Battling qualities
Dalic is wary of the threat posed by brave Scots at Hampden
CROATIA boss Zlatko Dalic believes Steve Clarke was ‘brave’ to hand Billy Gilmour his first Scotland start against England. But the 54-year-old has demanded his players show courage to earn the win they need at Hampden on Tuesday night to have a chance of reaching the last 16.
Citing the threat of man-of-thematch Gilmour — who excelled in Scotland’s goalless draw at Wembley on Friday — as well as captain Andy Robertson, the Croatian manager knows his team will have to handle the occasion in Glasgow.
Clarke’s men earned a deserved point in London to keep their own dreams alive of reaching the knock-out stages following a disappointing 2-0 loss to the Czech Republic in their Group D opener.
‘Scotland could have got more against the Czech Republic and did well against England, showing motivation and fight,’ said Dalic. ‘They have quality which is keeping them alive in the tournament.
‘I will watch England v Scotland in full. It was a brave decision to include the young midfielder Billy Gilmour, who kept control and was good and, of course, they have a force in Andy Robertson on the left.
‘They played with three centrehalves. They use a lot of long balls and have a lot of fight in them.
‘Getting into the last 16 would be an historic accomplishment in front of their own fans. So it’s going to be a hard match.
‘They have good strikers and quality down the left that we need to look out for.’
Dalic has come under pressure from supporters and the media in Croatia for their poor recent form.
A dispiriting 1-0 defeat to England in their first match was followed by a 1-1 draw against Czech Republic at Hampden on Friday.
The 2018 World Cup finalists have won just four of their last 15 matches in all competitions. Sitting third in the section with one point, ahead of Scotland on goal difference, Dalic knows the significance of Tuesday’s game in Glasgow.
‘We haven’t made the biggest impact but this isn’t the right Croatia or the kind of Croatia we should see,’ he admitted. ‘We are just not at that level right now but we still do have the chance to improve things on Tuesday where a win would put us through.
‘So we don’t have a lot of things we can grab on to right now but we are still in the fight. This is not how I imagined it would be.
‘We didn’t do enough offensively against England. We need to freshen up the team with energy, be faster and making sure they can go against Scotland, who are going to be very aggressive and very motivated.
‘We have to pull the best we can out of the players to match that. We need to bring a degree of aggression.
‘We need to improve the mood because this is not good enough. There are reasons we haven’t meshed together but I won’t put the guilt on individuals. It’s my job to fix this. We need to make two or three changes.
‘We don’t have a good mood and we need to find it for the story to move to a good place. The result is the thing that gets you the good vibe — and we need that very badly for things to click into place.
‘In terms of conditioning, six or seven (players) have issues physically that they came here with and haven’t managed to solve completely. But there’s not a lot we can do about that right now. It’s a bit late.’
Rangers left-back Borna Barisic missed the matches against England and the Czech Republic with a back injury. Addressing the latest update in his fitness race, Dalic said: ‘Borna will train with us and we’ll see what kind of condition he might be in.
‘We will have to wait and see how he is after seven or eight days out.’
A failure to progress out of the group would be a devastating blow to a nation who reached the pinnacle of football in Russia three years ago, losing to France in the World Cup final.
But Dalic is confident his players will rise to the challenge at Hampden.
‘I believe we still have the strength and the pride to win the match on Tuesday,’ he added. ‘We need to click and turn things to our own advantage.’