President Milanović after Croatia National Football Team’s Victory: Croatia can go all the way with this kind of game
“This is a great victory. Brazil somehow gave me the impression of the strongest team so far… everything was equal… If you are not ready for stress, don’t get out of bed! Croatia can go all the way with this kind of game. Brazil let us play and it played. It had a completely different approach from Japan, much better individual football players, and they didn’t dominate Croatia. They didn’t dominate at all. One day new lions will come, a new pack, but these are still alive,” President Milanović commented after the Croatia National Football Team’s victory over Brazil in the quarterfinal match of the World Cup.
President Milanović gave statements to the press ahead of the Croatia-Brazil match, which he watched in the “Hrvatski sokol” [Croatian Falcon] Sports Club in Antofagasta and rooted for the Croatia National Football Team together with the Croat expat community. Before the match, the President said he expected a fight, telling the players of the national team to be emotionally stable and not to be impressed. “Don’t let yourselves be impressed, you have the knowledge. Let the Brazilians sweat, and Croatia is never an outsider. To be among the top eight teams in the world is already great, but one shouldn’t be satisfied with that. One should fight to the last drop of blood. This is a team that is built of players who are incredibly experienced and still going strong,” said President Milanović.
President Milanović also commented on his official visit to the Republic of Chile: “One doesn’t come here every day and every year. I have been to Chile before. I was in the south, and the current President of Chile – a Croat – is from there, and the Speaker of the Congress Mirošević is also a Croat. They are doing well here.”
“This is a country where the Croats achieved incredible successes, they preserved their customs and their identity was not threatened – they are a very successful community. They learned that at home. Those who were among the first to leave came prepared to succeed with the basic tools they acquired at home, in Dalmatia. In Croatia and on Brač, the living standard is now better than here. The adventure and risk these people were ready for is unbelievable. They worked for themselves. The story about the Dalmatians, usually young men, who at first went alone to the end of the world, is an incredible story of the history of a small nation like ours. Yet, within the frame of our nation, they were a small group of islanders from one generation,” President Milanović said in Antofagasta today, after meeting with the Delegate of the President of the Republic of Chile in the Antofagasta Region.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta