Dalić: "No excuses, lessons to be learned"

At Hard Rock Stadium, Peru celebrated a 2:0 victory over Croatia, courtesy of Carrillo and Flores goals on 12 and 48 minutes. This was the first occasion for head coach Zlatko Dalić to experience a defeat on Croatia's bench, following the wins over Ukraine and Greece, and a draw in Piraeus.

"Congratulations to Peru for a deserved victory, they were more focused, more aggressive, and a more compact team, performing fantastically in front of their fantastic fans. It was difficult for Croatia, we have started both halves badly, only to take over control in later stages, but that was not enough. Lessons are to be learned. It is better to lose now than at the World Cup, and I have said to my play that we cannot defeat anyone unless we are fully concentrated. The players are in the middle of a tough club season, fighting for national and European titles, but they have to be at their best in each and every game", says Dalić.

There were no right solutions this evening in Miami.

"There are no excuses, this was not a good performance. We had to change something during the match, to speed up the left-right transition; we have tried with younger players, but this wasn't sufficient to win. Since we did not manage to score with an extra man, we did not deserve a better result. Besides, Peru was also asked some questions. They are a World Cup team who played even more aggressive after taking the lead. Croatia then had to attack and watch out for counterattacks, and it was difficult to come back, especially following a defensive mistake. We've lost too many balls, too often used back-passing, and the Peruvians were extremely quick to react", concluded Croatia head coach.

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