By admin
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic has confirmed Marcelo Brozovic has been ruled out of the World Cup semi-final against Argentina after the Inter midfielder “suffered a muscle strain”.
The substitution was a surprise, as it came five minutes into the second half.
His side had just made two substitutions midway through the first half, so using a substitute after five minutes seemed odd.
“Marcelo felt a strain in his muscle, so we decided not to let him play until the end,” Dalic told HRT.
“We chose to save him to be ready for the third-place final.”
This match will take place against the loser of the France-Morocco semi-final.
“I can’t blame the boys for anything, we controlled the game for half an hour, but during that time luck is on your side, sometimes it’s not.”
“Once again, Croatia lacks a center forward or a footballer who turns possession into scoring opportunities”.
“We prepared everything, but we lack a real striker. We wanted to do something more with Orsic, to be more vertical and we moved Ivan Perisic to the left corner, but after the third goal it was very difficult.”
“If someone had told us before the World Cup started that we would get to this stage, we would have been happy with that. I think we should be proud of this team”, said Dalic, among other things.
