By Kayode Ogundare in Moscow:
Zlatko Dalic, head coach of the Croatian national team, has bemoaned his team’s ill-luck after they were paired with Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup draw here in Moscow on Friday, Completesportsnigeria.com reports.
The manager who guided his team to a play-off victory over Greece to qualify for the 2018 World Cup said Nigeria was the one African team he had hoped to avoid meeting at the group stages.
Reacting to a direct question from completesportsnigeria.com, Dalic said he has followed the Nigerian team because of the young and fantastic players paraded by the Super Eagles.
“I know your team very well. They are a very good side. They finished the qualifiers unbeaten and are not afraid of anybody. I’m not very happy to have Nigeria in my group. All of their players are in Europe and they are very unpredictable to play against. It is our first game and it will be difficult for us to play against your team,” he said.
On his team’s preparations for the World Cup, the 51-year old former footballer reckons that work will start immediately in order to have a good outing at the competition next year in Russia.
He said: “We now know our opponents and we must go and start work immediately. We have to go and look for video tapes of the games of all our opponents but I know it’s not going to be easy to play these teams, especially Nigeria.”
Argentina and Iceland are the two other teams in Group D
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COMMENTS
All of them are scared of 9ja.
Make una head no swell
True bro
Mind games
Abi oo
Mind game
Croatia equally have a good team with Modric and Rakitic, two midfield maestros in the Croatian team. Wish the super Eagles goodluck
You forgot kovacic
And Manzudik
And we have Mikel moses, Iwobi and Ndidi as well
Their defense is poor. Dejan Lovren is the most sluggish defender I have ever seen.
Mandzukic is no longer himself. Age is fast catching up with him
Ivan Perisic of inter milan
Croatia has a strong squad with big stars.Mandzukic plays for Juventus and has lots of experience, Perisic is a good player, then Modric and Rakitic best midfield in the world.
It’s not a matter of mind games… Nigeria is a football nation that shows a red flag for any team in d world in modern day football
Ghana Repin 9ja
Nice
Mind game
They are not scared of naija is just strategy
That’s the mind game , Nigerians are already boasting of “killing” Argentina , Russia 2018 is still 7months away, lots can happen, let’s not bask In the euphoria of qualification and winning friendlies, watch an pray- players and fans.
Optimism is the first steps to success .
Over confidence could undo Nigeria.Teams hitherto considered of no significance usually end up giant slayers
Playing mind game. Nigeria you better prepared well and don’t underrate any team.
Nigeria all the way.
This is good
we are not pass over
They are only fooling us, it is #Nigeria that shouldn’t fool herself. #mind_games.
Scam what our for that guy
Mind game. We advertised ourselves to early in that friendly against Argentina
Croatia has deadly players the likes of perisic, mazuki, modri, rakati but black is always be black
Ok
Don’t fall for what he is saying it is just a fairytale,don’t look down on them there are dangerous
The oyibo man just stated the obvious, Nigerians are Fearless anywhere, anyday. Even our rulers are afraid of us. #WE.GET.THE.GUTS.TO.SACK.BAD.GOVT
Every team in that group is happy being paired with 9ja. All we are reading is ‘mind game’
With all due respect to all here,I can see that most Nigerians don’t research current events. We v 80% chance of topping the GRP based on current form. Nobody v mentioned here dat both Iceland n Croatia came out from d same uefa qualifying GRP wic was regarded as d most weak. Even Croatia came second n qualified thru play off. Others in dat GRP were Kosovo,Ukraine, turkey n Finland.Iceland that top d GRP lost 2matches. For Argentina, as at the last round of matches,they were not sure of making it. This all explain current form n it shows when Argentina played Nigeria last mth. Don’t be deceived by FIFA ranking.we are coming tops. The group is weak IMO.
Argentina vs Nigeria pairing WC in WC out is like the fixing of Easter celebration in the world. Always Friday Friday. Sometimes I wonder why it is always Friday Friday and not other days since annual celebration should fall on different days. Like our independent celebration, birthday celebration, and other annual celebration usually fall on the date it was inaugurated but that date most times fall on different days of the week. So Easter is arranged. Argentina always meeting Nigeria is arranged. Don’t you think so?
‘Fearless’. I love that word. SE should approach every gane at the world cup with that spirit. Take the game to your opponents ‘fearlessly’. That was the ruling spirit in the team at Atlanta 96 and USA 94 that made them conquer Brazil, Argentina, Bulgaria Greece and the rest. In 1998, we were jittery in the early phase of our match against Spain and we conceded. Immediately we overcame that, goals started flowing in. That’s why I want the coach to go to Russia with fighters. Players who will fight and fight until the final whistle. With the quality in the that team, only few teams will be able to withstand us if we add serious aggression to our game. A good psychologist should be added to team to psyche them up. With what I saw in the second half against Argentina in that friendly, many teams will struggle against us if we play with the same aggression.
Mind games from a humble coach just like any other good coach ll say
LET US NOT GET CARRIED AWAY BY THE ACCOLADE FROM THESE COACHES AND LET NIGERIANS BE HUMBLE AND STAY LESS LOQUACIOUS FROM NOW COS WE ALL KNOW THE OYINBOS WILL DIG DEEP TO UNWRAP THE MYSTERY OF OUR FEARLESSNESS.ONE THING THAT GLADDENS MY MIND IS THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF OUR UNPREDICTABILITY THAT IS VERY KEY AND SE COACH WILL DO WELL TO MAINTAIN THAT VIRTUE IN THIS WORLD CUP, ALREADY THE THOUGHT OF BRINGING IN PLAYERS THAT ARE DOING WELL IN THEIR CLUBS IS A GOOD NEWS TO ME AND VERY ASSURING INDEED,NIGERIANS SHOULD PLS ALLOW THE COACH TO DO WHAT HE DEEMS NEEDFUL FOR SUCCESS.
I don’t understand most of us here, do u tink others are not afraid of us? No mind game, the coaches knows what he is saying, they might have big names than us but names do not play rather team work. I really thank coach Rohr for the confident he injected into the team. Nobofy gave us a chance to qualified but the players stood and shame the doubters. Up SUPER EAGLE.
This is serious early mind game, it should be ignored
I was never wishing for a soft group for Nigeria cuz they are always not at their best wen playing inferior team but whenever the Super eagles face big teams like the one we are in at the world cup they bring out their Best.
#Soar Super Eagles
#Watch out