FRANCE 98 – Japan – M. Ihara: “We'll put on a more offensive face against Croatia than we did against Argentina”

Japan – M. Ihara: “We’ll put on a more offensive face against Croatia than we did against Argentina”

19.06.98 15h16 CET

Masami IHARA, captain (4):

“We’ll put on a more offensive face against CROATIA than we did when we played ARGENTINA. It’s an important match as far as qualification goes and we’re prepared to take some risks. We’re quite afraid of CROATIA’s strong midfield. We also have to keep an eye on the refereeing; after what happened yesterday this has become something to take into consideration. We’ll be playing for all our fans, as unfortunately so many of them will be outside the stadium.”

Yoshikatsu KAWAGUCHI (20):

“We’re going to risk everything we have against CROATIA. Our qualifying for the next round depends entirely on this match. CROATIA has a few geniuses, like Robert PROSINECKI (8), so we’ll have to keep our concentration up for the full 90 minutes. Personally, even though I played well in the ARGENTINA game, I still haven’t given my best.”

Hidetoshi NAKATA (8):

“The match against CROATIA is important, but in a World Cup all matches are. I don’t know very much about their team, we leave that side of things to our coach, but we’ll have to change the way we play for this match. Even if on paper our chances of winning are low, we will do the best we can.”

Wagner LOPES (12):

“CROATIA has a good team, made up of players who have been part of prestigious leagues in countries like Italy or Spain. But that is not enough to ensure good teamwork. CROATIA’s strength is in individual players. If we can manage to take advantage of their mistakes we’ll have a good chance of winning.”