Watch Croatia vs Wales live on Sky Sports Football from 1.30pm on Saturday; Kick-off is at 2pm
Friday 7 June 2019 18:59, UK
Croatia captain Luka Modric says Gareth Bale's problems at Real Madrid will not affect him while on international duty for Wales.
Bale comes up against his Real team-mate Modric in Osijek on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Football, having suffered a nightmare end to the season at the Bernabeu.
The Welshman was dropped from the starting eleven and boss Zinedine Zidane even refused to bring him off the bench in the final La Liga game when Real were losing 2-0 at home to Real Betis.
The Spanish giants are reportedly keen to get Bale off the wage bill this summer, but Modric doesn't believe that will cause the 29-year-old to under-perform for his country.
"It's very different to play for your club or in international football and there's no correlation in form between those two," the Croatia midfielder said.
"I know what playing for the Welsh national team means to Gareth, so I don't think his lack of minutes for Real Madrid will influence his performance.
"Gareth is an amazing player. We've already played together for ten years and he's a great team-mate. What he's achieved as a player and what he will achieve in the future is something extraordinary.
"I expect him in top shape. We have to stop him as well as we can, we have to limit the great talent he has."
World Cup finalists Croatia started their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign with a 2-1 home victory over Azerbaijan in March but were stunned by Hungary three days later, losing 2-1 in Budapest.
"After Hungary, we have no space for other bad results," Modric added. "We expect a very tough match against an opponent I think, along with Croatia, is the best in the group.
"Wales is a very good, organised team. Gareth is obviously their best player but they have a lot of good players, especially going forward."
