Igor Stimac last night insisted he will not resign despite a poll in Croatia which showed 97% of their fans want rid of him.
The Croatians arrive in Glasgow today ahead of tomorrow's meaningless World Cup qualifier against Scotland at Hampden. Just 10,000 fans bothered to attend their game against Belgium - with half of those from the visiting country - as Croatia crashed to a 2-1 defeat which secured Belgian qualification for Brazil.
Coach Stimac is under serious pressure after what the Croatian public regard as a poor campaign, despite guaranteeing the play-off spot, and he was handed some serious abuse from his own fans on Friday night. He has accused his homeland media of campaigning to get him out and his mood was hardly helped by a poll which showed 97% of Croatian supporters think he should quit immediately. But Stimac has insisted he will not go.
He said: "If I resigned, our president, Davor Sukur, would leave too. There's no pressure on me. I took over the team when we were in a bad way. We have secured a play-off place with a few games to go. We now have two games to get to Brazil. Why would I resign?
"Against Belgium, we did not play poorly. We had 58% of possession, twice as many shots as them and were more attacking than them. The goals we lost were a consequence of bad mistakes. As for the shouts from the stands at me, I am not concerned at that."
Meanwhile, Croatia have moved three players from their squad to face Scotland into their under-21 team because they believe that game is more important. Mateo Kovacic, Sime Vrsaljko and Igor Bubnijk have been replaced by Ariana Ademi, the Dinamo Zagreb midfielder, and Hadjuk Split defender Mario Maloca.
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