Croatia Coach, Zlatko Dalic has admitted that his team was lucky against Russia after their victory on penalties last night.

Croatia overcame a very confident Russia team after the hosts went ahead in the 31th minute courtesy of a striker by Denis Cheryshev.

The Croats the equalised eight minutes later after Andrej Kramaric's effort.

In Extra-time both sides scored and it was 2-2 after 120minutes of interesting football.

Croatia then came on top after the penalty shoot-out as they progressed with a 4-3 win.

51-year-old Dalic has described the match as "a battle" that could have gone either way.

"Congratulations to my lads but also to the Russia team, who fought well. This was not a beautiful game, it was a fight, a battle for the semi-final. We were lucky," he told reporters during his post-match press conference.

"I was concentrated throughout the match but after Rakitic's penalty, it came bursting out of me. I felt really relieved. We made ourselves happy but we also made everybody back home in Croatia happy. Those emotions just burst out of me. I don't cry often but now I have a good cause: Croatia is in the semi-finals. This is a great success and a great result.

"Of course there is some power left for the English. We do not want to stop, we will try to play our best game. We have two matches to play and we are very motivated. We're giving our all. It will be a battle again but I trust us, I have belief in us."

Croatia will now face England on Wednesday in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Source:>>SPORTDAB
http://www.sportdab.com.ng/2018/07/world-cup-2018-croatia-coach-dalic-were.html

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