Croatia's national team plays against Spain in Split today, and captain Luka Modrić believes his team can show a completely different face after the heavy defeat to England 0-7 at Ružića.
Modrić told Nova TV that the players had spoken after the debacle in Rijeka. "I hope that these talks will bear fruit and that we will see a completely different Croatia," the captain said. He acknowledged that the team had suffered a major blow, but reminded that it was not the first time and that in the past they had shown that they could recover from it.
Croatia had lost to Spain in Seville a week ago 4-1, and Modrić pointed out that they were aware that against Spain they had to react. He believes that the national team can rise again after one of the hardest moments of this generation.
The captain did not want to comment on the stories about the possible departure of the coach Slaven Bilić in the event of another failure. Instead, he expressed full praise for Bilić, who had introduced him to the senior national team 20 years ago. "Bilić looks the same as before, excellent. His preparation of training and matches is at a high level," said Modrić. He added that results were being judged and evaluated, but Bilić was seen as highly motivated and very keen to achieve great things with the Croatian national team.
Modrić stressed the importance of support in these times. "We need support, both I and the players. It is easy to support when everything is going well, but in these times we need support, I need support and everyone. Only in this way can we move forward," he said. On the question of motivation, he replied that the motivation to play for the national team was the greatest motivation and that they could not control what was being said outside, only that they could control giving 200 percent.
