The Main Round match Croatia vs. Poland in Malmö today will decide what team is directly qualified for the Olympics Qualification tournament in group II. Poland have 4 points on their account and only need a draw to reach the third place in the group, Croatia (3:5 points) need to win, otherwise they rank fourth or even fifth –if they lose and Argentina win against Serbia. The third place means the direct qualification for the Olympics Qualification tournaments, the team ranked fourth have to win the placement match against the fourth ranked team of group I to book the ticket.

For the Croatian side the base is clear: “We have to beat Poland,” left back Blazenko Lackovic said. He is not satisfied with the Croatian performances up to now after missing the semi-finals. “We have to cope with this situation and we have to analyze the reasons after the World Championship,” Lackovic mentions the defeats against Denmark and Sweden and the draw against Serbia. In his opinion this was a matter of missing mental strengths: “We had some question marks in our head, and we don’t know why. A lot of things went wrong in our team – even as we showed that we have the same level as top nations. We had problems in attack, as we had not been patient enough and didn’t score as much easy goals than in championships before.  And we had problems concerning the cooperation of defense and goalkeepers. “

But in Lackovic’s opinion the Croats have a chance to beat Poland: “Look at the game against Argentina – this was the old Croatian style of playing, as we started full of self assurance and confidence. We need the same today against Poland. We just have to make sure that our hand brake is open.”