Croatia – M. Blazevic: “I was expecting us to be playing this semi-final”

Comments from Vittel (350 km east of PARIS):

“I was expecting us to be playing this semi-final. I hope we’re going to beat FRANCE: we all have our fantasies. FRANCE is the favourite, and they have one big advantage: they’re playing in front of a home crowd. For us, that’s a drawback, like climbing Mont Blanc is for you. What’s more, FRANCE has players that play for the best European clubs: Real Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal and so on. I trained some of these players myself when I was at NANTES FC, including DESCHAMPS (7), DESAILLY (8) and KAREMBEU (19), who have made a lot of progress since. However, we are in tremendous spirits, and I have complete confidence in my captain Zvonomir BOBAN (10), whom I’ve known since he was fifteen. Nowadays we’re so close that I feel we are two bodies with a single spirit. I think that offensive runs by the defenders THURAM (15) and LIZARAZU (3) are a weak spot in the French defence. Having wing-backs tends to leave gaps in the line and we should be able to take advantage of that. I don’t mean that the French defence is bad, I just think they take too many chances. As for the role of “outsider” that we’ve been cast in, I can tell you that it has simply spurred the whole team on.”