Croatia Coach On Eagles 1-1 Draw Vs DRC: They Are Strong In Launching Attacks, Defense Weak

Published: May 30, 2018

Croatia National Team boss Zlatko Dalić monitored Nigeria's friendly against Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, and has revealed that they can exploit the Super Eagles defensive frailty when both nations clash in their World Cup opener on June 16, 2018.

Nigeria usually play a four-man defense but did not start with their first-choice fullbacks Abdullahi Shehu and Brian Idowu for the clash against the Leopards and Dalić took that into account while giving his verdict on the team.

''There was a mixed team, Simon Moses was injured. They are terribly strong out of the box, in the launching of the attack, fast, but their weak point is the defense phase. We'll see what we can do about it,'' Dalic said to Sportske Novosti.

''Surely they are not better than us, in any case, we just have to prepare well.''

Dalić has reiterated that Nigeria have pace and quality in their attack and Croatia must be solid in defense for the entirety of the game.

''We will score a goal, but we must be very careful and keep the defensive shape. The Nigerians are dangerous from the position and punish you if you are weakly closed and go away with a lot of players ahead,'' he concluded.

Croatia will square off against Brazil (June 3) and Senegal (June 8) in friendly matches before their World Cup opener against Nigeria.

Igho Kingsley