Croatia wary of potential pitfalls

Slaven Bilić is "not expecting any favours" as Croatia look to maintain top spot in Group E after their upcoming qualifiers against Estonia and Andorra.

Competitive section
The coach, who turns 40 on Tuesday, has guided his side to the top of an extremely competitive section featuring Israel, Russia and England and was certainly hoping for positive results in Saturday's home game against Estonia and the trip to Andorra four days later, with the bottom two sides in Group E having picked up just three points between them so far.

No favours
"Everyone is counting on us to get six points and two victories and we will do everything we can to make this happen, but don't think we will underestimate them," Bilić said. "It's not just empty words when I say that we are preparing for Estonia just like we did for England. I expect a reallly tough match against Estonia. We are not expecting any favours - we have had none up to now."

Nasty surprise
The fact that Croatia, who are without the injured Parma FC striker Igor Budan, are such overwhelming favourites for both games is almost a concern for Bilić. "Football can be unpredictable," said the former defender. "Sometimes the wrong things happen even if you have done everything right. Still, we have such quality that anything other than a win would be a huge surprise."

Class act
Estonia will be looking for a second successive qualifying victory under their new coach Viggo Jensen as they travel to the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, but Croatia defender Josip Šimunić is determined that they will not get it. "Estonia play agressively but we have class on our side," he said. "If we play a smart, serious and careful game, there is no doubt that we will win."