Croatians have bad memories from last World Cup too. Majority has opinion that Italy will be stronger under Conte. Italian leagues quallity has been falling down, but that doesn't decrease importance of his recent archievements.
In my opinion our (Croatian) coach has potential but lacks experience. He had made mistakes during World Cup matches, but after that he has changed squad and called a lot of new young players. They used to play under his leadership in U21 squad.
Battle for first place should be though and interesting.