Croatia’s head coach, Zlatko Dalic praised his players for their remarkable efforts despite the defeat to Argentina and claimed he had no complaints.
La Albiceleste won the semi-final encounter 3-0 with Lionel Messi scoring one of the goals and also providing an assist.
Croatia started strongly but fizzled out after conceding the opening goal.
Dalic later said: “I would like to congratulate Argentina for winning the semi-final and to thank our boys for what they have done. We need to get back on our feet and try to win third place. We started the first half an hour well but did not have ball possession and then conceded. We should have had a corner and then it was the penalty. It was a bit too cheap and too easy. We tried to go back, had a counter then conceded a second. It was done at that point. We had possession but did not create opportunities.
“They won against us and achieved the result they wanted. It is the sport, they are aggressive and feisty and there is nothing for me to complain about. I have no objections to make and we cannot get nervous and accept aggression but they put four aggressive attackers. We did not have the quality we needed.
“I have said this is the worst situation we can be in. Now you have a loss and have to fight for third. I told the players they have to keep their heads up and be proud of what they have achieved. We need to psychologically come back for the game versus France or Morocco. The players are sad, it is hard for them and they feel they could have done more.”
