We want to beat Croatia, not draw

The Socceroos will go into Thursday’s crunch match against Croatia looking to win the game, rather than holding on for a draw, which would also safely see them through in the second phase of the competition.

The Socceroos will go into Thursday-s crunch match against Croatia looking to win the game, rather than holding on for a draw, which would also safely see them through in the second phase of the competition.

That was unanimous among the players after the game, with most agreeing they would be playing a dangerous game if they only went out to play for the draw.

“Now we want to go and beat Croatia; we-re not looking for a draw,” said Harry Kewell, who had several good chances after coming on as a second half substitute.

“We want to approach the next match the way we played Japan. We-re confident that we will be able to beat Croatia,” said Vinnie Grella. “We know we-re good enough.”

Outstanding defender Lucas Neill said the only way to approach the Croatia match was with a winning attitude. “We have to be, ask anyone its very hard to play for a draw,” he said.

“We-ll be looking to win the Croatia match,” said Scott Chipperfield.

“I think we-ll go into the Croatia game very confident of winning it,” said Brett Emerton, who did an excellent job of shadowing Ronaldinho yesterday.

Croatia must win to move past Australia on the table, after it could only draw 0-0 with the Japanese, who also could overtake Australia and Croatia, but must not only beat Brazil, but beat them handsomely.

Australia will virtually be at full strength, with the unfortunate Tony Popovic the only player that is likely to miss the match, after coming off in yesterday-s match with a reoccurrence of a calf injury that has plagued him in recent years. Popovic, who is of Croatian decent, was eagerly awaiting the clash.

Croatia though will be without key defender Robert Kovac, who received a second yellow card in the Japan game and now has a one-match suspension.