Self-styled bad boy Goran Ivanisevic fired a few verbal volleys after his convincing 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory over South African Grant Stafford - but tennis was furthest from his mind.

Instead the colourful Croatian seemed intent on disparaging, in his broken English, the England soccer team and talking up his beloved Croatia.

"So far so good but now comes our toughest match against Argentina," he said. "This is going to be very tight but hopefully we can top the group because then we would get to play England - and I'd like that, you know."

Why?

The 14th seed smiled. "Because they are playing so badly," he told the English journalists.

When asked how he would attack England if Croatia were to get to the second round, Ivanisevic said: "Attack England? I mean their defence, where it is at the moment, it is not tough to attack them.

"There's a lot of holes so we can sneak through with our attackers and if Boban plays it will help the Croatian midfield. I'm scared of this Argentinian match a little bit because we have to win. If we draw then they are first in the group and we have to play Romania, who are a better team than the others in their group. I don't think they suit our game. But I always believe that when it is one game, it's always 50/50. It doesn't matter who plays and anything is possible."

Ivanisevic admitted that he practised with the national side in Split and, when he was younger, was forced to choose between tennis and soccer. His tennis commitments have not impaired his enjoyment of the World Cup.

"I missed only one or two matches in this World Cup and I am looking forward to keeping that record."