Capello says England will play better away from home jeers

Fabio Capello confronts the first crucial challenge of his tenure as England manager against Croatia this evening insisting that his players will prefer the intimidating atmosphere of the Maksimir Stadium to being jeered by their own fans at Wembley.

Croatia have never lost a competitive game on their own turf, a staggering sequence stretching back some 35 matches, and the embarrassment inflicted upon Steve McClaren's side in Zagreb some 23 months ago is still fresh in the memory. Capello was at pains to stress that his team go into this evening's match confident and will play "with courage, not fear", though his claim that his squad are happier away from the raised expectations and heightened pressure of their own massed support at their nearly £800m home suggested otherwise.

"At the moment the players play better away from home," said Capello, whose team lost their first friendly away from Wembley under his management, against France in Paris. "They play with more confidence away. When we play at Wembley, sometimes the crowd whistle at the first mistake. Here it will be different. I hope that we will play with courage, not fear, and we play like a team. I'm sure, really, that England's players will play better than they do at home."

The Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, joked yesterday that visiting teams were "overwhelmed by the beauty" of the Maksimir, explaining why his side boast such a startling record at Dynamo Zagreb's rather dated ground. Capello put his squad through their paces there last night and perhaps offered a glimpse of his tactical game plan by employing a three-man midfield which included David Beckham.

The team flung together in training had Theo Walcott and Joe Cole working wide and nominally supporting Wayne Rooney as a lone striker, with Gareth Barry, flanked by Beckham and Frank Lampard, anchoring midfield. The Aston Villa player is expected to be handed the onerous task of nullifying Luka Modric, England's tormentor when Croatia won 3-2 at Wembley last November, with the Tottenham Hotspur playmaker one of a number of glittering talents within Bilic's line-up.

Yesterday the Croatia coach revisited his achievement in defeating McClaren's England side and, as he had stated in the wake of the 2-0 win in Zagreb in October 2006, reiterated that he might simply boast better players than those at Capello's disposal. Indeed, even without the injured Niko Kranjcar and Eduardo da Silva the 39-year-old is convinced his side are stronger than those that prevailed home and away in qualifying for the summer's European Championship, but that they now face some new challenges.

"This time, I admit, the pressure is on us. We are No5 in the world and we want to qualify for the World Cup. But we will not run away from that pressure. If you want to compete with the best then you have to cope with the pressure. We recognise that England have world-class players of their own, and we are full of respect for them. But, of course, we are very confident that we can win this game."

Bilic did however admit that his team had benefited from some good fortune both times they beat England. "In those couple of games we were lucky a little bit - the second goal here [an own-goal by Gary Neville] and the first goal there, at Wembley [a mistake by England's goalkeeper, Scott Carson]. Those situations were crucial but we were simply the much better team in those games."

Such is the confidence locally that one newspaper depicted the visitors' badge as comprising one lion and two kittens. Few were perturbed at the sight of Capello's team squeezing awkwardly beyond Andorra on Saturday, but the Italian - with Rio Ferdinand restored after a back injury - remains optimistic that his charges can rouse themselves in Zagreb.

"As a group, we are better day by day and I'm sure we will be OK," he said. "We will have to be disciplined because, if we don't have the right balance, they will be dangerous. They play fantastic counter-attacking football. We have to stay in good positions, that is very important. I have not studied videos of the defeats [under McClaren]. I always look forward, not back. I don't speak about games we lose, I speak always about the future. The future is tomorrow, the next game, always.

"It is the second game of the group. We have to play a lot of games. But of course this is an important game psychologically because England lost the last two matches against Croatia. I study opponents always and I think also that when we play them we have to impose our style. You have to respect opponents, but I am confident we can impose our style and do well."