Luka Modric picked up his third man-of-the-match award at the World Cup during Russia-Croatia but played down talk of a Ballon d’Or tilt.
Modric’s playmaking inspired Croatia to a penalties victory over Russia and consequently a World Cup semi-final with England, but the Real Madrid midfielder made it clear he was only thinking about his country’s fortunes.
“I’m not worried about this, we’ll see what happens. For me the most important thing is the success of Croatia,” he said after the game.
“We’ve shown great character from penalties again and we’in the semi-finals 20 years later.
“Right now it’s difficult to talk about surprise packagaes. I’m tired but happy for the victory, nothing more.
“My penalty? The fact it went in is what’s important. We want to keep writing history. Out of 10, I’m 11!
“We don’t want to stop here, we’re feeling very confident and we want to go one step further so we can be in the Final.
“England will be a tough team to face, like the others in this World Cup. We have to prepare well.
“Now we have to go through to the next round, where we’ll face England, and we’re confident. We think this team can achieve even more.”
