It Is Not Nice Traveling To Catez Every Day

It is not nice to lose 40 minutes traveling, but it is most important to train on a good field, said Simic about training in Maksimir.

Dario Simic said that he does not know the players of Macedonia very well, except Sedloski and Pandev. He remembers the awkward moments against them in the Euro 2000 qualifications, but says that Croatia is the stronger team, and that they can continue their winning streak which they started against Italy in Livorno.

- I know Pandev the best, their best player. I can only say that in the last year or two he has developed into a top striker. He was in Inter, he was too young, now he is playing great in Lazia, we are talking about a player who will be a real threat to out defense. I do not know the other players much, except Sedloski. The only thing I remember is that they were responsible for us losing the Euro 2000, and that we had great problems in Zagreb and Skoplje, and that they are very unpleasant to play. However I think that we can get over that unpleasantness, that we are the better team at the moment, and that we will continue our winning spree.

It is not nice to lose 40 minutes on traveling

It is not exactly a good thing to have to travel from Catez to Maksimir every day, but they are happy with the shape that Maksimir is in.

- It is not very pleasant to lose 40 minutes on the way to training, but it is more important to train on a good field. We have excellent conditions in Maksimir, and we are happy when we can train on a field like this. The field in Catez is quite soft when it rains or snows, and it is not worth training on.

Israel was a good warning that every moment of the match has to be 100 percent, and that we should not make the same mistakes in defense again.

- It was a moment of weakness, a warning that we have to be 100 percent concentrated, that it does not happen multiple times, because if our attackers had not scored four goals, it would have been very awkward. I have to mention that the whole team plays defense and the whole team plays offense, and we should not divide them into defense and offense.

Macedonia will play like they did in England

Katanec announced a more offensive variant in Zagreb, with the aim to score an early goal, however Simic thinks they will play the game tactics like they did at Old Trafford.

- He certainly meant to say that they will play more offensively, not that they will play very offensively against us. I think Croatia is a strong team, and it is hard to open up against an opponent like that. He will most probably play like they did in England, where they managed a good result and played very well. In that game they had chances of their own, it was not as if they did not have any.

The last two matches of qualifications are the guest matches in Macedonia and England. Before those matches it would be nice to secure the Euro.

- It would be best to win both games, even though anything can happen. Even if it does not happen, we should not give up, we should keep going until the end. I hope that we will secure it before the last two rounds.