Flashpoint: A steward holds a banana allegedly thrown at Mario Balotelli in Poznan

‘Everyone is welcome in our country. I don’t like these kind of supporters and nor do my players. I live in Croatia and we really are a tolerant country. We are not a racist country and we are angry at these few crazy supporters. We have to put sanctions to stop these kind of supporters forever.’

Bilic was speaking ahead of the Group C clash with Spain. Both countries have four points and a 2-2 draw would leave Italy’s result against the Republic of Ireland irrelevant. But Bilic dismissed Italian fears of a fix.

‘I don’t want to waste any more words on this,’ he said. ‘This is just a phenomenal match. The whole of Italy and Europe can calm down. They do not even need to think about this. This is a part of the brain we do not have. We will play in an honest way. To Italians I say “trust in us”.’

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