By Daily Sports on July 15, 2018

Zlatko Dalic’s mind has already started turning to what he will return to this week and the struggle he says his nation face accommodating England when they arrive to play a UEFA Nations League tie, three months from now.

‘We have England coming to play us soon and we can’t play in our normal stadium with good grass,’ he tells The Mail on Sunday, fewer than 24 hours after his players’ victorious semi-final.

Dalic does not respond directly to the question of whether he envied Gareth Southgate, with such riches at his disposal, but you did not need much imagination to know the answer.

‘Maybe now Russian people will give us the Kaliningrad Stadium or the Nizhny Novgorod,’ he says. ‘What will be and what our government should do [about it] is not my job. I don’t want to make a big point now we are in the final. We may be world champions.’

World Cup final managers do not generally linger to talk like this, though Croatia are no ordinary nation. They have reached Sunday's final with their sport in a state of civil war; wracked by endemic corruption which has left many back at home hoping they would fail in Russia.

‘I try to deflect negative things from players,’ says Dalic. ‘It’s easy to slip into problems. There were too many negative things about our national team. The cult of our national team was in tatters, there were many people who boycotted the team but now there are people out in the street celebrating.’

It is tempting to think that a determination to overcome the chaos is fostering a team mentality, though it is more messy and complicated than that.

During the semi-final win, there was plenty of evidence of the Croats driving each other to distraction. Luka Modric could not even look at full-back Sime Vrsaljko in the first half when, with the No 10 waiting for him to lay the ball off, the defender took and ballooned the ball over the bar. Vrsaljko then proceeded to hammer three of his team-mates for advancing too far. So much for togetherness.

Croatian writer Aleksandar Holiga suggested last week that Croatia actually thrive on chaos.

‘People often ask how it is possible for a nation of only four million to produce so many class footballers,’ Holiga wrote. ‘A proper answer has never been offered.

‘Sure, there are some good youth coaches — obviously, given all the talent developed in recent years — but there is no general programme in place that systematically educates or distributes young players across the country. Very few new stadiums have been built or properly renovated in the past three decades and the same goes for training grounds.’

The French will be aware of the danger of allowing the focus on Ivan Rakitic and Modric to detract from the danger on the flanks in what is a very lateral Croatia team. Ivan Perisic inflicted great damage on England and the presence of a forward of Mario Mandzukic’s quality justifies his selection.

Dalic does not even seem to grasp that Croatia’s match against England, at Rijeka on the Adriatic, must take place behind closed doors because of a stadium ban imposed after fans displayed a swastika symbol on the pitch in 2015.

‘[To host] a team such as England and Spain, we need 40 or 50,000 seats to have a full house to enjoy the football,’ he says. ‘We do not have that kind of infrastructure.

'This is a huge problem. I hope something may be kick-started because if not now when?’ Others may see things differently, though. Croatian chaos theory seems to be doing them very nicely. (Daily Mail)

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 15, 2018

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