of despair at the press conference immediately after the draw for the World Cup finals was made.

Croatia had been drawn in Group F alongside the one team everyone wanted to avoid - champions Brazil.

In a tough-looking group, Kranjcar's men must also take on Australia and Japan, but far from being daunted by the prospect of trying to outplay Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka and company, the Croatian coach has total confidence in his players' ability to progress.

Much of Kranjcar's confidence is well founded. Croatia qualified for the tournament in some style, remaining unbeaten in 10 games as they eased past the likes of Sweden, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Croatia's game is based on a rock-solid defence - they conceded just five goals in qualifying for the finals - and a tremendous work ethic that sees them defend from the front and work tirelessly in midfield and defence.

Kranjcar is an accomplished strategist, and looking ahead to the group, his quiet assurance cannot help but rub off on his players.

"I'm not unhappy with the group," the 49-year-old said.

"First of all, I must say that Brazil, as holders, are favourites not only in our group but for the World Cup overall.

"We played them not that long ago in Split and showed how good we are by earning a draw against the current world champions.

"I'm also certain that we will be worthy opponents for Brazil in the World Cup, thanks to the quality of our play, our motivation and our individual skills, which we showed in the qualifiers."

Kranjcar is experienced enough to know that qualification for the final stages of the tournament, something Croatia failed to achieve in 2002, will not be based solely on the result against the Brazilians.

The canny manager is targeting the games against Australia and Japan, rather than setting his stall out on beating the Brazilians.

"We are hoping for a positive result against Brazil, which means we want to avoid defeat," he said.

"But even if we do lose, we will still have two games left against Australia and Japan to progress further.

"And I think that we are better than those two teams."

Being a pragmatist, Kranjcar will leave no stone unturned in making sure his players are fully prepared for the experience of playing in Germany.

Desperate to emulate the legendary Croatia side of 1998 that beat Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals before narrowly losing out to eventual winners France in the semis, Kranjcar has prepared meticulously for the tournament.

Despite not being a team filled with such memorable names as Zvonimir Boban and Robert Prosinecki, the current manager, whose son Niko will be a key figure in the Croatia midfield, is confident his players will be ready.

"In May, we will start to prepare for the World Cup, and that will include a game against Romania and possibly Portugal," he said.

"I will obviously be travelling around a great deal to watch the individual squad members and evaluate how well they are playing."

Kranjcar is well aware of which areas his side need to work on. They will be heavily reliant on the goalscoring prowess of Rangers striker Dado Prso up front.

Despite conceding just five goals in the qualifying stages, they also only managed to score 21, in a group containing the likes of Iceland and Malta.

With Prso's long-term knee problems hampering his season at Rangers, his participation - and therefore goals - cannot be 100% guaranteed.

The Croatia boss is well aware of Prso's importance to the team, and has allowed him to rest in some recent friendlies.

"Dado has been heroic for us in the qualifying campaign and it has been agreed that he won't play friendlies," he said.

Kranjcar knows his players will have to work incredibly hard for each other.

"Our greatest strength is our team work," he explained to www.fifaworldcup.com. "We have a solid team, which can play well tactically and can also look for a result.

"We can be optimistic about the World Cup."