Romania, whose players have all dyed their hair metallic gold, are gunning for asecond successive quarter-final spot after finishing on top of Group G. The Romanians dyed their hair after a bet with coach Anghel Iordanescu.

While they may look comical, their play so far has been deadly serious.Romania rested five starters in their 1-1 draw against Tunisia, but had already sealed their place in the last 16 before that match. The result of the widespread changes was "disorganisation" which displeased Iordanescu.

Romania's strength is that they have several attacking options. Viorel Moldovan, essentially a left-sided player, is their main strike weapon, sometimes in tandem with the mercurial Adrian Ilie, who can pop up where he is least expected.

Playmaker Gheorghe Hagi can be infuriatinglyinconsistent, but is always a menace at deadball situations, while Dorinel Munteanu is adept at unleashing dangerous diagonal passes. Defenders Dan Petrescu and Gica Popescu are both threats when they join the attack and it was Chelsea fullback Petrescu who popped up in the penalty a rea to score Romania's late winner against England. "The Romanian players are not all that well-known, but you don't win matches on reputations," said striker Moldovan.

Croatia lost their third first-round match 1-0 against Argentina and suffered a blow in that match when sweeper Zvonimir Soldo earned a second yellow card. He will miss Tuesday's match.

Prosinecki has looked slow and predictable during this tournament, but may have one last great game left in him. The Croatians will be looking to finish the match off in regulation time because it appears likely the Romanians will have the youngers legs if the game goes into extra-time, even allowing for the veteran status of players like Hagi and goalkeeper BogdanStelea.

Team

Croatia: Drazen Ladic, Dario Simic, Slaven Bilic, Silvio Maric, Goran Juric, Davor Suker, Robert Jarni, Zvonimir Boban, Aljosa Asanovic, Robert Prosinecki and Mario Stanic.