Croatian midfielder and skipper, Luka Modric has revealed that he told his teammates at Real Madrid to watch out for his country’s performance at the World Cup tournament in Qatar.
Modric stated that before leaving for Qatar, he and his teammates discussed the World Cup in their locker room.
The 37-year-old Real Madrid midfield maestro said nobody gave his country a chance at the world’s biggest soccer fiesta but he told his teammates at the Spanish capital to “watch out for Croatia.”
Modric disclosed this in an interview with RTVE on Monday ahead of the semifinal match between Croatia and Argentina.
He said the fact that his country is small and the players are not the favourites to win the World Cup has been their motivation to give their best and turned out to be their strength.
“Given that we are small, no one counted on us. But we don’t mind that others are favourites and we are in the shadows. We can only do our best, try hard, and that is exactly our strength.
“Before I left for the World Cup, we talked a lot in the [Madrid] dressing room, during which I told them: ‘Watch out for Croatia’,” Modric said.
Croatia were runners-up at the Russia World Cup in 2018, and have been impressive at the ongoing edition after beating Japan and Brazil in the round of 16 and quarterfinal matches. They beat the two teams through penalty shootouts.