“Brazil likes to play football” – Zlatko Dalic delivers verdict on Croatia’s ‘scary’ FIFA World Cup quarter-final against Brazil

Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic has shared his thoughts on facing Brazil in the quarter-finals of the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The two sides are set to clash at the Education City Stadium on Friday, 9 December.

Croatia beat Japan 3-1 on penalties in the Round of 16 after playing out a 1-1 draw after extra time. Le Selecao, meanwhile, dominated their FIFA World Cup Round of 16 game against South Korea as they won 4-1.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Dalic shared his thoughts about the upcoming FIFA World Cup game (via The National News):

"Brazil has 200 million people; we only have four million, so we're a bit like the suburb of a city in Brazil. It will be a different game than against anyone we have played so far, because Brazil likes to play football."

He added:

"If we are looking at it realistically, Brazil is the best team at the tournament. They have a great choice of players, a great squad – it's scary – so it's a great test for us."

Dalic, however, admitted that while the south American side are the favorites, Croatia will look to counter them effectively:

"Maybe we'd rather it was in the final than the quarter-final, though. We want to give maximum effort … we won't surrender before the game. We want to counter Brazil's quality with our own and we want to play football against them."

He added:

"Brazil are favorites. You can tell they have a great atmosphere in the team; they have top world-class players; Neymar is back from injury. We have to be very smart in our approach. We can't open up too much against Brazil, but we also can't sit back. It's not 50-50, but we are not some big underdogs."

The winner of this clash will face the winner of the quarter-final clash between Argentina and the Netherlands.

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Croatia and Brazil's journey to the 2022 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals

Croatia began their journey in Qatar with a goalless draw against Morocco before beating Canada comfortably with a scoreline of 4-1. They then played out an arguably fortunate goalless draw against Belgium to secure second place in Group F.

Dalic's men then beat Japan, who had beaten Spain and Germany in the group stages, to reach the quarter-finals.

Le Selecao, meanwhile, began their 2022 FIFA World Cup journey with a 2-0 win over Serbia followed by a 1-0 win over Switzerland. With qualification secured, Tite played a second-string side against Cameroon and they lost 2-1.

They then comfortably beat South Korea in the Round of 16.

The south American side last won the FIFA World Cup trophy in 2002 and will look to get their hands on a record sixth trophy in Qatar.