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Bilic: England too confident

Bilic: England too confident


Bilic: England too confident

Croatia boss Slaven Bilic feels that England have been over-confident and cocky and underestimated the quality of their opponents; Russia and Croatia. England look set to miss out on their first tournament since 1994 if Israel fail to beat Russia.

However, Croatia's boss Slaven Bilic feels that England underestimated the other teams in their group.

"It is not easy to come to Croatia and to get something from a game," he said. "It is not easy to play in Russia. It is not easy to play Macedonia.

"And it's very difficult to play in Tel Aviv. So maybe you were expecting you were to cruise the group, but it's a very difficult group."

But Bilic had some words of support for under-fire McClaren, whose future as England coach will surely hinge on his team's qualification or not.

"As a club manager you need a couple of years to make or build a team," Bilic said.

"In a national team you need three or four years because you do not have them every day. You have them once a month for five days.

"It's not Steve McClaren's fault and I really feel for him and hope he is going to continue."