Germany-Croatia – D. Suker: “This is the greatest day in the history of Croatian football”
Germany-Croatia – D. Suker: “This is the greatest day in the history of Croatian football” 05.07.98 00h31 CET Dario SIMIC (20):
“I don’t know what to say. It’s a dream, we still can’t believe it. Tonight we have made Croatian history. In Zagreb they must be going crazy. Before the match I had a really good feeling about tonight”.
Silvio MARIC (11):
“It still hasn’t sunk in that we’ve won this match. CROATIA is in the semi-final. Tomorrow we’ll analyse our performance. Tonight we’ll just savour the moment.”.
Drazen LADIC (1):
“We played really well tonight. We believed we could win but not by so many goals. Each one of us gave everything he had and it is much easier to play in such conditions. Coming on to the pitch, it was obvious to me that we couldn’t lose. This is the biggest victory by the CROATIA national team”.
Goran VLAOVIC (19):
“I think that it will take a few days for us to realise how important this win is. The Germans played well in the first thirty minutes. After WÖRNS (2) was sent off, we made the most of the space. In contrast to the Euro 96 quarter final against GERMANY, justice was on our side tonight. We’ve got three days to get our strength back to take us all the way to the final”.
Davor SUKER (9):
“This match was billed as a David and Goliath encounter but we can now ask the question, who is who? I think that we were better in every aspect of the game. The first thirty minutes were difficult but after the attack against me, we knew how to take control of the game. The German players’ reactions to the referee after the sending off of WÖRNS (2) didn’t seem to be justified because during Euro 96, it was we who paid the price of a refereeing decision that stopped us from going to the semi-final. This is the greatest day in the history of Croatian football. Now let the French get some rest”.
Ardian KOZNIKU (16):
We now have to prepare for the match against FRANCE. I have the advantage of knowing the French championship very well while Zvonimir BOBAN (10) knows the French players that play in Italy and Slaven BILIC (6) knows those that play in the English league”.
Robert PROSINECKI (8):
I’m very moved by this win against GERMANY. My satisfaction is complete because this being our first time in a World Cup, we’ve reached the quarter-final to go on to the semi-final. It’s amazing how much this means to Croatians. The three-nil score line really surprised us. GERMANY has a great team but we played extremely well tonight with many opportunities. We put a lot into this match and we’re going to give our supporters more of the same in the next match where we’ll give our all against FRANCE”.
Zvonimir SOLDO (14):
Tonight, the Germans were definitely more tense than us. Our concentration was 100%. I’ve got the feeling that we could go all the way and that we’ve got what it takes to play really well against the French”.
