Wednesday Jun 21 2006 13:29
Croatia coach Zlatko Kranjcar is confident his side will beat Australia in Stuttgart on Thursday and secure qualification for the last 16 of the World Cup finals.
Kranjcar's side have just one point from their opening two matches having lost 1-0 to Brazil and drawn 0-0 against Japan.
That means only a victory will be good enough for them to join Brazil in progressing from Group F, while the Socceroos need just a draw to go through having beaten Japan 3-1 and lost 2-0 to the holders.
However, the Croatia boss believes his side have not clinched the results their performances have deserved.
"To be honest, I think we have been the better side," he said.
"But Guus Hiddink is an excellent coach, they seem to have good team morale and I do respect Australia.
"But to be honest I don't care about Australia, I'm more concerned with our own side.
"I will speak to our attackers individually to try and instill a bit of confidence because it seems to be lacking.
"The system won't change, we'll go down the wings and try and pinpoint our strikers.
"If we win against Australia, we go to the next round. The players still have enough strength to get a good enough result to go through."
Croatia will be without suspended defender Robert Kovac, with Stjepan Tomas set to replace him.
Australia have been boosted by the news that Harry Kewell is not facing a ban for his clash with referee Markus Merk after the Brazil game, meaning calf injury victim Tony Popovic is their only absentee.
Despite needing just a draw to go through, skipper Mark Viduka insisted the Socceroos would play to win.
"We have to go and win the game. It's gonna be a tough one, but it was always going to come down to the last game," said Viduka.
"That's why the World Cup is so interesting, it goes down to the wire and it will show who's the toughest.
"I think if you go out and play a game of football, looking for damage limitation, that's when you cop goals."
Have your say on this article