International Career
Between 1993 and 1996, Runje won a total of 8 international caps for the Croatian national under-19 and under-21 teams. He also made one appearance for Croatia B in a friendly match against Romania in January 2001.
When Slaven Bilić was appointed Croatia's head coach in the summer of 2006, Runje started to play understudy to Stipe Pletikosa in the national team. He made his full international debut on 15 November 2006 in Croatia's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier at Israel, which they won 4–3. His second appearance in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers came in Croatia's 6–0 win at Andorra in September 2007, and he also made further two international appearances in Croatia's friendly matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia during the same year.
Runje was also a member of the Croatian 23-man squad at the UEFA Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland, making his only appearance in Croatia's final group game against Poland in Klagenfurt. He kept a clean sheet in a 1–0 victory for Croatia, who played the game with a second string of players, having already secured a place in the quarter-finals after beating Austria and Germany in their previous two matches at the tournament. His only other international appearance during the year 2008 came in a friendly match at Slovenia in August, where he replaced Pletikosa at half-time.
In June 2009, Runje was promoted first-choice goalkeeper at the Croatian national team after Pletikosa lost his place as a regular at his club, Spartak Moscow. His first appearance in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers was in Croatia's 2–2 draw at home to Ukraine on 6 June 2009. On 5 September 2009, he produced several good saves to help Croatia secure a 1–0 win at home to Belarus in the World Cup qualifiers, being seen by many as the Man of the Match. He also made several good saves in Croatia's next qualifier at England four days later, but was eventually unable to save the team from suffering a crushing 5–1 defeat. He was also responsible for England's fifth goal, failing to make a clearance after a back pass and enabling Wayne Rooney to score easily with an unguarded goal in front of him. Runje made a total of five appearances during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, which saw Croatia failing to qualify for the finals after finishing third in their group.
Read more about this topic: Vedran Runje
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