Croatia boss was so dissatisfied with 5-1 victory over Norway that he had to slow … – Dagbladet.no

(Dagbladet): When coach Per-Mathias Høgmo stated that he was happy despite the 1-5 loss, he harvested massive criticism from a number of different voices.

The man with the most Norwegian caps, John Arne Riise, called for, among other higher requirements in the Norwegian camp.

High demands are made to the degrees among Norway Croat over men. Despite 5-1 victory over Norway’s best men were not exercising Niko Kovac particularly pleased with the performance.

– I’m not happy. Although the result is great, the whole battle weak from our side. We hold no agreement. We are not aggressive enough, so we have been before, says Kovac to site 24sata.hr.

– I do not see the team play like that again. We were not one hundred percent. We were not good enough in a duel game. I should perhaps focus on the positives after such victory, so I get a glass of wine and calm me down, continues the chief.

– They ruined for Modric

He believes Croatia would be punished against a better opponent than Norway.

– The first 30 minutes we are weak. I will not say anything negative about Norway because they have a lot of quality but we had to be punished for an even better team than Norway, says Kovac.

In the opening minutes created Croatia null and void. Kovac believes Martin Ødegaard helped defuse midfielder Luka Modric star.

– We struggled initially. Norway played a 4-4-2, but strikers Ødegaard and Elyonoussi dropped down and killed room for Luka. It created problems for us.

– Had to stop Ødegaard

In the 2nd half decided Croatia itself to repay to duels. There were partly to 16 years old Ødegaard experience when he kicked the ground and got a little damage in the leg.

– In the break I said that I was not happy. I could not lie to them, although we led. I ordered the players to move closer into duels. They had a small Ødegaard who was not afraid to challenge. He had to go closer into, says Kovac.

He also asked the players to shoot more.

– Every time we shot, we scored. We must exploit the team’s strengths. 5-1 was a bit excessive. We must rise against Italy, says the former Bayern Munich player.