The women’s A national team continues with the qualifications for the 2025 European Championship, which will be played in Switzerland. Croatia welcomes Northern Ireland at home on October 25 at 19:00 in Varaždin, while the return match follows on October 29 in Belfast.
The women’s football team coach, Nenad Gračan, is satisfied with the atmosphere ahead of the qualification match for the European Championship.
I can say the atmosphere is excellent. The girls did a great job of preparation, and we have passed some of the things that await us in this match, and we are ready to welcome Northern Ireland. It is a good national team that is ahead of us in terms of rating, but the most important thing in football is that we have self-confidence and motivation and we will see how it goes – Gračan said
As against Northern Ireland?
They are a very aggressive and fast team, they skip and play island football. It is important that we are disciplined in this regard and try to get into counters and half-counters as soon as possible. We have a lot of space there to do something with players of such a profile. The most important thing is for us to be calm and disciplined. We will try to press them in certain phases of the match, and the most important thing is to get back behind the ball and not allow them to be dominant with other balls, because that is where they can be dangerous. Our team is well composed and Maja Joščak has returned to us, and Bianca Galić has received papers and a passport – an Australian who will also get a chance. What is the essence of all this – responsibility, discipline, and then I hope for a positive result – Gračan said
Ivana Rudelić also admits that it will not be easy.
It will be a very tough game with strong duels. It may not be a good match in terms of attractions, but it will be very hard. To be honest, I don’t know them at all. I saw when they were playing, that they were strong. Solid in duels, but I don’t know their players. It will surely open. I think they will underestimate us, and we don’t underestimate anyone and we will give our best. That’s where we will find holes and score goals – claims Rudelić
Maja Joščak said:
These are those island countries that play extremely unmotivated football in the sense that they do not have combinatorics, but instead give long balls with some strength and will, but we have prepared well for them. We know their strengths and we will try to cancel them out and use our strengths and we hope for a positive result. I wouldn’t reveal the tactics, but we are a team that likes to keep the ball and we will see that we try to create some opportunities from our possession and win the game
Joščak continued on her return to the national team.
I’m feeling ok, it’s been two years since my last injury. I got into a good rhythm and I’m feeling ok. I keep to myself and I’m quite old, so I have to think about myself and my health, but now I’m in pretty good shape and we’ll see how it will be – Joščak said
In the case of victory over Northern Ireland in both matches, Croatia goes to Norway, one of the best teams. Are Norwegian women vulnerable enough for Croatia to attend their first European Championship?
Whoever does not dream should not be here. You have to believe because otherwise you’re doing what you’re doing in vain – Joščak claims
I don’t want to look so far. I’m watching the first two games and then we’ll see if they’re successful, then we turn to Norway. We’ve already played against them, but I’m not looking that far ahead – said Rudelić
The coach emphasizes that this phase of the competition is a great success for the women’s national team and that he will do his best.
When we look at the whole period since I took over the women’s team, the girls have done a lot. We reached the second group, were second in the Nations League, last year we played with Norway in the qualifiers. The most important thing is to be realistic on the ground as well. It is difficult to expect at this moment that we will go to the European Championship, but we need to play a quality match and do something positive – says Gračan
SOURCE: Croatian Football Association
