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Bilic welcomes pressure of favourites tag

20/06/2008

Slaven Bilic has said Croatia deserve to be labelled favourites ahead of Friday night's quarter-final clash with Turkey.

The eastern European side topped their Euro 2008 qualification group - defeating England twice on the way - and progressed confidently to the knockout stages of the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Having beaten favourites Germany 2-1 in the group stage, Bilic's men are comfortable favourites to defeat Turkey on Friday evening, with the Group A side a surprise entrant in the last eight.

And the former West Ham player is confident that his side will reach the Euro 2008 semi-finals after emerging victorious against Turkey.

"Our quarter-final berth may be a surprise for some, but it isn't for us," he said.

"Our advantage is that we're not naive - we're a better team than Turkey."

Fatih Terim's side bounced back from an opening game defeat to grab a last-minute victory against Switzerland before achieving one of the outstanding performances of the tournament, having come back from 2-0 down to claim a 3-2 triumph over the Czech Republic in their final group game.

"The way they managed the comebacks in those games was impressive," Bilic admitted. "But, the way they trailed in those games also tells us something.

"Their strength is obviously somewhere in between. They got a little bit lucky not to concede goals when they went on an all out offensive."

"We will do everything to beat Turkey. We have the strength and the quality to do it."

He added: "Our original goal was to reach the quarter-finals, but now that's not enough."

Croatia v Turkey kicks off at 19:45 BST and is live on BBC1.