Doha, 6 December 2022 - The morning after Croatia beat Japan on penalties to advance through to the quarterfinals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, coach Zlatko Dalić addressed the media.
“It’s a beautiful morning, to be among the top eight in the world, really great. Deserved. We celebrated a little after returning to the hotel, each in his own way. I didn’t get to watch the match, I fell asleep, I was tired and exhausted. However, after this match I don’t need a special analysis, Croatia played well, the way it should have played. In the first half, we imposed our style of play for the first half hour, and then got into unnecessary nervousness with several mistakes and put the opponent in a better state. Afterwards we made amends,” Dalić said for the HNS website.
“Realistically, Brazil is the most powerful and best team in this World Cup. When you look at their selection of players, quality, breadth and value, it’s terrifying. We have a big test ahead of us and a difficult task against a team that likes to compete. They will need to prepare very well for that match, but we have nothing to fear. We have to go into the match with a lot of faith and confidence, look for our opportunities and enjoy football. Extract Brazil, that’s it. Maybe it’s too early, it would be better if it were the final. Brazil is the favourite, but we will not give up. We will try to prepare well and rest, give our best and fight back. They are not a team that tolerates someone else having possession.”
“We will see what and how, everyone got a chance and had their minutes. I said that we will deploy like that, considering that we don’t have someone who is number 1. There are no more attackers from Atletico and Juventus, now we have attackers from Dinamo, Hajduk and Osasuna. Don’t live in the clouds, we have what we have.
The guys are of good quality, they can and we will again look for the best solution there. It is not fair to these guys to dissect the game, whether it was nice or not. The boys have made the top eight in the world.
This is not figure skating, this is a fight for a result. Croatia made it and deserves praise. Whether someone scored a goal or not, they tried and that’s it. I congratulate the guys once again, great respect to everyone. We’ll see what we do. Whatever we did in Qatar was a good and successful move. When you are among the top eight in the world, it means that you did everything right. It will be the same against Brazil.”
