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Stanković and Croatia hit quarter-final target

Mato Stanković is not getting carried away despite guiding Croatia into the last eight, where they face Ukraine after knocking out disappointed 2010 semi-finalists the Czech Republic.

Mato Stanković gestures to his team from the sidelines
Mato Stanković gestures to his team from the sidelines ©Sportsfile

Mato Stanković, Croatia coach
It feels very good [to have qualified] but, at the moment, we have only hit the targets we and our fans expected us to. Yes, [I was worried when they levelled at 3-3] but I'm very proud that we showed a good attitude. Finally, after several years, this team has turned into one which can win that type of game.

I'm very grateful that in these weather conditions a lot of people came to the arena, it was an incredible number. We're very thankful for the support and I'm sure on Monday [against Ukraine in the quarter-finals] there will be more people here to support the Croatian futsal team. I'm very glad they're happy to be part of it.

Ivo Jukić, Croatia goalkeeper
We were handicapped because of the snow − there would have been 10,000 fans here if the weather wasn't so bad. I have to thank every one of the supporters who made it to the hall; they helped us in the end when we needed it. We've settled an old score with the Czech Republic and I hope we'll do the same with Ukraine.

Tomáš Neumann, Czech Republic coach
I would like to congratulate Croatia. The atmosphere was very, very good and the game was, too. We can't score − that's our problem. When it was 3-3 we had a chance, but we made mistakes and Croatia scored instead. We tried to play with the flying goalkeeper, and scored, but Croatia were very good defensively and we didn't have any more chances.

Lukaš Rešetar, Czech Republic forward
The second goal early in the second period gave Croatia the psychological advantage, so we needed to use the flying goalkeeper for most of the half. When you play like that there is a lot of risk involved and Croatia punished us a couple of times when we lost the ball. We hoped to reach the quarter-finals, so we can't be happy with two defeats.