Rabat – Croatia captain Luka Modric said he felt deeply ashamed after his side suffered a historic 7-0 defeat against England in Rijeka on Saturday, marking the heaviest loss in the country’s football history.
Croatia’s previous heaviest result was a 6-0 loss to Spain in 2018.
However, Modric said that the manner of defeat was far worse and completely unacceptable.
The veteran midfielder pointed to a complete breakdown in effort and team spirit as the main reason.
“It is difficult to find an explanation for such a performance without duels, fouls, aggressiveness, togetherness… I’ve been here for 20 years, but for the first time I feel ashamed after a game,” he told Croatian newspaper Jutarnji.
The 41-year-old midfielder stressed that while losing to a stronger side is part of football, the nature of the defeat damaged the reputation Croatia had worked to establish.
“You can lose, or play against an opponent who is better,and they are right now. But in any case, losing like this and squandering the reputation we’ve built over the years is unacceptable,” he added.
“You can’t play football like that. You can’t play with two players less, you can’t play like this, and we looked like we had four or five players less. A catastrophic night.”
Croatia face another test on Tuesday when they host Spain in Split.
The reigning world champions enter the match with a perfect Nations League record after defeating Croatia 4-1 earlier in the week.
“We need to pull ourselves together, stay together because a new difficult game awaits us… we have to show our true colours, that there is defiance and pride in us, desire, willingness, togetherness, these things cannot be lost overnight.” Modric concluded.
