November 10, 2021, 13:31

Ivica Olic, assistant head coach of the Croatian national team Zlatko Dalic, spoke about the problems of the Russian national team on the eve of the in-person match of the qualifying stage of the World Cup – 2022.

“The most difficult task for a coach in Russia is to create an atmosphere, a team that will build, style, passion in the fight for his national team, as in Croatia.

I remember the time when I played at CSKA. Then six or seven players of the Russian national team played for the club. When Serbs, Croats, Brazilians were invited to the national teams, we were happy, we went to the training camps of our national teams with pleasure. And the Russians are like going to jail. That was their mood.

In the club they were told: “If something hurts, do not eat.” The legionnaires did not have this. You go to the national team, even if you are injured. You don’t think you can make the injury worse. They do not have the desires and hunger that we have. This is one of the main problems of Russia: the players in their best years say that they will no longer play for the national team.

Now Russia has one advantage – 90 percent of their team’s footballers play for Russian clubs. They know each other very well, the RPL goes to meet them, postpones the championship matches. However, the desire to play for the national team is not up to the mark there.

I know the players of the Russian national team well, and one thing is for sure – Croatia is much stronger, with much better players who play in the leading clubs in Europe. As a team, we are better than Russia, – quotes the words of the Croat Nacional.hr…

The meeting between the national teams of Russia and Croatia will take place on November 14 in Split.

The national team leads qualifying group H with 19 points and is two points ahead of the second-placed Croatian team.

Formerly Ivica Olic named the main reason for his departure from CSKA.