Croatia’s players face a tough start to the 2014 World Cup as they take on the hosts Brazil in the opening match of the tournament in the city of Sao Paolo.
“The day of the great reckoning has arrived,” announced the headline in daily newspaper 24 Sata, reflecting the excitement and anticipation in Croatia as the national team prepare to face the five-time world champions at the start of the biggest tournament in football on Thursday.
“According to some estimates, around two billion people will watch today’s opening of the Worod Cup. Our team could not receive a greater honour,” said an article in Vecernji List.
Croatian team coach Niko Kovacs said he was looking forward to playing in the high-profile opening match with football fans around the world watching.
“Brazil are immense favourites. I expect them to win the tournament but they are also facing an unimaginable weight of expectations from the home crowd. Yes, they all play at big clubs but the pressure there can’t really be compared to this,” Kovacs told the AP news agency.
He said that he believes that his team have got a real chance to beat the hosts: “In some elements, Brazil are not stronger than us. We will have an answer for their play,” he said.
Kovacs took over from Igor Stimac as national coach last year and brought Croatia victorious through play-offs with Iceland to secure World Cup qualification.
The decisive match against in Zagreb last November however was marred by a controversy that left Croatia without veteran defender Josip Simunic for the Brazil tournament.
Simunic was banned for ten matches by football’s world governing body FIFA after leading Croatian fans in a chant associated with the WWII fascist Ustase movement, ruling him out of the entire World Cup.
Striker Mario Mandzukic is also suspended after he was sent off in the play-off game against Iceland.
Instead Croatia’s Brazilian-born forward Eduardo is likely to play against the country of his birth, with media reports suggesting that he could sing both countries’ national anthems when they are played before the match starts.
“He has said he will sing two anthems. He’s Croatian for work. In his heart, he’s Brazilian,” his mother was quoted as telling SNTV.
Croatia did not qualify for the last World Cup in 2010; its best placing since becoming independent from the former Yugoslavia was third in the 1998 tournament in France./balkaninsight/