Croatia – M. Blazevic: “But I believe that we lost against the future World champions”

Statements taken from PARIS, Friday 10 July

“I consider the red card given to Laurent BLANC (5) as justified. But I am sorry for him that he will miss the final. His absence will be a genuine deficit for FRANCE. But I believe that we lost against the future world champions. For me Aimé Jacquet is not a friend, he’s a good friend. With three former Nantes players in the FRANCE team, I am obviously right behind them. I have very fond memories of my time in FRANCE with NANTES, and I would really have liked CROATIA to have played there. Overall, I would say that this World Cup has been magnificent from all points of view: organisation, the quality of play and the refereeing … even if our team notched up the biggest number of bookings. But I feel we deserved them. Facing the NETHERLANDS will be more difficult than facing FRANCE. They are an incredibly tough team, but BOBAN (10) and PROSINECKI (8) will be present tomorrow. On the other hand, SIMIC (20) will not play. The Dutch will benefit from our psychological and physical fatigue thanks to the extra day of rest that they have had. On a more personal note, it is true that I am at an advanced stage of negotiations with a big European club for next season. But I will say no more.”