England “probably the best in Europe”, says Bilic

September 11th, 2008 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Here’s Croatia boss Slaven Bilic’s take on yesterday’s game:

“In the first half, we were looking good and we thought we could get a positive result,” Bilic said. “But, we were brutally punished in the second half.”

“We knew that Capello had two options, either Walcott or Beckham,” Bilic said. “It turned out that Walcott was the right choice as he was so exceptionally dangerous.

“England showed they are a mighty team, probably the best in Europe.”

That last one is going to grab some headlines (see above) but let’s not get carried away, eh?

Bilic has a very good reason to say England are suddenly a “mighty” team, and that’s because he just lost 4-1 at home.

We are not the best team in Europe. Not so long ago we weren’t even among the best 16 teams in Europe, so let’s keep our heads. Here’s what Capello had to say:

“People must remember, this was only the second game. It was a good performance, a good result, but it’s only one victory and nothing more. It is just a start.”

Good work Fabio. This man can manage both our team and our expectations. What we do suddenly look like is favourites to qualify from Group 6, which is quite a big deal when we talking about second spot and playoffs only recently.

But inaccurate and self-serving (and clever) as Bilic’s comments undoubtedly are, it’s still nice for England to start getting a little respect again.