World Cup upset made Croatia hungrier to reach finals – Petric

Croatia’s failure to qualify for the summer World Cup has strengthened their players’ resolve to secure a berth in the Euro 2012 finals.

Mladen Petric, who plays for Bundesliga side Hamburg, insisted that Croatia’s absence from the South Africa finals has made them “hungrier” for success as he prepared for tomorrow’s Group F qualifier against Malta at the Maksimir Stadium.

“Of course, not qualifying for the World Cup finals was a great blow,” Petric told a news conference at the Terme Catez resort in nearby Slovenia.

“The disappointment of the World Cup has made us hungrier to go to the European Championship finals. With the team we have, we expect to be at every major tournament. That’s our target.”

Regarded as favourites to top a group containing Greece, Israel, Georgia, Latvia and Malta, Croatia have made a solid start to their qualifying trek. They have seven points after winning two and drawing one of their opening three matches.

Greece lead the way with eight points but victory over Malta would lift Croatia two points clear at the top.

A win for Croatia is seen as a foregone conclusion but Petric warned against the perils of underestimating their opponents.

“Malta have no pressure and they will surely try to make it difficult for us,” Petric said.

“As the coach has already said, Malta have played some good games in these qualifiers. We have to be very concentrated and try to play our usual game.

“If we score one goal, I think we will find more space to attack Malta.”

Robert Prosinecki, the former Croatia stalwart who is now one of the three assistants to national coach Slaven Bilic, acknowledged that the home team have no margin for error in tomorrow’s qualifier.

“It’s an important game,” Prosinecki, widely acclaimed as one of the best players to come out of Croatia, told The Times.

“We certainly can’t afford to drop points. Croatia are the favourites to win this match but we must be careful because in football, the unexpected can happen. I believe we have a very good team and I’m confident we will beat Malta.”

Prosinecki, a key member of the Croatian team that finished third at the 1998 World Cup in France, considers Greece as the toughest opponents in Group F but he believes Croatia are a cut above the rest.

“Greece have a good team and there’s also Israel,” the 41-year-old Prosinecki, who had spells with Barcelona and Real Madrid during his playing career, said.

“But I think our team is the strongest in the group. Croatia are seen as the favourites to claim top spot. There’s high optimism about our chances of winning this group both within Croatia and beyond but we’re only thinking about winning the next game to keep moving in the right direction.”

Although Croatia are fancied to beat Malta hands down, they are not taking anything for granted. The last time Croatia played Malta, in a 2006 World Cup qualifier, our team caused a stir by holding their more-quoted opponents to a 1-1 draw at the National Stadium.

That match, played in September 2005, was overshadowed by disturbances caused by some Croatian fans.

Only four players from the team that started that game are in Bilic’s squad, namely, goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa (Tottenham), captain Darijo Srna (Shakhtar Donetsk), Hoffenheim’s Josip Simunic (who is rated as doubtful) and Niko Kranjcar (Tottenham).

For Malta, five players who figured in that match are in contention for a place in the starting team tomorrow – Justin Haber, Roderick Briffa, Kevin Sammut, Massimo Grima and Ivan Woods.

Tomorrow’s qualifier carries added significance for Croatia as it falls on the 20th anniversary of their first international match as an independent nation.

On November 17, 1990, Croatia beat the US 2-1 in an international friendly at the Maksimir Stadium, the same venue of tomorrow’s game against Malta.

Haber, Schembri join squad

Justin Haber and Andre Schembri linked up with their Malta team-mates yesterday morning at the Sheraton Hotel.

The Ferencvaros duo were unable to fly to Zagreb before yesterday as their Hungarian team had a league match against Haladas on Sunday.

Schembri played the full 90 minutes of Ferencvaros’ 2-1 win but keeper Haber didn’t start.

Meanwhile, Malta’s build-up continued yesterday. The players had a team meeting in the morning and took part in a practice session at the training grounds of NK Zagreb.

Schembri trained on his own yesterday while left-back Carlo Mamo is still doing his rehab from a thigh injury and his condition has improved slightly.

However, the stand of the national team’s medical team is that Mamo will only be involved against Croatia if he is 100 per cent fit.