Zlatko Dalic, coach of Croatia, abruptly ended the interview he was giving this Monday (12), in Doha, Qatar, on the eve of the confrontation with Argentina for the semifinals of the World Cup.
He was annoyed when he was prompted by an Egyptian journalist to comment on alleged “boring football” by Croats at the tournament.
“We played for the result and we are in the semi-final of the World Cup. That’s where the story ends”, shouted the coach.
The pragmatic line adopted by Dalic is a consequence of the transformations that the Croatian squad has undergone in recent years, since the historic runner-up in the world championship in 2018. Starting with the aging of Luka Modric, the team’s main technical reference.
At 37, he is still able to set the pace of a game and pull off brilliant shots, but he no longer has the physical intensity he displayed in Russia.
In addition, the team lost important players, such as Ivan Rakitic, who shared the construction of moves with the number 10 and retired from the national team, and striker Mario Mandzukic, who hung up his boots.
The new crop of players, on the other hand, has as some of its exponents athletes with greater defensive combat power, such as Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic. Hence the tendency to hold more games, as happened with Brazil, in the quarterfinals.
In the duel with the Brazilians, Croatia had only one sure finish: Petkovic’s kick, which tied the game in the second half of extra time and forced the decision by penalties, won by the Europeans by 4 to 2.
It was the second time in this edition that Dalic’s team played extra time. It had already been like this before Japan, in the round of 16. On the occasion, he also survived the penalty shootout.
With 240 minutes played in a one-week span, excluding injury time, the coach admits his team is exhausted. “It’s been tiring to reach extra time in two games. We’re exhausted, but we’re in the semi-finals of the Cup and we’re still going strong.”
It’s not unheard of. In 2018, Croatia played extra time in the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, en route to the final in Russia
That’s how it passed through Denmark, Russia and England. Against the first two, the victory was on penalties. Against the English, the triumph was obtained in extra time, 2 to 1, in what is considered by Dalic as the greatest victory of his selection.
“For me, the semi-final against England was the biggest [jogo da Croácia] of all time, and [o duelo com o] Brazil was second. Tomorrow [contra a Argentina]could be even bigger, the biggest in history,” he said.
He just wouldn’t want to have to suffer so much, after all, it’s been 24 years since Croatia managed to win a World Cup knockout match without having to play extra time. The last time was in the 1998 edition, in France, the first one that played as an independent nation after the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia.
In the French fields, the Croatians also advanced to the semifinals. They beat Mexico in the round of 16 (2 to 1) and Germany (3 to 0) in the quarterfinals. They lost to the owners of the house in the semifinals, by 2 to 1. They finished with a third place, after beating the Netherlands (2 to 1).
History, however, is not something that usually cheers up coach Zlatko Dalic, not even when it favors him.
It will be his second clash with Argentina as a coach. The first is recent, it was played in 2018, in the group stage of the World Cup in Russia. In the second round of Group D, the Croatians won 3-0. Modric scored one of the goals.
After Argentina’s surprising draw in the debut against Iceland (1-1), the defeat in that game left Messi’s team in a very delicate situation. Only a victory against Nigeria, in the last round, saved the team – as it ended up happening.
“This match from 2018 has nothing to do with tomorrow’s match,” said the Croatian coach.
He, however, is confident he can again surprise one of football’s giants. “The Croatian team four years ago made a dream come true for all small countries, we gave these countries the right to have these dreams. Four years ago, nobody expected Croatia to reach the final.”
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