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Croatia media: ‘Two years we fight for this and then someone robs us’ Croatia media: ‘Two years we fight for this and then someone robs us’
(about 4 hours later)
It was the morning after the night before. Croatia had made its population proud but had also come away with nothing from their opening game of the World Cup. Their game, of course, was against the hosts, Brazil, and they had lost after conceding a controversial penalty. It was the morning after the night before. Croatia had made the country’s population proud but had also come away with nothing from their opening game of the World Cup. Their game, of course, was against the hosts, Brazil, and they had lost 3-1 after conceding a controversial penalty.
As one would expect, the headlines in the Croatian media on Friday morning were exclusively reserved for the referee, Yuichi Nishimura. The headlines in the Croatian media on Friday morning were exclusively reserved for the referee, Yuichi Nishimura, who drew a damning verdict from the players and Croatia’s manager, Niko Kovac.
“Two years we fight for this and then someone robs us,” screamed Jutarnji list. “Croatian supporters – sheep sheared by Fifa,” said Index.hr. “If that was a penalty, we don’t need to play football any more,” he said. “Let’s play basketball. It’s a shame. We talk about respect, but that wasn’t respect – Croatia didn’t get any. If that’s how you start the World Cup, we’d all better give it up and go home.”
The initial media reaction was so focused on the officiating that hardly any of them bothered with a proper analysis of the game. Sportske novosti, the only daily sports newspaper in the country, said: “[Luka] Modric and [Ivan] Rakitic sacrificed themselves for [Mateo] Kovacic, and he did nothing …”, and then, confusingly, concluded that “Croatia played well” after all. Dejan Lovren was judged to have fouled the Brazil striker Fred, resulting in a penalty. The Southampton defender was the most furious among Croatia players. “I can hardly hold back the tears,” he said. “Why don’t they just hand out the trophy to Brazil right away? Everything is going their way, everyone is saying they must win it, so why do we play then?
Tportal.hr also blamed the referee, but offered a few other reasons for the defeat too: a great performance by Brazil’s Oscar, Niko Kovac’s tactical approach without a true holding midfielder and the coach fielding Nikica Jelavic. In general, the Hull City’s centre-forward is viewed as the weakest Croatia performer and there was some lament on why Eduardo was left on the bench. “The ref didn’t even speak English. I asked him why did he give the penalty and he just mumbled something. My team-mates tell me the same thing – how can you have an international ref who is officiating the opening match, but he doesn’t speak English and you can’t even speak to him?”
Others thanked God that Mario Mandzukic will be back for the Group A matches against Cameroon and Mexico following his suspension for a red card dating back from the qualifying play-off against Iceland last November. Other Croatia players said they were pleased with their performance while expressing anger about the officiating. Vedran Corluka described the penalty as “embarrassing”.
The former England striker and TV presenter Gary Lineker, meanwhile, has won himself a considerable number of new fans in the country with comments he made on Twitter. “It’s a tight call for Brazil’s man of the match between Neymar and the referee,” is the most-quoted one. The former Tottenham defender, now at Lokomotiv Moscow, said: “I think that when it was 1-1 in the second half we were quite in control of the game and after he gave the penalty it changed the game. I congratulate Brazil, but I don’t think they deserved to win today.”
The captain, Darijo Srna, tried very hard to choose the right words. He said: “It’s hard to stay cool-headed after a defeat like that. We expected the referee to be biased, but not like this … You know, they always tell us about fair play, the refs even hold meetings with us captains about that – and then they do this. But we must begin our preparations for Cameroon, in five days nobody will ask us how we lost to Brazil.”
The criticism didn’t stop there. “Two years we fight for this and then someone robs us,” screamed the newspaper Jutarnji list. “Croatian supporters – sheep sheared by Fifa,” said the Index.hr website.
The initial media reaction was so focused on the officiating that hardly any of them bothered with a proper analysis of the game. Sportske novosti, the only daily sports newspaper in the country, said: “[Luka] Modric and [Ivan] Rakitic sacrificed themselves for [Mateo] Kovacic, and he did nothing,” and then, confusingly, concluded that “Croatia played well” after all.
Tportal.hr also blamed the referee but offered a few other reasons for the defeat, too: a great performance by Brazil’s Oscar, Kovac’s tactical approach without a true holding midfielder and the coach fielding Nikica Jelavic. In general, the Hull City’s centre-forward is viewed as the weakest Croatia performer and there was some lament over the decision to leave Eduardo on the bench.
Others thanked God that Mario Mandzukic will be back for the Group A matches against Cameroon and Mexico following his suspension for a red card dating back to the play-off victory against Iceland last November.
Gary Lineker, meanwhile, has won himself a considerable number of new fans in the country with comments the former England striker made on Twitter. “It’s a tight call for Brazil’s man of the match between Neymar and the referee,” is the most-quoted one.