Simunic hails Croatia's upset of Spain
Published on: Friday, June 24, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Simunic Vjeran was one proud man in Kota Kinabalu after watching his beloved country Croatia beat one of the tournament favourites Spain 2-1 in the final group match of the European Championship in France, six thousand miles away alone from his home town Split on Tuesday."It was a brilliant performance from Croatia and I am very proud of the team," said the 63-year-old former Sabah Rhinos head coach, who has been made the technical director of football by Sabah Football Association last week."Mind you, we were without five of our first choice players for that match against a full-fledged Spanish squad.
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It showed that we have depth and almost all 23 players are capable to play in the first 11."He said the victory was very significant for the people of Croatia."We are a tiny country, much smaller than Sabah and with only four million people. We are a poor country and we are very proud of our football. We had a very difficult past with wars so the win was fantastic for the whole country and helped us to avoid another strong team Italy in the next round as well."
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He said the result was not unexpected as the country had always done quite well in terms of performance in big tournaments in the past."The result did not surprise me because our footballers always play as an unit and fight for our country.
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