Croatia have good players too, says victorious Bilic

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic said his team fully deserved their 3-2 victory over England on Wednesday and issued a curt reminder, as if it was needed, that the country that invented the game no longer ruled it.
"I read in your papers that no Croatian would start in the England team - that's ridiculous, wake up," Bilic told a news conference an hour after the Wembley result that ended the hosts' Euro 2008 hopes.
"There is no non-Englishman who loves your guys more than I do but there are good players in small countries as well.
"Nothing is wrong with English football but you have to realise that this was by far the most difficult group, no other group had such quality in the fourth and fifth teams as Israel and Macedonia."
Despite not needing to win, Bilic's already-qualified team showed admirable commitment to attack and were rewarded by goals for Niko Kranjcar and Ivica Olic in the first 14 minutes.
Then, when England had fought back to 2-2 midway through the second half, a scoreline that would have sent both teams through, the visitors still threw men forward in a series of assaults that led to substitute Mladen Petric driving in the winner in the 77th minute.
"It was a great match which we fully deserved to win," Bilic said. "It came too easy to be two goals up but we were still the better team in the first half.
"We showed great individual quality, great team play and great character. It's hard to win here anyway but especially after they equalised.
"We would have been happy with a draw but your can't play for it. We tried to be as offensive as we could and to finish our attacks with five or six players. We can do that because we have players with great skill but also good lungs who can run all day."
Bilic, who spent several years in the Premiership and is well aware of how the English media operate, said it would be wrong to vilify goalkeeper Scott Carson, whose blunder eight minutes into his first competitive international put England on the back foot.
"There is no scapegoat, we were the better team tonight and that's it," he said.
"It happened with (Paul) Robinson in Zagreb. OK you can blame him for the second goal but he was by far the best Englishman on the pitch - so Carson was tonight."