“It will be my first time playing a game like this.”
The national team of England opened the Nations League with a defeat against Spain (1:2) at home in September, and now they await the 2018 World Cup finalists in Croatia on Friday. It will be a rematch of the World Cup semi-finals in Russia, where Croatia claimed the victory over Gareth Southgate’s squad in extra time. England, as expected, is looking for revenge.
However, the England coach is not looking forward to playing behind closed doors at Rujevica stadium in Rijeka next week, reports Goal.hr on October 5, 2018.
“It will be my first time playing a game like this. It will feel completely different than usual. In a way, I wanted the players to go out onto the pitch with the fans shaking the stands – and that Croatia reminded us of what happened in the summer. Then I could tell them, now, deal with that. But we do not have that opportunity,” Southgate says.
“But the guys know they are playing for England, and we have to show that in the right way. The quality of the opponent is extremely high and that will be a challenge in itself. My desire is to play in a full stadium, but that will not happen, so we have to adjust,” he added.
Recall, Croatia is serving a penalty from a match against Italy in 2015 when a swastika was found on the pitch at Poljud stadium in Split. While Croatia already played one game without fans, they will serve the remainder of the penalty against England on Friday.
“I watched Ivan Rakitić this week when Barcelona and Tottenham played and it reminded me of the quality Croatia has. The beauty of the Nations League is that you can test against the best. I have spoken to the Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić several times and they have their own challenges. They lost 0:6 to Spain in September and I’m sure this result will only make it difficult for us,” the England coach concluded.
