Ivan Rakitic makes crucial penalties and closes his mother's mouth

MOSCOW – "The surprise of the World Cup of Croatia will go far". The forecast was made on December 1, a few hours before the draw places the Balkans in the same group as Argentina. He was very convinced Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA, who, as a Slovenian, knows his Croatian neighbors well. "He is a very dangerous opponent for Argentina," Ceferin added to the nation, who obviously knew what he was talking about. Croatia, for the second time in its history, is in the race for the final.

And that the football success came too fast to the young independent Croatia, third in France 98, just his second world cup after leaving Yugoslavia. Luka Modric was then 12 years old, he remembers perfectly that Davor Suker, today president of the Croatian federation, has moved the ropes in the French World Cup. Yes, it was surprising that Croatia finished the job by beating Holland on a cool night in the match for third place in the Parc des Princes. Or maybe not because Croatia was a great team in which, besides Suker, shone Zvonimir Soldo, Mario Stanic, Robert Jarni, Slaven Bilic, Zvonimir Boban – now Deputy Secretary General of FIFA – and this weakness of so many fans football, Robert Prosinecki

It is difficult to measure whether Croatia today has the same level, a little less or a little more, but with the fact that with Modric they play Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic reached to understand the power of the small nation on the Adriatic. And if there is any doubt, you can see the 3-0 over Argentina, a match in which the Croats confirmed that they own one of the most half-pitches powerful of the world. Twenty years earlier, they had lost 1-0 to Argentina in the group match.

"We wanted to get out the backpack we had, we have not spent the group stage since Euro 2008," recalls Modric, star of Rea Madrid. ] Rakitic, a Barcelona figure, explained this week in an interview to the Spanish newspaper El País how his team neutralized Messi and Argentina: "We closed the passing lines and tightened the defense very well. conditions, they are very complicated. " The midfielder also revealed something that was not known until now: he is celiac. He discovered without trying to find out. "I had a little luck, it turned out that I was celiac, that I could not eat gluten, it happened to me a couple of times" after the games I felt really bad, swollen, and I was not recovering so well. At home, only water, nothing Coca-Cola. "

And without Coca-Cola, Rakitic yesterday defined the move to the semifinals of Croatia scoring the final penalty.He had already scored in the series against Denmark, something precious for his mother-in-law. Yes, years ago, after failing a penalty against Rayo Vallecano, Rakitic received a photo of the mother of his wife, Spanish from Seville.He was the football player with his dog. "Your dog inflicts better penalties than you, "he said, barely telling the joke.