Bullish Bilic shrugs off Croatia’s stuttering start

ENGLAND boss Fabio Capello was given a glimpse of what to expect next season as Luka Modric got Croatia’s Euro 2008 campaign off to a winning start against Austria.

Capello was at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium to watch the team that knocked England out at the qualifying stage — and they will meet again as they try to reach the next World Cup.

Encouragement for Capello came from some shaky moments in the second half for Slaven Bilic’s side but they held on after Modric, Tottenham’s £16.5million (e20.5m) summer signing, had tucked away a fourth-minute penalty.

Bilic admitted the occasion got to his players as they struggled to hang onto their lead as the co-hosts piled on the pressure.

“Some players were overwhelmed but we started off with the best possible way — with a win,” Bilic said.

“In the first 35 minutes we played excellently, of course the early lead contributed to that.

“They exerted more pressure in the second half and I’m sure that is not to do with a lack of strength from our players. But we confined ourselves to our penalty area too early.

“The last 15 minutes or so when they play all or nothing, you can do that — but we started in the 60th minute or so.”

Croatia have a record of starting tournaments slowly, so Bilic was delighted with victory in the Group B opener.

“I didn’t think the players were happy when they got back in the dressing room,” Bilic said. “I turned on the CD player and said they should sing because they won.”

Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa was named man-of-the-match, such was Austria’s pressure after conceding an early opener.

“This was the worst possible start you can have in an opening match of a major tournament,” said Austria coach Josef Hickersberger. “We took some time to recover, during the first 30 minutes we were nervous. For the rest of the match we were playing the way we should have been playing.

“We even dominated in the second half of the match.

“We had good opportunities but unfortunately we weren’t able to score a goal so we are empty handed. In our remaining games we need four points to go through.

“We know that the Croats eliminated England in qualifying so we couldn’t start the way we finished the game.”

The co-hosts even had a penalty shout for handball turned down when the ball struck Dario Knezevic in the area.

“I saw it from the bench and didn’t have the best view of the penalty incident,” Hickersberger added. “The referee had to be 100% convinced and I hope it was a correct decision.”