Croatia have set a simple target of qualifying for the World Cup knockout phase from a group expected to be dominated by holders Brazil.
"Our goal is to make it to the second round. I believe we can do it, although it's a tough group," coach Zlatko Kranjcar told a news conference on Sunday.
Speaking after his second-string team won 5-0 in a friendly against a Croatian All-Star side in central Germany he was asked to name the favourites in Group F and singled out Brazil.
Croatia, Australia and Japan are likely to be battling for no more than second place behind the world champions and a last 16 match that could pit them against Italy or Czech Republic.
Those two teams are the favourites to progress from Group E, which also features the United States and Ghana.
Croatia face Brazil in Berlin on June 13 but asked if he would rather start the World Cup campaign with a simpler challenge, Kranjcar simply shrugged and said: "In a World Cup you have to realise you will get hard games."
Croatia do not need reminding that they failed to get out of the group phase at Euro 2004 and the last World Cup, which was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, although they did notch up a 2-1 win over Italy in a first round match.
Those disappointments followed their successful 1998 World Cup campaign when they reached the semi-finals before losing 2-1 to hosts France, who went on to win the trophy.
Kranjcar's first-choice XI lost 1-0 in a friendly with Poland on Saturday while on Sunday his reserves had an easy win over a team of Croatian professionals in front of about 3,000 enthusiastic compatriots and a handful of Japanese camera crews.
Croatia moved into their base camp in the spa town of Bad Brueckenau on Sunday before travelling to Geneva on Tuesday for a final warm-up with fellow World Cup team Spain the next day.
