Bonnie Mugabe
7 June 2008
Kigali — Rwanda's Amavubi team head coach Tucak Blanko is confident his motherland Croatia has what it takes to be crowned this year's European Cup Champions.
Blanko said on Thursday in a press conference that Croatia's brilliant coaches and their high level of discipline will enable them to clinch the European championship title.
"I don't see what can stop Croatia from winning the European Cup. It has organized players who have battled to be where they are today," Blanko said.
Blanko further added that Croatia has been a strong force in international football ever since, finishing third in the 1998 World Cup, led by Golden Boot winner Davor Suker.
"They have qualified for every World Cup that they have entered as an independent nation, thus favorite winners for this year's European Championship."
Croatia, who impressed throughout the qualifying stages, doing the double over England to proceed to this month's finals in Austria and Switzerland at the Three Lions' expense, kick-off their tournament against co-hosts Austria in Vienna today.
"The opening match is always vital but even if we don't get the result we want it's not a complete disaster provided we make amends in the other two group games," commented the ex-West Ham hard-man.
Croatia will go on to lock horns with Germany in Klagenfurt four days later, before concluding their Group B campaign against Poland at the same venue on June 16.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The New Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
