Stanković: "We shall try to surprise Russia"

Kazakhstan won its second Group C match, after the loss to Russia, and secured second round berth, and goals from Matošević and Suton were not enough for Croatia (4:2).

Croatia head coach Mato Stanković summarized the match: "I congratulate Kazakhstan, but if everybody would play like them, with flying goalkeeper most of the time, no one would ever watch futsal. I believe that the key moments in this match happened in sixth and seventh minute, and I am not allowed to comment on referees. In the second half, there was a moment when we fell apart, and a team like Kazakhstan knows how to take advantage of that and finish the job".

On Sunday, Croatia will need a two-goal margin win over Russia.

"To be realistic, this match has resolved many things, but Croatia managed to cope with the best teams during the previous years. We will not surrender, we will try to do everything we can and try to surprise Russia", said Stanković.

Was Marinović injury another significant factor?

"That is not an alibi, we had enough time for him to recover and he played well. I am sorry only for the our impatience at 1:1 and an unnecessary move towards the ball", he concluded.

Copyright by Croatian Football Federation. Quoting text from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to HNS as a source and providing direct link to the original content at hns.family. Re-use of the photographs is not permitted.