Kelić preaches Croatia belief

Croatia defender Renato Kelić said his team "will do everything we can to win," when the tournament debutants face Italy in their next UEFA European Under-19 Championship encounter.

With Spain and Portugal leading the way in Group B following respective opening day victories over Croatia and Italy, Wednesday's game in Mondeville is one Kelić knows he and his team-mates cannot afford to lose.  "Our morale is still high [despite Sunday's 2-1 defeat to Spain]," he told UEFA.com. "We didn't expect a lot from that match and we know we have two games to go."

Ivan Grnja's side arrived at their first U19 finals following a fine qualifying campaign, which saw them score 12 times and concede just twice along the way. Defensive rigour is something Croatia's captain feels his side will need against Italy. "There is nothing we don't know about Italy," he said. "We believe they will try to be more offensive than usual as they also need to win this game so we must be careful. We'll try to stay organised and not make mistakes while being patient and waiting for our chances to score."

The FC Slovan Liberec central defender – who scored twice in 18 Czech First League appearances last term – is enjoying his time in Basse-Normandie where he feels playing among Europe's best youth players is helping him to improve. "This is a great tournament; we have the eight best teams in our age group here and it's a special thing to be part of," he explained. "On Sunday we played Spain who have a lot of players playing in the Liga. If I can compete well against them I can play anywhere in Europe."

Admitting that leaving HNK Cibalia - the club in which he was formed – to play in the Czech Republic was a "difficult process," Kelić believed it "was a necessary and important step," on the road to emulating his heroes, Vedran Ćorluka of Tottenham Hotspur FC and former Italian international Paolo Maldini. "I wasn"t much more than 16 when I left Croatia and in the beginning it was quite hard," he said. "It was a tough choice for me but I understood that I was a professional and I wanted to improve so I felt I had to do it. Now I feel more comfortable and have no problems."

A commanding presence on the pitch, the 19-year-old is hoping to help his country to recover from their initial loss in order to achieve their pre-tournament goal: a place in next summer's FIFA U-20 World Cup. "Our main ambition is to be among the six best-placed teams here so that we can go to Colombia next year," he said. "Anything else will be a bonus."