Corluka believes England’s style will suit Croatia in World Cup semi-final contest
Croatia defender Vedran Corluka believes England’s style of play will suit his side more than their past two opponents’ did when they duke it out on Wednesday for a place in the World Cup final.
Zlatko Dalic’s team take on England in the semi-final at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, where they will bid to record their country’s best performance at the tournament by reaching the showpiece final.
Corluka feels England’s willingness to attack should allow Croatia more room to express themselves.
Asked if England will be treated as just another game, the gregarious former Tottenham Hotspur defender, who has 102 caps, said: “No. We watched England in all their games and they play really well. They are confident and have a young team. Before they didn’t have any pressure. [The media] just said to them: ‘Just do what you can’, but now even you are hoping that it can come home, yeah?
“We like to play against teams like this because we have really fast players and it will be a really open game, not like today or the game against Denmark.”
Corluka was part of the Croatia side who defeated England 3-2 at Wembley in 2007, a result that ensured their rivals did not qualify for the 2008 European Championship. Steve McClaren was dismissed as manager the following day.
With a number of Croatia’s players on the wrong side of 30 – Corluka is 32 – he acknowledges time is running out for him and his teammates if they want to achieve major success.
“Now it’s probably the last World Cup for a lot of us,” Corluka said. “So it’s a case of giving all we have and go further than we ever have before. Nobody expected this, to be honest. In ourselves we thought we could do a lot, but not this.
“This is something we have been dreaming about. Ten years ago we had a famous generation and now we are close to them because we are in the semi-final after 20 years.
“That is something special in our country. The whole country is celebrating and all the team is very proud.”