In Friday’s second match of the basic group at the European Championships, the Croatian footballers will not pay special attention to the Czech striker Patrik Schick, who secured a 2-0 victory over Scotland with two goals on Monday. This was stated by the assistant coach of the Czech opponent Vedran Čorluk.
Schick shone especially during the second goal, during which he crossed the Scottish goalkeeper from almost 50 meters.
“Schick is a first-class player and I’m not just saying that because of the two goals against Scotland. Even at the club level in Leipzig and Leverkusen, he showed that he is a very unpleasant striker,” praised Corluk, a 35-year-old former great defender.
So how to stop the Czech forward? “We will not guard him personally,” Corluka said. “It was never our strategy and we do not intend to change it on Friday either,” the Croatian Association’s website quoted him as saying.
According to midfielder Nikola Vlašič, it would also be a mistake for his team to focus only on the enemy’s pointed forward. “All Czechs are dangerous,” stressed CSKA Moscow midfielder.
“It is very important to beat them, because it is always very difficult to go to the last match with the need to win it, which would happen in a possible Friday draw,” he added.
Čorluka considers the current Czech team to be stronger than in the last match five years ago at the last Euro. At that time, the Croatians – with Čorluk in the line-up – led 2: 0, but in the last quarter of an hour they lost the lead over the goals of Milan Škoda and Tomáš Necid from the penalty.
“Of course I remember that match well. As far as I know, I lost an air battle before the first goal collected,” admitted a former Manchester City or Tottenham player.
“Then we did a penalty in the last minute after Vida played with his hand. A strange match that we had to finish better,” recalled Čorluka, who played for the whole 90 minutes.
“And the Czechia then and today? Today it is a much faster and more dynamic team, simply much more unpleasant than then. It will be much harder for us than in 2016,” said assistant head coach Zlatko Dalič.
His team lost 0-0 to England at the start of the Euro and did not score for the second time in a row. “We know that our biggest problem in the last matches was the final phase, everyone saw it. We had problems on the last third of the field and we didn’t get into chances,” admitted Čorluka.
“We are working hard to improve it for the next match. I am sure that we will be much better and more dangerous,” he warned the Czechs.
“We want to win, but we will try to achieve it wisely. We must not go crazy and leave the Czechs room for breaks and dangerous situations. They are very dangerous in the transition forward, so we must not hurry too much for three points from the beginning,” Corluk outlined
In addition, his boss Zlatko Dalič claims that the defeat with England did not spoil the atmosphere in the team much. “We lost to the team, which is one of the favorites of the Euro. Now we have to go for the victory. I believe that we will perform in better condition and, most importantly, we will be more offensive,” said the chief Croatian strategist.
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