SKILLS

To Croatia’s final hope

is more pressure on England than Croatia. “With England, it’s always pressure,” he added.

“Both teams have a lot of pressure to arrive in the final, so we’ll see.

“Maybe there is a bit more pressure on them, but we also have a lot and we want to take that pressure.

“We know what Croatia is expecting from us and, more importantly, we know what we are expecting from ourselves.”

Since Modric (right) made a £30million switch from North London to the Spanish captial he has won four Champions League titles and developed into one of the world’s most accomplished playmakers. He said it will be “special” to play against England, given the time he spent in the Premier League.

“It is always special playing against England,” said Modric. “They’re a great team, doing a great tournament, like us.

“They’re suffering less, but showed against Sweden the great quality they have and we’re expecting a tough match – but we will be ready.

“We have less time than England to recover for the semi-final, but I’m sure that we will recover well.

“We’ll find extra motivation, the extra everything – what is necessary for these games.”