Croatia’s match against Kosovo was halted on Saturday due to an unplayable pitch at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia thanks to torrential rain.
As conditions improved, the match was picked up the following day, with Croatia winning 1-0. But according to Croatian star Luka Modric, that’s not the whole story.
The Real Madrid midfielder says the team did not learn of the rescheduled match until the following morning, giving the team no chance to ready their bodies to play again the next day.
“Last night we got information the match will not be played,” Modric told reporters after the match. “Of course, you go to bed a little later and then in the morning, they woke us all up like they would in the army! Of course, we didn’t have good preparation for the match.”
That’s not all. Not only was the decision made late, but now Croatia has just one day of rest until their away match in Turkey on Tuesday. Modric is livid that accomodations were not made to move that match back a day and keep from forcing Croatian players to essentially warm up for three matches in four days time.
“FIFA showed they don’t care about the players,” Modric said. “The only thing that mattered to them was the match to be played. On Saturday, it was hard to play at that pitch but no one seemed to care. If they did care, they would have postponed the Turkey-Croatia game to Wednesday.”
