CROATIA TO DOM-INATE THE MIDDLE
BALL’S IN OUR COURT: Croatia keeper Dominik Livakovic sees midfield as the key to victory
CROATIA keeper Dominik Livakovic has warned England they could get outplayed in midfield.
The Dinamo Zagreb stopper believes Luka Modric heads up a Croatian engine room which is better than Gareth Southgate’s.
Ahead of tomorrow’s clash at Wembley, Livakovic said: “Our midfielders can play against anyone. Our midfield is better than theirs, so I hope that is somewhere we can do well. That’s where I see a big opportunity for us.
“I’m not saying their midfielders are not as good individually, they are very good midfielders, but considering Luka and our other midfielders are all in excellent form at the moment, that is where we have a big opportunity. Mateo Kovacic has just won the Champions League with Chelsea.”
Livakovic has enjoyed the upper hand against English sides of late, most notably the 3-2 aggregate win over Tottenham in the Europa League.
He said: “My experiences against English teams have been good and hopefully it will go on ■ that way. They have world-class strikers but I hope we can stop them and my good run continues.
“The biggest danger for me is Harry Kane but I’ve played against Raheem Sterling as well and he is incredibly fast. I like watching Jack Grealish too.
“It is hard to name just one player in the England team who is ahead of the rest. They are all good.”
Kovacic (inset) also believes midfield will be the key area, saying: “I see the midfield as the main topic here. England are very good in terms of attacking, as are we. “They have an excellent midfield. They have a lot of quality there but so have we. We have excellence there.
“So it’s going to be a tough match, a lot of fights in the midfield, but we’re ready for that.
“We all know what kind of match we have ahead of us. We’re preparing and we’re going to do our best and give our all.
“It’s definitely going to be tough, but that’s something we’re ready for. We’re working a lot and we’re preparing well.”