Speaking to reporters at Wednesday morning's press conference before the start of training, manager Gernot Rohr has admitted that the Croatia team are better than the Super Eagles.

Croatia National Team manager Zlatko Dalić can count on 16 players that ply their trades in Europe's top five leagues, whereas the Super Eagles have nine players in their ranks who represented top tier clubs in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy last season.

''We admire this team, but we do not plan to watch them when we play against them, we hope to fight,'' Rohr stated.

''They are all wonderful players, playing in biggest teams in Europe. On paper with their names, Croatia are much better than us.

'' But sometimes on the pitch, it could be different. We don’t have their big stars, but we try to play collectively with our young team.''

The Super Eagles will fly out to Kaliningrad, venue of their World Cup opener against Croatia, on Thursday afternoon and the flight duration is three hours from their base camp in Essentuki.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : fifa.com