Rangers defender Borna Barisic failed to shrug off his struggles for his club as he warmed up for the World Cup with Croatia.
The full-back has been Gio van Bronckhorst 's first-choice on the left side of the defence this season despite the summer arrival of Ridvan Yilmaz, but has been criticised by some sections of the Ibrox support during a disappointing opening to the season for the club. Barisic started the draw with St Mirren which led Rangers into the winter break nine points behind league leaders Celtic, before joining up with his international teammates to prepare for the tournament in Qatar.
Luka Modric and Co will open their Group F campaign against Morocco on Wednesday and squeezed in a final friendly fixture ahead of the tournament against Saudi Arabia, but they struggled to break down the Middle Eastern side. Substitute Andrej Kramarić netted the only goal in Riyadh in the final 10 minutes for a 1-0 win, but Barisic admitted the performance was not good enough.
Speaking to HRT after the final whistle, he said: "It wasn't easy, it's good that we won in the end. The conditions were difficult.
"It's good to prepare for Morocco and get used to it. However, we didn't look good, the conditions were difficult, but the most important thing is that we won."
Van Bronckhorst will have been hoping to see the Rangers star avoid injury with a lengthy injury list already facing the Ibrox boss. Tom Lawrence, Ianis Hagi, Connor Goldson, John Souttar and Kemar Roofe are on the long-term absentee list, while Fashion Sakala picked up a knock while on international duty with Zambia.
Barisic looked to have taken a knock during the 90 minutes, but saw out the whole game in the Saudi Arabian capital. He added: "There is no injury. The most important thing (from the game) is that no one was injured and that we won because of self-confidence."
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