ZAGREB, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Miroslav Blazevic is to quit as Croatia's soccer coach in the face of public criticism after the team's failure to qualify for next year's European championship finals.

'I can no longer stand the pressure,' Blazevic said on a television news programme late on Thursday.

Blazevic, who guided Croatia to third place at last year's World Cup finals in France, said he had often been harassed by journalists after Croatia drew 2-2 with arch-rivals Yugoslavia in their last Euro 2000 qualifier two weeks ago.

'At the end of the day, soccer is about fans, and fans are created by journalists,' he said, apologising to Croatian Soccer Association president Vlatko Markovic for making his decision public without telling him first.

Croatia finished third in the group behind Yugoslavia and Ireland. Victory over Yugoslavia would have put them top. In post-match analysis, most commentators agreed Blazevic was largely responsible for the failure.

He was blamed for bad psychological preparation of the players, who cracked under the responsibility of having to win the 'match of the century,' as he himself dubbed it.

Blazevic also failed to drill his defenders for dealing with Yugoslavia's most lethal weapons -- Lazio midfielder Sinisa Mihajlovic's free kicks, which in the end decided the match.

Blazevic said after the game he would not step down and that there was 'simply no one who could replace me.' However, two weeks later he seems to have changed his mind.

'I have worked too hard and given too much to be trampled on today. I will sincerely ask Markovic to relieve me of the duty,' Blazevic told Friday's Jutarnji List daily in an interview.

Blazevic, who had been coach since 1994, said last week he had been offered hefty contracts by several Arab countries to coach their teams but gave no indication he would accept any.