Croatia boss Slaven Bilic insists he wasn't criticising Fabio Capello's work with England earlier this week.

"With those words, I praised Capello and the English team," said the former West Ham defender.

"I didn't say anything negative. I didn't say that they'd lost Englishness.

"I said, in a positive way, that Mr Capello is one of the best managers in the world; they are more organised, more solid; they control games almost completely, and they don't leave opponents five yards of space. They are playing differently now.

"They should be better at a World Cup - if they qualify, of course. They will still have six months to train together and will be together for three or four weeks, so they will be better and better."