BERLIN (Reuters) – Croatia’s sensational run to the 2018 World Cup final has only sharpened their desire for even more success at the tournament in Qatar this month, Croatia forward Andrej Kramaric said on Wednesday.
Croatia lost that final to France four years ago but after topping their qualifying group with only one defeat and conceding just four goals in the process, they are riding a wave of momentum.
“We have played really great football in recent months and reached the Nations League final four,” Kramaric, 31, told an online news conference. “I have to be honest, we have a great team with young and experienced players. We can reach nice things at the World Cup.”
Croatia came top of their Nations League group ahead of world champions France and Denmark and are widely expected to make it through World Cup Group F into the knockout stage along with Belgium at the expense of Canada and Morocco.
“If we perform as in the last few months we can reach nice things in Qatar. To play the final in 2018 it’s still unreal and it was something amazing and special and hard to describe,” said the Hoffenheim forward.
“We would be happy if we can repeat this achievement. It will be hard but maybe we don’t have so much pressure because we did amazing things in Russia (in 2018). We still wish and want to achieve more.”
Kramaric cited 37-year-old Luka Modric as a motivation with the Real Madrid playmaker having won his fifth Champions League title last season.
“If you see Luka Modric. He won everything but how he plays at 37 he is a perfect example for us younger players to be motivated, to want more, to be better,” he said.
“Croatia will be like this in Qatar, fully motivated. We wish to reach something nice again.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
