Croatia Hatch Plan to Make Rooney See Red

If evidence were still needed about how Wayne Rooney's reputation, the good and the bad, now precedes him throughout Europe it was provided yesterday in the humble surroundings of Croatia's training camp in the dusty old village of Couco, 50 miles east of Lisbon.

"If we can provoke him in the right way, he'll definitely lash out," promised the goalkeeper Joey Didulica. "He's a fanatic and, trust me, when you play off emotion like that a red card is inevitable."

This could be dismissed as kidology were it not for the disclosure that Otto Baric, Croatia's curmudgeonly national coach who was 71 on Saturday, summoned his players to a special meeting last night during which the flaws in Rooney's temperament were dissected at even greater length than his strengths in front of goal. Ranked 25th in the world by Fifa, Croatia's team may be weaker than England's but not if Rooney is sent off. And Didulica was in no mood to offer apologies - or even the faintest hint of one - as he detailed the team's crude instructions.

"The manager has told us to prey on Rooney's weaknesses," said the Austria Vienna goalkeeper, whose upbringing in Australia has clearly taught him a thing or two about the art of sledging. "Our defenders are under orders to slide in and try to take him a few times. Then, just you see, we will get the reaction we want. No problems.

"As far as we are concerned, all is fair in love, war and football. You have to use every little tactic you can. It's not a dirty tactic - it's just a tactic that is there. He's young and he's shown he can't deal with it. So let's see what happens."

Sven-Goran Eriksson ought to be grateful that Pierluigi Collina, Italy's strong-minded referee, will be in charge, but the England coach may be concerned about the way Rooney responds in the face of such provocation.

Having already been booked for an ill-judged challenge on the Swiss goalkeeper Jörg Stiel in Coimbra last Thursday, Rooney will be suspended from the hoped-for quarter-final if he sees yellow again. Steve McClaren, Eriksson's assistant, indicated yesterday that Gary Neville and David Beckham would have the unofficial roles of Rooney's "minders" but they have enough to think about already and the 18-year-old may need to show a level of control that has been conspicuously lacking in the past.

"I think Rooney has been playing above himself but hopefully for this game he'll come back down to earth," continued Didulica. "He's definitely a good player and he's aggressive, but that is maybe to our advantage. He's young and impulsive, and hopefully for us something could pop in his head, like with his studs up to the Swiss goalkeeper.

"To me that was a red card. Even if he just caught him a little bit the intention was there and the studs were up. That just goes to show he's not quite there yet. After his booking he then had 10 minutes when he was charging around even more fired up and he made another tackle that could have brought him another booking. He's not like [Zinédine] Zidane - a player like him just wouldn't do that. He wouldn't be so fired up that he would be committing those tackles and risking a red card."

It may, of course, just be mind games but Baric, who intends to deploy the Juventus centre-half Igor Tudor as a defensive midfielder, has moulded a team with a cynical edge. Uefa has already fined them for having five players booked in their match against Switzerland and they picked up another four yellow cards against France. As well as having the tallest squad in the tournament, Croatia seem intent on being recognised as the dirtiest side in Portugal.

"Believe me, never fight a Croat," Giovanni Rosso, their right-sided midfielder, said. "All of our life we are fighting. That spirit is not just in football but every sport. We don't have any snow in Croatia but we even have the Olympic champion skier (Janica Kostelic]. It's in our genetics, in our make-up. God gave the Croatians our fighting spirit. England will be a very tough match but we will see who runs more, who fights more and we know that no one will show greater spirit than us."

Scottish fans have sent Dado Prso, Croatia's pony-tailed striker, a piece of turf torn up from Wembley when fans invaded the pitch after the 2-1 defeat of England in 1977. Prso, who is joining Rangers next season, has promised to place it behind David James's goal.