Ivan Rakitić the competition. On 15 October 2008, he scored a brace in a 4–0 win at home to Andorra. On 5 September 2009, he scored the match-winning goal in a 1–0 win at home to Belarus. Croatia failed to qualify for the finals after finishing third in their group. After appearing in all of their Euro 2012 qualifiers, he was selected to be part of the Croatian squad at the Euro finals in Poland and Ukraine. Croatia were drawn in Group C together with Spain, Italy and the Republic of Ireland. Rakitić started in all three of Croatia group stage matches.
UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying play-offs from the outset that the draw for the play-offs would be seeded. The four runners-up with the best positions in the UEFA team coefficient ranking system were therefore seeded. Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating: <section begin=Seeding /> The seedings were as follows: <section end=Seeding /> <section begin=Matches /> "Croatia won 3–0 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." "Republic of Ireland won 5–1 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." "Czech Republic won 3–0 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." "Portugal won 6–2 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." UEFA Euro 2012