Bilic Backs Mcclaren to Remain at the Helm

The Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, believes England counterpart Steve McClaren deserves to keep his job regardless of the outcome of Wednesday night's Group E qualifier at Wembley. While a draw against Croatia would be sufficient for England to join the group leaders at next summer's Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland, failure would almost certainly see them fall short, and result in fresh calls for McClaren's dismissal.

Bilic, however, argued that McClaren should be given the chance to continue at the helm, insisting Group E represents the toughest of the qualification groups and that England's faltering campaign was caused largely by injuries to key players.

"I think he should [continue]," said Bilic. "He is definitely a good manager. What makes me think that is the squad, the players are really behind him, they love him. I said ages ago that this is by far the hardest group, and McClaren has done a good job.

"I feel sorry for him because despite having strong players he has had an enormous lack of luck every game missing four or five big players. (Wayne) Rooney, (John) Terry, (Michael) Owen, (Rio) Ferdinand all out, I feel very sorry for him. I'm watching all the games and I think England and Croatia and Russia deserve to be there. No other groups have such strong fourth and fifth teams as Macedonia and Israel."

Bilic also suggested international coaches should be given more time than their club counterparts as a matter of course, given their limited access to the players.

"In modern football, especially with big teams like England, you don't have the time," he continued. "If at a big club you need a year or two years in charge, as an international manager you need even longer because you get the players only five six times a year." Although the pressure is off Croatia, Bilic insists his team will do their utmost to end their campaign with a high-profile win.

"Very few teams can get out of Wembley with three points. It would be one of the biggest results in our football history. If we beat England people would talk about it as the best game in 20 years. England are definitely favorites now but we have to be confident and try to give them a good game."