Ahead of a must win clash with Mexico on Monday Croatia coach Niko Kovac has admitted that he will allow them as much time as they need to recover from their 4-0 victory over Cameroon.
Securing their first win in the competition since 2002 the Vatreni now that nothing other than a win will do if they are to progress past the group stages for the first time since finishing third at France’98.
“We have to rest up well, because a serious opponent awaits,” Kovac told HTV.
“The boys used up a lot of strength today
“Then we’ll go into what is effectively a final for us and will do everything we can to progress.”
“Mexico are strong, but so are we.
“The Mexico players are very patriotic, just like us, and they have a great team spirit.
“They play some aggressive football with a lot of pressing. They are strong going forward, but also have some weaknesses in defence, like Brazil showed us.
“We weren’t on top of our game [today] in the opening five to 10 minutes and Cameroon created some chances.
“But then we found our rhythm. [Ivica] Olic scored and that opened up the game for us. We could have scored even more goals.
“I can only congratulate the players, though. They won in very difficult conditions. It was hard to sit or stand, let alone run around on the pitch.”
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