Bilic ready for close battle

Croatia in confident mood

Last updated: 8th September 2008

Bilic ready for close battle

Bilic: Ready for England

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Croatia coach Slaven Bilic fully expects the World Cup qualifier with England to be a close affair on Wednesday.

Bilic saw his side begin their qualifying campaign in fine style with a comfortable 3-0 home win over Kazakhstan - while England were anything but convincing in their 2-0 victory against Andorra.

England travel to Zagreb looking to overturn recent form, which saw Croatia claim a double over the Three Lions in qualifying for Euro 2008.

In 2006 England were undone 2-0 in Zagreb in a tight encounter and Bilic is expecting more of the same.

Strong

"Like every time when two strong opponents play, the game will be determined by small details," Bilic said on Sky Sports News.

"The game is 90 minutes long but that can be deceiving - one can have the initiative but when it comes to the result only a few short moments really matter.

"We intend to do something similar and we expect to see the English team in better shape, although their performance in Zagreb [in 2006] was quite good

"We are also in a good shape, even more so than in Zagreb [when we won] and at Wembley [when we won]."