A s Croatia prepare to face England at Wembley on Thursday in the Nations League , wounds from a humiliating defeat by the same opponents just over a month ago are fresh and there is a lingering feeling of unease.
No one will say it – certainly not Slaven Bilic, who always believes in goals that may seem unreachable to most others – but the impression is that Croatia would be satisfied to accept another defeat, provided it was gentle enough by score and hard-fought by approach; that this game is not so much about the points as the (self-)respect they can regain.
Croatia lost 7-0 to England last month in Rijeka and were lucky not to concede more. After the game, Roy Keane commented that England looked as if they were matched against junior players, but that wasn’t it, and neither was the comparison to San Marino or Andorra widely pushed through the media here.
Croatia did not look like a weak or inadequate team – they did not look like a team at all. The best assessments about the game came from within that night. “I have to say this,” the captain, Luka Modric, said. “I’ve been here for 20 years and this is the first time I feel ashamed. You can lose the game; that is not the issue here – they are simply better than us at the moment. But to squander the reputation we worked so hard and so long building – that is unacceptable.”
Bilic agreed: “We were no match for them in any respect: challenges, aggression, technique, physicality … And then, of course, your confidence, your focus and your mental resolve all drop and everything falls apart.”
It seemed that even the head coach, known for his eloquence and persuasive style of communication, struggled to comprehend what had happened and to find the right words. “I am left with an eternal shame,” Bilic would say in a later interview. But then there was a moment of unusual clarity, when he was asked what he had told the players in the dressing room.
“I told them that there are games which you simply need to forget and turn a new page as soon as possible, because you have the next match in a few days. But this is not one of those games. This one you should never forget. You should keep it mind for the rest of your lives and always be reminded of it so that you do everything not to repeat something like that ever again.”
The question on everyone’s mind, even if they dare not admit it, is: what if there is a repeat?
The team responded well to the England disaster, producing a batting display against Spain three days later. Although Croatia lost, it was a close game and the world champions were pushed hard before Ivan Perisic was sent off after 79 minutes, with the score 1-1, for a second yellow card which means he is unavailable for the Wembley rematch with England.
It was a good way to start their redemption but England pose challenges of a different kind. The weight is not only mental but very much physical. Bilic made some serious mistakes with his team selection and tactics in Rijeka and the players’ resolve wasn’t anywhere near the required level even before “everything fell apart”. But the way England play – when they play well – is a clear mismatch for a team that still revolve around a 41-year-old playmaker, with no true defensive midfielder or top wingers; much more so than Spain’s methodical approach.
England may simply be too fast for Croatia, and Bilic faces the immense task of somehow slowing them, limiting their attacking capacity and reducing the game to isolated incidents as much as possible. He needs to be pragmatic, which may include heavier involvement for one of his assistants, the set-piece specialist Gianni Vio, but first and foremost the players need to show much more grit and intensity.
So get stuck in? Well, yes. That is what the public back home wants to see, rather than some clever idea Bilic may have up his sleeve. “We can hardly wait,” Bilic said, but he was uncharacteristically vague and avoided going into details about the team’s ambitions.
The real issue is proving that Croatia, despite the recent haunting trauma, are still a true team: one worthy of the glorious past and with hope for the future.
