Germany-Croatia – Z. Boban: “We are ready to rise to the occasion”

Germany-Croatia – Z. Boban: “We are ready to rise to the occasion”

03.07.98 22h06 CET

Allen BOKSIC

“I am nervous of the GERMANY team because even when they are not playing very well they often win. We’ll have to concentrate right up to the last second, and pay particular attention to their two strikers Jurgen KLINSMANN (18) and Oliver BIERHOFF (20) and not give them the least bit of space.

For the last twenty days I have lived the World Cup as an observer. Today, ITALY showed a strong defence and FRANCE was good mid-field. The lottery of the penalty shoot-out decided the winner.

Now, FRANCE and BRAZIL are my favourites.”

Zvonimir BOBAN (10)

“After winning our first four matches, we don’t want to stop at the quarter final and we are ready to rise to the occasion, even though GERMANY are a very good team. In order to make our mark, we will have to play the Croat way, i.e. with a lot of skill. I don’t want to think about EURO 96 against the Germans because today is different from two years ago. A lot of things have changed since then, we now play with a lot more enthusiasm”

Aljosa ASANOVIC (7

)

“This quarter final against the Germans looks like it’s going to be very tough. We have to fear all the players of the team, but we are lucky because we also know a lot about them. I think that they are as good as they were before, they’ve still got really good strikers like Oliver BIERHOFF (20) and Jurgen KLINSMANN (18). We’re thinking about the possible semi-final against FRANCE. But GERMANY deserve a lot of attention and if we win we will have plenty of time to think about our next opponents after the match.”

Slaven BILIC (6)

“This is the biggest match of my career. It’s a miracle that we’ve got to the quarter-finals, but we don’t want to stop there. We only have to win once more to get a medal. Mentally, I think that we are the strongest team in the world. We learnt a lot from the match against GERMANY in EURO 96, but God has given us a second chance to beat them. We are privileged to be among the jet set of football society. Tomorrow we want to play football but we can play as physically as they can. We have a lot of respect for them but we’re not afraid of them. I’ll probably mark Oliver BIERHOFF (20) for the set pieces. We play better by defending and then counter-attacking.”