Croatia arrives in Wales ahead of EURO qualifier

CARDIFF, 12 October 2019 – The Croatian football team has arrived in Cardiff on Saturday afternoon as they prepare to take on Wales in their penultimate EURO 2020 qualifier tomorrow night 

Croatia will meet Wales at Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday (20:45 CET) with victory ensuring qualification for Zlatko Dalić’s side for EURO 2020. 

When the sides met in Osijek in June, Croatia were victorious 2-1, but tomorrow will be a different match says Ivan Perišić, who spoke at a press conference with coach Dalić after arriving in Cardiff. 

“The first game in Osijek was tough, it was 35 degrees, it was one of our hardest, but we won. We will have to look out for some things tomorrow, but I hope we will resolve the issue of qualifying for EURO tomorrow,” Perišić, who missed a penalty in Croatia’s 3-0 victory over Hungary on Thursday, said. 

Dalić will be missing the services of Inter Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozović, who is suspended after picking up a yellow card on Thursday night. 

“There will not be much change. Brozović, who can not play, and possibly two other changes in attack. Defence we will not change,” Dalić said.

“We are aware that we need to rest someone. We gave maximum effort in Split and we have to make sure that it doesn’t happen again like last last time,” Dalić said, alluding to the 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan following the 4-0 win over Slovakia three days earlier. 

“We have great respect for Wales because we had a lot of problems in Osijek and we had a hard time winning that game. We are aware that only a victory for them is needed to stay in the battle for first and second place. A team that has Bale in it is a team to respect, but he is not alone. We will have problems with young fast players like James,” Dalić added.