Croatia is the bomb!

We saw some incredible and interesting results from the friendlies in 1st March. I was glad to see Italy win and worried to see Argentina lose. But, friendlies apart, this Croatian success is what we were already expecting from the Croatia team. I’ve collected some quotes from Parreira and Zlatko Kranjcar soon after they hear the World Cup draw results came out.

Look what Parreira said about his group: “Virtually it seems to be an easy group but practically it isn’t. This is a group whose main qualities are physical strength and tactical obedience. Croatia are a team who mix strength and quality.”

Look what Zlatko Kranjcar had to say about the draw: “I’m not unhappy with the group. First of all, I must say that Brazil, as holders, are favourites not only in our group but for the World Cup overall. We played them not that long ago in Split and showed how good we are by earning a draw against the current world champions. I’m also certain that we will be worthy opponents for Brazil in the World Cup, thanks to the quality of our play, our motivation and our individual skills, which we showed in the qualifiers. We are hoping for a positive result, which means we want to avoid defeat.”
(complete texts here)

Now, after seeing Croatia beating Argentina, Parreira had, in fact, a confirmation of what he said before. He was dining when someone came with the 3:2 news. He said “Of course Brazil have all the conditions to advance if we are able to impose our best football.” The IF part is really important! And he said once again that group F is a tricky bunch. And I remember our Argentinean blogger Kris saying that Brazil got the easiest group and saying Croatia = nobody. How ironic! Did they loose to a nobody?

Words of a brave man were heard from the Serbia and Montenegro coach Illija Petkovic: “Easy groups do not exist at the World Cup. We must work hard to get results.”

After these friendlies, can we say that Italy is the new favorite? Germany is dead? Croatia will win group F? After what I saw in Moscow all I can say is this: the World Cup is more than 3 months away. The results we had now can be improved. From what I’ve read, Brazil will have 2 training friendlies (New Zealand and some Swiss team) near June 9th, and that will be a good moment for the fine tuning of our team. Let not hope fade!