http://www.uefa.com/under19/news/newsid=1832742.html
Jeličić's Croatia relaxed for finals challenge
Published: Wednesday 27 June 2012, 10.31CET
Simply
being at the UEFA European Under-19 Championship is "already a big
success" for Croatia, whose coach Dinko Jeličić says "anything we do now
is a bonus".
by Elvir Islamović
Croatia coach Dinko Jeličić
is predicting his side will play without pressure at the UEFA European
Under-19 Championship in Estonia – their second final tournament in
three years after their 2010 debut.
UEFA.com: What are you main goals at the final tournament?
Dinko
Jeličić:"Our main goal was just to get there. We achieved that and it's
already a big success for us." Now we will first try to be among the
six teams who will win a place at the [2013 FIFA U-20] World Cup. But,
of course, we have other ambitions and we will try to spring a surprise
and go through to the semi-finals. We have the quality to do that.
UEFA.com: France, England and Serbia will share those ambitions though?
Jeličić:
France are a team who like to dominate, they defeated the Netherlands
6-0 in the elite round on their way to Estonia. They are the favourites
in our group and really very strong. Serbia were ahead of Germany in the
elite round and will be aiming high. England are also a top team, but
we are talking about the final tournament; there are no weak teams here.
UEFA.com: Do you think the other Group B teams will respect Croatia?
Jeličić:
I am sure they will all respect us because we played two good
qualifying rounds and showed we can do a lot with this team. We've
achieved our main goal – we got to the final tournament – and anything
else we do in Estonia will be a bonus for us. That will be to our
advantage, as we have plenty of motivation, but no extra pressure.
UEFA.com: How have you prepared?
Jeličić:
Our players haven't had much time to rest, so we've mainly been working
on fine-tuning our tactics. We've not been together much, which makes
our success even more precious.
UEFA.com: How would you describe your style of play?
Jeličić:
We we put a lot of tactical onus on defensive tasks, and then in attack
we look for quality possession, and to create chances to score. The
elite round match against Georgia [a 3-1 win] was probably our best
game; in the qualifying round we played 4-3-3 but in the elite round we
alternated 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2, just like Slaven Bilić at UEFA EURO 2012.
Slaven is not a big fan of strict formations and I agree with him – it's
an old tactic; it's just a starting formation and everything changes
during the match.
UEFA.com: HNK Hajduk Split players Mateo Kovačić, Marko Livaja, Niko Datković will miss the finals – how will you compensate?
Jeličić:
We'll be much weaker without them, but we have a quality base of 30 to
35 players and we've created a group where the team comes above
everything else, so we're not afraid. We'll have enough quality players.
We have forwards Ante Rebić and Marko Dugandžić, who was our top scorer
in both qualifying rounds. His finishing is excellent and he and Rebić
are a powerful attacking duo.