LUKA GIVES CROATIA SO MUCH MORE
Beating them with Modric will be better than Zagreb, says Mcghee
FoR Gordon strachan’s scotland, victory i n Croatia was a start. The first evidence that the national team were slowly emerging from a self-induced coma.
That 1-0 win in Zagreb on June 7 was the f i rst triumph of an otherwise miserable World Cup qualifying campaign. A Robert snodgrass goal saw the nation r anked f ourth in t he world humbled by a side scuffing around FIFA’s nether regions.
Belgium now need just a solitary point in Zagreb this evening to reach next summer’s finals in Brazil — and scotland’s surprise defeat of the Croatians is one of the reasons why.
It was a night when Russell Martin was outstanding at centrehalf, while the scots passed the ball better than they had in years. Yet Mark McGhee, the assistant manager, is blunt on the reasons for Croatia’s poor display. Without Luka Modric — the Real Madrid maestro — they were half the team, he said.
‘I would liken it to Barcelona coming to Parkhead without Lionel Messi,’ s ai d McGhee. ‘he’s not one out of 11, he’s not nine per cent of the team, he’s 30 per cent of the team.
‘he’s the DNA of the team, Modric is the one who makes them the special team that they are.
‘Without Modric, they are a good team. With Modric, I think they are a special team.
‘ he’s a player you find very difficult to get to, to affect what he does well. he’s got a great touch, is a great passer, he finds gaps, he opens people up, he makes the pass that people will score a goal from. he finds opportunities for people.
‘The majority of the goals Mario Mandzukic would score for them would be from a pass from Modric. so if you can stop him at source you undermine their best chances.’
Modric is expected in Glasgow on Tuesday, but Croatia’s state of mind is more difficult to predict.
Igor stimac’s side are in the play-offs for Brazil irrespective of what happens tonight. however, should they beat the Belgians, the game at hampden gains an added edge. Win, and the Croats would still have an outside chance of finishing top, albeit they’d be relying on the unlikely event of a Welsh triumph in Brussels.
‘It depends what happens to them on Friday night in terms of where they sit and what they need,’ added McGhee. ‘All that will affect them mentally.
‘ If they go to Belgi um a nd get beaten, and know they can’t win the group, then it will be
a different mentality from knowing they have beaten Belgium and still have a chance.’
A half-baked Croatia in winddown mode would improve the chances of Gordon strachan ending a wretched campaign with a second successive win.
Yet McGhee can also see the benefits of a game with meaning, a game with genuine competitive value. ‘I know what you mean,’ said the scotland No 2. ‘It’s like when Andy Murray’s winning Wimbledon or whatever and someone’s not in it, you always think: “Would he have won it if that guy had been playing?”
‘We beat Croatia in Zagreb and Modric wasn’t playing. I’d like to see us beat Croatia with Modric in the team and that would reaffirm what happened in Zagreb.
‘I don’t know what will be the best Croatia result for us from Friday night. But the best thing for us is to play well and approach the game the same way as we have done recently, with the same level of performance, and go and beat them regardless of whether Modric or whoever plays.
‘I think that if we want some advantage from their result, the most likely outcome would be that Belgium would win the game and that Croatia would be i n the play-offs and then they would be disappointed.’
They were disappointed enough in June when the home defeat to scotland saw their challenge to Belgium for first place begin to unravel.
It was a different kind of turning point for strachan’s side. They were expected to lose four or five after a crippling run of call- offs. But McGhee remains wary of bold, rash predictions.
‘It gave us something tangible in terms of a result and a performance,’ he said. ‘There had been question marks over people’s commitment and, remember, that was an awkward time to have a game. ‘People had been off for a month, or two weeks or a week — and in the case of Barry Bannan he’d been on holiday and was called up and then played a significant role.
‘There were a lot of variables that came together and they showed they had a desire to play for scotland — and they answered the sceptics.
‘In the way they played, they f ollowed Gordon’s model to perfection — including scoring a winning goal. All of that was encouraging going forward.’
The impact on Croatia was less positive. They have played just one qualifier since, drawing 1-1 with serbia. Before the scotland game, they were borderline dismissive of a team yet to win a game in the group. If they still have the motivation to win on Tuesday, it’s unlikely they will make the same mistake again.
‘They had every right to expect to beat us given our form in Wales and serbia before that,’ said McGhee. ‘ Why would they not think they would beat us? But we were not the same team that played against Wales and serbia, so I won’t worry about that too much.’
The only aim for the scots now is to build stronger foundations for the future. To avoid finishing bottom of a qualifying group for the first time since the European Championships of 1984.
‘The Wales defeat will live with myself, Gordon and stuart (McCall) forever, no matter what we go on to achieve,’ admitted McGhee. ‘ That will always beavery, very disappointing performance and result.
‘We have to find a better start to the game. It’s about taking the initiative in games and, against a team such as Croatia, it can be hard to be cavalier but we have to try and establish a pattern. If we can get that start, it might change how it looks at hampden.’
It could even change the face of the campaign while proving that what strachan started in Zagreb, he intends to finish.