Kovac: Croatia's attacking instinct led to our downfall
Croatian captain Niko Kovac admits his side's attacking philosophy was their downfall as they went out of Euro 2008 on penalties to Turkey. The Croats took the lead in their quarter-final tie with a goal from Ivan Klasnic just 70 seconds from the end of extra-time, but Turkey equalised through Semih Senturk and won the shoot-out 3-1.
And Kovac admitted his side should have been sensible and not gone for the second goal after watching Turkey advance to the semi-finals, where they will face Germany.
"We had it in our control and tried to make it 2-0," said Kovac.
"It would have been better just to kick it into the corner then compose ourselves. Then we could have made the substitution.
"But that is the character of our team, we always want to score goals and it's clear, the luckiest team always wins on penalties."
And Kovac was devastated by the defeat, which he felt was unjust.
He said: "It's difficult. When you have the ground taken from beneath your feet, it's difficult to imagine, you fall into a hole.
"I was thinking throughout the whole game that we had the best chances and these chances probably earned us more honour than the Turks did.
"But penalties is like Roulette, it's a question of nerves and they had a strong game"
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