SOCCER:THE SPANISH and Italians may have some high profile problems but Slaven Bilic remains on course to put a full-strength Croatia side out against the Republic of Ireland on June 10th in Poznan after the manager named a 27-man preliminary squad yesterday which includes all of the mainstays of the qualification campaign.
With four players still to be discarded next week, the two main victims of the selection procedure at this stage are Hamburg’s Mladen Petric and Ivan Klasnic of Bolton, strikers who have more than 40 caps apiece but who have been marginalised at international level of late due to the emergence of stronger alternatives for Bilic, not least the in-form Everton striker Nikica Jelavic.
Klasnic, in reality, only featured fleetingly during the qualifying campaign, making two appearances but little enough impact. Petric, though, started four games and scored in the first, a 3-0 win over Latvia and his omission is sure to have come as a blow.
“It was hard to leave them out but it’s part of the job,” Bilic said yesterday. “They are quality players who have done a lot for our side. Unfortunately, they are strikers, the one part of our team where we have the best options so there was simply no room for them,” he added.
Bilic has also opted against bringing in recently naturalised Brazilian midfielder Sammir, whose form for Dinamo Zagreb has earned the 24-year-old rave reviews and prompted calls from the club’s supporters for an immediate call-up. However, Niko Kranjcar and Dejan Lovren are both included despite injury problems which, the manager admits, would rule them out if the start of the championships was not still a few weeks away.
“We have some problems,” he acknowledged. “Lovren and Kranjcar are injured. If the Euros started in seven days time, they couldn’t play. But I will wait for both of them. We will start our preparations on the 16th of May.”
The Croatians recently overhauled Italy in the world rankings and there will be considerable pressure on Bilic and his men to successfully make it through to the knockout stages. And the highly regarded coach, who confirmed yesterday he will step down after the tournament, is not shying away from the expectation, insisting that the aim at the outset is not simply to make the quarter-finals again, as they did in 2008, but to return as champions.
“We have quite a good squad, our results talk for themselves, now we have to prepare as good as we can,” he said. “I would say we are better than in 2008, when we went to the quarter-finals; back then we wanted to win the Euros, and this time around we want to do the same thing.”
The first obstacle to be overcome will be Ireland who Bilic respects, he says, while still seeing them as beatable opponents.
“With all due respect I feel for them, we want to start the tournament with three points,” he said.
“They are our chance. They are tough, strong, well-organised and defend very well. The only surprise could be if Trapattoni made them more offensive. But that would only make us happier.”
Croatia: Euro 2012 squad
Stipe Pletikosa (Rostov), Danijel Subasic (Monaco), Ivan Kelava (Dinamo Zagreb), Goran Blazevic (Hajduk Split), Domogoj Vida (Dinamo Zagreb), Vedran Corluka (Bayer Leverkusen), Josip Simunic (Dinamo Zagreb), Dejan Lovren (Lyon), Sime Vrsaljko (Dinamo Zagreb), Gordon Schildenfeld (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ivan Strinic (Dnipro), Danijel Pranjic (Bayern Munich), Jurica Buljat (Maccabi Haifa), Darijo Srna (Shakhtar Donetsk), Tomislav Dujmovic (Real Zaragoza), Ognjen Vukojevic (Dynamo Kiev), Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla), Luka Modric (Tottenham), Ivan Perisic (Borussia Dortmund), Niko Kranjcar (Tottenham), Milan Badelj (Dinamo Zagreb), Ivo Ilicevic (Hamburg), Ivica Olic (Bayern Munich), Nikica Jelavic (Everton), Mario Mandzukic (Wolfsburg), Eduardo (Shakhtar Donetsk), Nikola Kalinic (Dnipro).
