World Cup 2018: Croatia can emulate the heroes of France 98 insists Dejan Lovren
Lovren believes that his side are now prepared to take on and beat any side
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Your support makes all the difference.They were a side who offered some of the most dazzling moments in the history of the modern World Cup and their own country - but Dejan Lovren believes their modern successors can still go one better. The centre-half believes this Croatia can surpass the feats of their great 1998 semi-finalists, and actually have a better squad, after their 3-0 demolition of a dismal Argentina. Lovren also asserted that their now prepared to take on and beat any side, and didn’t rule out winning the whole competition.
To even trump 1998 would represent quite a triumph. In what was the country’s first World Cup after independence, the side of Davor Suker, Zvonimir Boban and Robert Jarni reached the last four of France 98 with some supreme football, before ultimately going out to the hosts. The quarter-final win over Germany however had many parallels with Thursday’s victory over Argentina, right down to the 3-0 scoreline, and eviscerating a side of such standing has only further emboldened Lovren.
“I said we can do it, of course better,” Lovren said of 1998. “And when you look on the team sheet, the players, we have better players than the previous [side] of 20 years ago, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't perform well. But if we are like today, through all the tournament, I believe we can go far.
“I think the teams and people will realise they should respect Croatia. And also I would say we have one of the toughest groups, but also we showed we can manage to play under pressure. Yeah, we deserve this win today.
“It's quite tough to be honest, there's no easy games, no. When you look, of course, there are still Germany here, Spain, France. The big teams, big names. I would say we are the underdogs, and this helps us.
How we played today, it will give us a boost for the next couple of games, and hopefully we can just stay fit for the rest of the tournament.”
Asked who they want next and whether they want to finish top of the group to avoid France, Lovren further displayed Croatia’s confidence by stating it doesn’t matter who they play.
“To be honest, I don't mind. Whoever comes, we are ready to fight, and even France, like I said, they will know they have a tough opponent.
“I don't see, I don't see any [team to avoid]… we played a friendly against Brazil, we showed we can play first half for me also one of the favourites, and we are not too scared against anyone. When you look today, it's 3-0 against Argentina... this is a big, big game. I don’t know when they lost the last time 3-0 at the World Cup.”
Lovren also lionised the display of Luka Modric, who effectively sealed the victory with a brilliant goal that made it 2-0. The centre-half however said Modric’s greatest quality is the composure he brings.
“Amazing. I said to him it reminded me of his goal against Manchester United, for Real Madrid [in 2013], fantastic. And he was again one of the best players today... I will say he has this calmness, so much experience in his career, he knows how to play these big games. As I said, it's a joy to play with him.”
They also completely stopped Leo Messi playing. Lovren said that didn’t surprise him either because of how well Croatia prepared. Asked did they have a specific plan for Messi, the defender stated: “No, for Argentina, not for him.
“No, like I said. Of course we respect Messi because he's the greatest player in the world, but he's also stoppable. But not against one player. We defended like a team and this is how we did it… together. You saw it. He didn't have many chances, and it was I would say brilliant defending today.
“To be honest, I believed, from the beginning, that we can do it, when we are really like a defending bloc, together, they didn't have big opportunities to be honest. We had a couple of them, [Mario] Mandzukic and then [Ivan] Perisic, we had a couple of chances and, like I said, when we defend together, like a team, we will always have our chances.”
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