Lampard warns England to keep cool against Croatia

07 September 2009 19:17
WATFORD, England (AFP) - Frank Lampard has warned England to keep cool if Wednesday's crucial World Cup qualifier against Croatia threatens to turn nasty.[LNB]Fabio Capello's team can book their spot at the World Cup with a victory over the Croatians at Wembley, but the visitors are desperate for three points themselves as they fight for second place.[LNB]With England still sore over Croatia's rough tactics during their 4-1 win in Zagreb last year and Croatian coach Slaven Bilic claiming that Capello's outfit are a flawed team that lack "Englishness" it is certain to be a fiesty occasion on Wednesday.[LNB]But Chelsea midfielder Lampard doesn't want his team to let any Croatian provocation distract them from the goal of reaching the finals in South Africa.[LNB]"We need to keep cool heads, keep calm, but also show passion and desire to win the game. There certainly won't be tackles anyone is pulling out of," Lampard said.[LNB]"I know Slaven from playing with him a few years back. I don't take any real notice of that one way or the other. He is a top man, a real nice fellow, a very gifted manager.[LNB]"It is probably a few words to fire up his own team a bit, to get them going. It all adds to the spice of a big game."[LNB]Lampard believes Croatia will still be formidable opponents despite missing midfielder Luka Modric through injury and defender Vedran Corluka through suspension.[LNB]"I think they're two very good players," he said. "Modric particularly is the playmaker of the team. I know what a good player he is from playing against him against Croatia and Tottenham.[LNB]"Croatia will miss them, but Slaven Bilic has said he has worked on the strength of the team."[LNB]Lampard has no intention of underestimating the Croatians after their famous 3-2 victory at Wembley that denied England a place in Euro 2008.[LNB]But he believes Capello's regime has transformed England into a far more resilient unit than the team that collapsed under Steve McClaren.[LNB]"You would have to be a fool not to see how much the team has gone on from that point two years ago," Lampard said.[LNB]"That was a low point in all of our careers and in England's recent history.[LNB]"It was a team of very good individuals who were very low on confidence, on that night and also in other parts of the competition at certain times.[LNB]"Now we have got a lot more confidence, we have moved on a great deal as a team, although not as far as we want to go yet.[LNB]"It was horrible to go out of a major tournament in front of your own fans. It scars you as a player.[LNB]"We all carried that around for many weeks and it hit us again when you watched it and we were not involved."[LNB]Defensive errors in Saturday's friendly win over Slovenia and last month's draw in Holland have raised questions about England's ability to win the World Cup.[LNB]But Lampard is convinced England's back-four have proved themselves over the team's seven successive qualifying victories.[LNB]"If you look at our qualification campaign, I think in general the defending has been excellent and we have conceded very few goals," he said.[LNB]"Maybe in a couple of the friendlies there have been a couple of things we would not have wanted to happen, which were individual errors, but we take that on the chin as a group.[LNB]"We are not the finished article whether it is defensively or attack wise but hopefully we will get it right for when it really matters."

Source: Eurosport