Former West Ham / Everton defender and current Croatia head coach Slaven Bilic has turned the heat up ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup Qualifier at Wembley Stadium after being quoted saying that England is lacking “Englishness”.

Via Guardian 

England, who have won seven qualifiers out of seven under their Italian coach, lead Croatia by four points with a game in hand and will guarantee their place in next summer’s World Cup finals if they beat Bilic’s side.

Croatia were deeply unimpressive in beating Belarus 1-0 in Zagreb on Saturday, but Bilic believes he knows England’s fatal flaw under Capello.

“They are a very different team,” the Croatia coach said. “They have some advantages but they are also missing something from their game. They are missing some Englishness, some of the things that have always made England teams difficult to defend against and play against.

“All I will say is that they are definitely missing something and we know what it is. But of course I am not going to tell you now what it is. It is our secret.”

Bilic also suggested that the 3-2 victory his side enjoyed on their last visit to Wembley, in November 2007 when they eliminated Steve McClaren’s side from Euro 2008, may play on England’s minds on Wednesday.

“The scar for them is there,” he said, “but unfortunately I can’t count on that. There is not a fear of Croatia. We did not beat them 10 times in a row but, having said that, we are the only team in the world to have done it twice. We did it one after the other and that’s important.”