Benkovic expects Maddison to go all the way despite Euro struggles
Croatia Under-21s Filip Benkovic insists James Maddison is destined for the top despite the Leicester stars struggles at Euro 2019.Defender Benkovic believes his Foxes team-mate linked with a 60million move to Manchester United is the real deal.The Young Lions suffered an early exit after losing 2-1 to France before Fridays 4-2 loss to Romania, joining Croatia on an early flight home from Group C.Maddison has failed to have an impact in Italy but Benkovic has already seen enough of the 22-year-olds quality.He is a top talent and has a big future ahead of him, Benkovic told Press Association Sport, ahead of Croatia andEnglands dead rubber in San Marino on Monday.He has a big career in front of him.I was only with him a month but with good players you can see their quality within two or three training sessions.He is an unbelievable player, he had a great season and he made a difference in the Premier League.He played against the top teams in the world and he made a difference on the pitch, you can see his quality in every move.Benkovic made his senior Croatia debut earlier this month after an impressive season on loan at Celtic.The 21-year-old helped the Hoops to a historic third straight treble in Scotland.Overall Im very satisfied and I appreciate Celtic giving me a chance to play and in Europe as well, said Benkovic, who joined Leicester for 13million last summer.I was lucky as I played in Dinamo (Zagreb) where it was high pressure as well, you need to be first every year. That was OK for me, I was calm in the head having so much pressure at Celtic but I enjoyed every game.Croatias Under-21s have been unable to repeat the senior sides success of last year when they reached the World Cup final.Benkovic has struggled with a foot injury and was an unused substitute for Fridays 1-0 defeat to France but is expected to be fit for Mondays game.And he admits he is still using last years tournament in Russia as inspiration.I watched the final on television in Croatia and it was incredible, the atmosphere at home was unbelievable, he added. The whole country was proud and out on the streets, it was an unbelievable experience.Its special moments in your life something like that and it stays in your memory.It inspires you because you play for your country to make the fans happy and to make them proud.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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