Josip Juranovic couldn’t wipe that smile off his face as he spoke to Gerry McCulloch from Celtic TV during the week after his return to Lennoxtown sporting a World Cup bronze medal around his neck.
“It’s here, close to my heart – what can I say about this medal? It was a special moment for me and a special moment for this club also, and a special moment for my kids,” the Celtic right-back stated. “I can say to my kids that I did something special, also with the club, but on the world stage I was third, and now I need to keep going like always, working hard and that’s it.”
Looking back on the World Cup experience Juranovic said: “Qatar was really hot, something different from here, but when you are playing against Messi, against Vinicius – so many good players, that experience is really high and now I put my standards really high and I need to prove that to everyone that I need to keep myself there.”
On his contrasting emotions after Croatia defeated Daizen Maeda’s Japan on penalties.
“To be honest I had two different feelings, I was really happy about my victory and going even further, but I was sad to see Daizen Meada, how he was crying and everything, but that’s football. One guy is leaving with a smile the other guy is leaving in tears.
“But, again, everybody from the Celtic players at the World Cup represented Celtic really high and that’s really good to see,” Josip said.
On his man-of-the-match performance against World Cup favourites Brazil in the quarter-finals. “You know, we didn’t have the pressure that we needed to win, they had it.
“We were playing for our country – a small country but one with a huge heart, and I think that we showed to everybody that even small countries can beat the favourites for the World Cup.
“And that’s the beauty of football.”
Juranovic notes that Croatia have a semi-final in the Nations League to look forward to and states that this group want to win something for their country.
On being back at Celtic and looking forward to Monday’s big Glasgow Derby at Ibrox: “That’s good because now we can say that everybody who is here can earn his place in the team and even if somebody is injured or at the World Cup, we are keeping to winning and that’s the most important for this football club.
“In the training session I was seeing that the boys are hungry for more, and that they are waiting for Monday – also me. After tomorrow we will start to analyse their games and everything and we will be 100 per cent prepared for that game.”
Watch Josip Juranovic’s interview with Celtic TV below, there’s nothing here on his Celtic future amid on-going transfer speculation.
