POLAND: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: Croatian team and coach Slaven Bilic prepare for their Euro 2012 match against Italy

Record ID: 862197

  • Title: POLAND: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: Croatian team and coach Slaven Bilic prepare for their Euro 2012 match against Italy
  • Date: 14th June 2012
  • Summary: POZNAN, POLAND (JUNE 13, 2012) (REUTERS) CROATIA TEAM COACH SLAVEN BILIC, PLAYERS NIKO KRANJCAR AND VEDRAN CORLUKA AND CROATIAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION SPOKESMAN DAVOR GAVRAN (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) SEATED FOR NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) CROATIA TEAM SLAVEN BILIC SAYING: "Well it is nice that this tradition is known, it is nice and pleasant to hear that we have never been beaten by Italy but that doesn't mean anything for tomorrow's match. This is a new Italian team. This is a nice statistical fact but unfortunately it doesn't mean anything. We will not rely on tradition in the planning of our chances tomorrow but in our strengths and the efforts to realise our agreed plan in our performance." WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) CROATIA TEAM SLAVEN BILIC SAYING: "Italy is such an opponent that one cannot prepare one's game for a draw, like you could do for example with Andorra. And, there are generally less and less situations in football these days where you can count on such things. We have two match balls but we will play as if we had only one, and we will try to do everything possible to achieve a positive result." REPORTER LOOKING INTO SCREEN (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) CROATIA TEAM COACH SLAVEN BILIC SAYING: "We will have to play like the others who managed to play well against Italy, and -- just as Italy did when they played against Spain -- sometimes be on the attack, sometimes be on the defence. We will try to dictate the tempo during the entire match. For sure we will not be able to do that, but the Italians won't either." BILIC AND THE PLAYERS LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND PITCH IN BACKGROUND MATCH FLAGS AT STADIUM DARIO SRNA, FOLLOWED BY IVAN RAKITIC GORDON SCHILDENFELD RUNNING ONTO PITCH FOLLOWED BY OTHER PLAYERS, PAN ONTO THEIR LEGS GROUP OF SUPPORTERS WATCHING PLAYERS STRETCHING ON PITCH LEGS EXERCISING LUKA MODRIC MEDIA COACH SLAVEN BILIC LOOKING ON AS PLAYERS RUN IN FRONT OF HIM PAN OVER CROATIA TEAM TRAINING
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • City:
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA98SR9G70H5Q98GJ9Z5GNOJWE2
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Croatia prepare for their match against Italy on Thursday
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register