After his team finished second in Group F with a 0-0 draw against Belgiu, captain Luka Modric declared on Thursday that Croatia will enter the World Cup knockout stages with no fear since they can make life difficult for any opponent.

The runners-up from the 2018 World Cup, who might play Spain, Japan, Germany, or Costa Rica in the next round, performed enough to thwart a talented Belgian onslaught and send their European rivals home early.

“I think we deserved to win. Today we had a really difficult match,” Modric told reporters.

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“It’s very important that we are in the round of 16.

” I don’t have any preferences for the next round.

“Whoever our opponent, is we will give our best.

“We will fight, we will try to spare no effort whether it’s Spain, Costa Rica, Japan, or Germany.

“All will be difficult but they will also have a difficult time against Croatia.”

Zlatko Dalic, the coach of Croatia, acknowledged that his team had luck on their side against Belgium but expressed satisfaction with the way his team dominated for long stretches.

“We were great, especially in the first half hour or so.

“We had many chances, but it’s to be expected that Belgium would also have chances and we were lucky they didn’t take any of them,” he said.

Spain, who led Group E after two games, awaits in what could be a tantalizing matchup.

“We will see. Spain has a match to play,” Dalic said.

“They are the favourites (in their group). It’s a great team with a great coach and great young players.

“We lost to them at the last European Championship.

“We will prepare for them, but the most important thing is to get some rest.

“It doesn’t matter which team we face, if we play at this level we fear no one.

Dalic said his team had tried their best to beat Belgium.

“We wanted to win. We knew the result of Canada and Morocco,” he added.

“We made no calculations about our match but Belgium is a top-notch team.

“We didn’t want just one point, we wanted to win.”