Croatia see off Greece to seal World Cup spot
Peru fret over Kiwis’ height ahead of decider
ATHENS, Nov 13, (RTRS): Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic heaped praise on his players after they saw off Greece with the minimum of fuss in their playoff tie on Sunday to seal a place at the 2018 World Cup.
The impressive Croatians held Greece to a 0-0 draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Sunday’s second leg in Athens to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory - making it the fifth time they have qualified for the global showpiece since gaining independence in 1991.
“Congratulations to my players, it was a great game tonight, full of tension, and we’ve achieved what we had set out to do and are going to Russia,” said a delighted Dalic.
“We played a truly awesome game in Zagreb in the first leg, tonight here it was much harder. But it was never important for me who would be our opponents in this playoff, because I was convinced that we would win whoever we played against.”
Having done the hard work four days ago by winning 4-1 in Zagreb, Dalic’s team finished the job comfortably against the much-improved Greeks who were full of attacking intent and tenacious tackling but lacked creativity up forward.
New Zealand’s towering striker Chris Wood is set to start Wednesday’s decisive World Cup playoff match against Peru and the hosts are concerned about the size of their opponents all over the pitch.
The five Kiwi defenders who started Saturday’s 0-0 first-leg draw measured an average 1.84 metres, while the four Peruvians who played up front against them were on average 10 cm shorter.
“The fact is that this game is going to be as hard and complicated as the game was in New Zealand because it’s not easy to play against the walls that make up their defence,” Peru striker Jefferson Farfan said.
The Peruvians have been fretting over the appearance of the 1.91 metre Wood, who came on with 15 minutes remaining in the first leg and caused problems for the visitors’ defence.
But Farfan, who is 1.78 metres tall, was candid about the task of facing such burly opponents.
“They’ll surely be prepared in Lima but we have to go out there to break down that defensive line any way we can,” the Lokomotiv Moscow player said.
“It won’t be easy but we’ve fought so hard to have this chance of qualifying for the World Cup that we can’t not take advantage.”
The winners of Wednesday’s intercontinental playoff in Lima will progress to next year’s World Cup in Russia.
Australia’s Tim Cahill says he is fit to start against Honduras in Wednesday’s decisive World Cup playoff tie in Sydney after being rested in the scoreless first leg due to an ankle injury.
Cahill, who scored a double against Syria last month to put Australia into the intercontinental playoff, was an unused substitute on Friday as the Socceroos wasted several chances to secure a precious away goal in San Pedro Sula.
The 37-year-old said he would look to play a full part in both training sessions before the match at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium and would be ready to go if selected by coach Ange Postecoglou.