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They have experience, bags of talent and we do not doubt their fighting spirit, but there is still something missing in the Croatian team that reached the semi-finals of the Cup of Nations. World for the second time in its history. He became only the second team to win consecutive World Cup penalty kicks, following in the footsteps of Argentina in 1990, when they dominated Russia 4-3 on Saturday to follow their win over Denmark at previous round.
however, these overall performances deserved to be won by potential World Cup candidates, and they did not seem to do justice to the quality of the Croatian selection, which is one of the most talented in the world. Russia.
Fourteen members of their team are based in the top five European leagues – England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – including Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic at Real Madrid, Ivan Rakitic in Barcelona and Mario Mandzukic at Juventus.
When Croatia stormed the group But the spark seems to have been eliminated in the round of 16 and, instead, they had to rely more on resilience to compete with less opponents gifted.
Coach Zlatko Dalic has certainly shown a lot of bold and offensive intentions against Russia.
Modric and Rakitic were lined up in midfield midfield, with no defensive cover, and there were two wingmen in Ante Rebic and Ivan Perisic. two central strikers in Manduzkic and Andrej Kramaric.
Croatia's long possession periods were largely unproductive, the last pbad was invariably lacking and they were surprised by Russia's aggressive approach. "19659002" We were mined in midfield, "said Dalic." We had only to hit long balls, this is not how Croatia plays, what It's not our style. "
Overtime and penalties meant the depletion of valuable energy reserves that could put them at a disadvantage in their semi-final." There have been times when we lacked energy: 240 minutes of football in six days are very expensive, "said Modric, as Dalian Mandzukic and Rakitic, is in his thirties.
Dalic, however, said that he there was a lot left in the tank
"Of course, there is a bit of power for the English – we will not stop, we" We have two games to play, we are very motivated, we are going all give."
And if all else fails, Croatia can still enter A penalty shootout convinced that they will come out victorious.
"The match against Russia is another victory for our steel character," Kramaric said. "We showed how calm and confident we are, maybe the match was not the most beautiful, but we will remember it."
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