There’s always one game every qualifying campaign where our beloved Vatreni shit the bed and Croatian message boards from Melbourne to Toronto implode. October 12th was that day for Euro 2024 qualifying.
During World Cup 2022 qualifying, the boards blew up after Croatia’s opening 1-0 loss to Slovenia. Euro 2020 qualifying saw Croatian keyboards fume after a 2-1 loss to Hungary and a 1-1 draw to Azerbaijan. It happens. It will continue to happen. It’s what we do best. But guess what? Outside of two tournaments since 1996, Croatia qualify every time. I’m here to tell you why the 1-0 loss to Turkey in Osijek is not a big deal.
- It’s Croatia’s 1st loss in qualifying after a near perfect campaign thus far. The Vatreni still control their destiny to finish top spot in group when only a top-2 spot is needed to qualify for Euro 2024. No need to panic quite yet. If Croatia lose again to Wales on Sunday, then we can start to raise the alarms. But we can cross that bridge at a later time.
2. Turkey is the 2nd best team in our group. We should have lost in Istanbul in March but Livaković saved us in the 1st half before Kovačić went off for two goals. Livaković balanced the books having a great performance in Turkey and a shit performance on home soil. We held serve with Turkey (the 2nd best team in our group) which is completely fine in the long run.
3. We would all be fine today if the game ended in a draw. If Livaković doesn’t come out of his net and the match ended 0-0 or Beljo bags his first goal for a 1-1 finish, everyone would be content today. An extra point would have been nice on the table but it won’t matter much as long as we get a result in Wales this Sunday.
4. Growing pains with B-squad. Pašalić, Musa, Brekalo all started together for the first time. Barišić was at left back. That’s quite a heavy lift for these guys chemistry-wise and accounts for the shit 1st half Croatia had both offensively and defensively against Turkey. In my opinion, Pašalić and Barišic should never start for us. Brekalo was recently inserted into the national side again with injuries to Perišic and Ivanušec. Who knows where these guys were mentally for this match?
5. Dalić wasn’t out-coached. Croatia was outplayed. Turkey came out with more energy and more pressing from the opening whistle. They were playing for all three points for all 90 minutes. To ti je to.
6. I wanted rest for our veterans in November. Now I want them to play. I originally wanted veterans like Modrić, Perišić, Kramarić not playing in November and gaining some rest with the possibility of locking up a Euro 2024 berth in October. Now I think the opposite. Modrić needs as much time on the field being benched in Madrid. Krama is coming off an injury. Perišić is a moot point as he’s done for the season. I’m fine locking things up in November vs. Latvia and Armenia.
7. Modrić not playing, Kova in a slump. The only part of the Croatian side versus Turkey that was regular was the core midfield of Modrić Kova, and Broz. Modrić is only playing 25% of the minutes he usually does at Real Madrid. Kova is in a slump returning from a month-long injury. These things happen during the course of the season and we will see how they react Sunday versus Wales.
8. Musa received no service. A lot of Croatians are shitting on Musa in his first start as #9 for the senior side. Let me tell you all this: He did not receive any service in the Turkey match. He is a prototypical #9 and is fantastic in the air for Benfica. It would have been nice seeing Perišić whip in crosses for Musa in Osijek. Patience everyone.
9. The Vatreni never have 2 bad back-to-back qualifying games. (knock on wood) A win versus Wales once again puts the Vatreni in the driver’s seat of Euro qualification. Even a draw is fine on Sunday in the grand scheme of things. Let’s see how Dalić and the boys rebound from the loss to Turkey. I simply do not see them coming out flat in the 1st half as they did against Turkey. Expect a bit more pop. Majer and Sosa start in lieu of Barišić and Pašalić.
………. Musa………. Beljo………
Kovacic…….Modric……..Majer
……………….Brozovic…………….
Sosa..Gvardiol..Sutalo..Juranovic
……………….Livakovic……………..
I’d try this.
Versus Wales I’d go with Livakovic, Juranovic, Sutalo, Gvardiol, Sosa, Modric, Broz, Kova, Majer, Beljo, Brekalo
Stop with the Rebic the guy is done dumb uneducated ungrateful player.
Well we were spoled last 5 years with great run. Its surreal at times we had the 2 generations and a big 10 12 year mediocre teams
I just hope we dont go back to the jozic otto baric cico days when we had good goalkeepers Defense but no playmaker and strikers.
The Roso Mornar Sokota Bjelica days hahaha
Jozić/Barić years were post-war years where the war stumped our teenage development.
We didn’t have good defenders then either.
Tudor was the only real talent, but he was Lovren caliber with the same “kiks” issues.
Šimunić was very mediocre and Robert Kovač was good…but no better than a player like Šutalo.
Dario Šimić was way past his prime, Tomas and Živković mediocre, and the rest were bad.
We won’t ever get back to that level.
We shouldn’t be playing 38 / 30 / 29 y.o. in our midfield at same time
It’s just silly – we need youthful energy
Why not Modric w/ Baturina and Sucic (or throw in a [20] holding mid)?
Frigan and Simic up front
So silly we’re wasting talent in U21
Arda Güler 18 y.o. already has 4 caps for Turkey (he’s injured – otherwise he’d already have 7 or 8 caps) – u don’t see Turkey wasting him in the U21
Since we already extracted Gvardiol from U21 – the best of the rest should be with Senior side
Arda Guler is an 18 year old Real Madrid property. Frigan is a Westerloo property. Enough said.
If our youth was nearly as good as we hype them up to be, they’d have provided us with some good results by now. I’m still waiting.
Gotta earn their stripes!
Gotta pay their dues!
Let’s be honest. We’re never actually going to play guys like Moro.
Time to call up some more U21 talent and integrate them now.
We pretty much lost a top seed opportunity.
Let’s give guys like Šimić, Beljo, Baturina and Sučić some burn with our vets like Modrić and Broz.
Rebić would have provided some power and pace on the LW against Turkey. I know he is banished and his club career is once again off the rails.
But that type of presence was missed.
Why does everyone here forget about Alen Boksic?! Pre knee injury he was world class and fired us into ‘98 World Cup.
We have not replaced Mandžukić and the next Perišić looks never to be found?!
Stipe Buik doing anything for Lafc?
Dalic dialed up the wrong started crew against turkey.
He needs to figure out who is your best starting 11.
He gets paid too?!
It’s one loss for a team that has had an immense amount of success in recent history. Yes, they could have done better….they also could have done much worse over the past 5 years (like many other nations). There is way too much negativity with our fan base. We are all fantastic “arm chair” experts and can pick apart the very best coaches in the world. Our expertise stems from our vast knowledge from watching HNL highlights and our accolades in Foot Manager and FIFA video games. Hrvati, the sky isn’t falling- chill. On that note, regarding Mr. Rebic, he’s govno now and rides the pine in Turkey (not dissimilar to his time in Italy). He would make zero impact on this current squad. Zero. Let’ stop pretending he would.
What I don’t understand – we literally have Olic and Mandzukic as coaches – can they not find one capable younger striker to play up front, mold them and get them to execute.
Musa movement last game was lacklustre in attack – he wasn’t making runs fwd – he wasn’t getting in between defenders opening space – he just let one of the Turkish CB track him at all times while he is strolling around – and that was the end of it
Imagine being Musa and thinking that performance was okay ? I mean coming off the pitch to Olic and saying that’s my best effort lol
Soul your rebic obsession is a bit perplexing to say the least ?
He scored one great goal against Argentina which was gifted to him,and nothing much more then that really.
You’re starting to remind me of that character on here who used to fawn over halilovic endlessly.
Let it go he’s done and he’s never coming back!
be careful of the fake news from the Dajjal supporters:
….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZFiZN7ceVw….
– some of you love to consume this –
that’s why you are growing unhealthy ‘
Dalic is too conservative i talked to alot of the people in croatia alot of them say yes we made it to finals 2018 Dalic lost that match because he was not smart. Vs Argentina i kniw pessi had to win that was a poor game played. The nation league final dalic was also bad at decision making. Im proud of the results but could do better who knows when we sill have the opportunity again.
Wales is a must win at all costs for me and we seriously need to fresh up the squad new bloood more risk again Modrić Kovačić cant play together for me id like to see a 4 4 2 vs wales we dont have wingers at moment so try Modrić broz majer brekalo as lm rm and beljo musa up top jura and sosa as backs and what happens but knowing dalic he will put in same lineup maybe just out majer or vlasic to start in place of pasalic
Who did u talk to in Croatia?
Hmm… am I right that among the ten teams that finish in 2nd place in their respective qualifying groups, one of them (the highest ranked) will be seeded in Pot 2, with the next six teams going to Pot 3 and and the last three going to Pot 4?
Just in case we don’t top our group…
Just to clarify I’m talking about our senior team in EURO 2024 qualifying (not the U21s).
That’s correct.
Pot 1: host nation (Germany) + the top 5 group winners
Pot 2: the remaining 5 group winners + best group runner up
Pot 3: the next 6 best group runners up
Pot 4: the remaining 3 runners up + the 3 playoff slots from Nations League
Thanks Maminjo! It’s all crystal clear now.
The key to the match against Wales will be our defence, if we can keep a clean sheet, it will almost guarantee our qualification. I would drop Sutalo and Stanisic and bring in Erlic and Juranovic.
Watched our U21 draw 2 – 2 away to Greece. Impressive perfomances by Baturina, Sucic and Simic. This team is loaded with talent in the midfield and up front with the likes of Vidovic, Ljubicic and Biuk.
However, in my lifetime of following our youth and senior teams I have never seen a worse defence including the goalkeeper who played a part in Greece equalizing in the 90th minute. Coach Skocic at half time replaced our two central defenders but it had very little impact we were still awful in defence. Had we been playing at top team we would have been thumped like England’s U21 9 – 1 demolition of Serbia.
Ouch. Good thing we’re pretty set on defense at the senior level for the next 10+ years.
Good to hear guys like Baturina, Sucic and Simic played well.
God forbid that our boys ever suffer a humiliating defeat like the Serbs did. But in our U21 qualifying group, Portugal does seem pretty menacing, netting 14 times in 3 games… maybe Skocic can call up Vuskovic? I dunno, would that help lol.
Not sure what is going on with Vuskovic at the moment ?
Is he injured ? because I don’t think that he is playing for Hajduk youth team. I reckon he could play for our U21 side and would be better than what we have at the moment in the middle of our defence.
Yeah I’ve no idea too what’s going on with Vuskovic. Save for the announcement he will join Spurs, his whereabouts has been something of a mystery since the summer..?♂️
MART, if you happen to read this comment… the Greece match after halftime, did Perkovic move into central defense with Bukvic taking over at leftback?
Yes Perkovic was moved from left fullback into CB position. The two stoppers replaced at half time were Katinic and Tikvic.
Bukvic also came on at half time and I think he did play as LB.
We need more offensive creativity from our midfielders. When Majer came on late with the others, we finally saw some push in the final third. Up until then, it was all it’s side to side passing like the last tournament.
This article brings a lot of good points, but still, the problem persists that we don’t have a killer striker, no Mandzukic. Even when we have Perisic sending crosses into the box, no one does anything with them.
A$AP Rocky Šimić has got us.
Don’t worry.
We have ever been completely happy with our strikers after the great Croatian soccer genesis of Suker, Stanic, and Vlaovic.
After that we were never quite satisfied with Prso, Olic, Klasnic, Kalinic, Mandzukic, and Kramaric. I left out De Silvia, the Brazilian striker that was well liked, but short lived, due to injury.
We do have a 20 year challenge to solve. Where is our Messi”ah”?
Stanić and Vlaović?
All of the strikers you mentioned are better than them.
1) Kovacic perhaps isn’t fully fit coming of a layoff but he needs to get his shit together. IF he plays well we win. He shows himself to be a world class dribbler and breaks lines with ease and then looks like an MLS player who passes sideways or backwards all game for extended periods of time. And his finishing looks like it belongs in a men’s beer league at times.
2) Majer will grown to be an all around player under Niko Kovac at Wolfsburg. Start him vs Wales.
3) If Petkovic is fit start him. Otherwise throw on Musa. Wales will want to make it physical. Musa can run for 60 and then throw on Belo for the last 30.
4) One of Modric,Brozo or Kova need to push forward and aim to score. Center mids are allowed to score. Shoot from distance, get in the box or do what it takes. They have all proven it in the past.
Kovacic couldn’t run yesterday. It seemed like he was always at half-sprint when chasing down a Turk.
He should have been subbed out at the half.
I agree that we need to start Majer on Sunday. Dude looks hungry and fully fit.
Since Petkovic is out, just start Beljo or Musa up top and play Majer right behind him in the #10 slot.
Hopefully Juranovic can start at RW or RB to provide some offensive support on that right side.
Majer was doing very well on that right side against Turkey, but it seemed like Stanisic was holding him back a bit since he’s not really capable of crossing it in.
Need a RW player (like Juranovic) to work with Majer on that right side.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but Majer looked almost early days Modric levels after coming on.
Wish he reminded you of Suker. Almost like he and Beljo were paid off. Clearly, he could have chipped the ball above the goalie’s leg, instead he goes way right to go around him, and the opportunity was gone. Suker would have made it look easy. Majer went to the Kovacic Striker school of technology.
He was amazing in his first season at Rennes.
His passing and creation stats were up there with Messi and Neymar in the French League.
He was the reason we topped our Nations League group with his game-winning goal on Denmark.
We were all high on him, and many of us wanted to see him starting for us instead of Kovacic.
Then he ended up having a mediocre season, lost his started spot on the National Team, and missed that PK in the Nations League Final.
Yesterday’s game reminded us of why Wolfsburg dropped 25 million on him, and if he has a bounceback season, then we’ll all forget this ever happened.
Imagine if Wales win?
We drop to third place, and the HNS fires Dalic right before the final round of qualifying (as per tradition).
But then we pull through and get the points needed to qualify, and go into the Euros with a new coach.
Tudor, Biscan, Bjelica, Prosinecki and Petkovic are all available. 😉
I know you’re joking but zero chance. Even if we lose out the next 3 games, we can backdoor Euro 2024 through a Nations League playoff path. I’m not worried.
To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if we shit the bed against Wales. We absolutely dominated them in the first game and they get that lucky goal to pull off the draw. I’m hoping they don’t have our number.
We looked really disjointed with all the changes to the lineup. Turkey’s pressing and long balls gave us a lot of trouble. There were so many bad performances, that it concerns me. Our key players are not in form, let alone the crazy amount of injuries we have. We looked really slow and lacked creativity aside from the odd combination that created a few half chances.
We will go through and qualify but it will mean a potentially shitty draw and much harder group stage.
An easy qualifying cycle and first place finish with pot 1 placement was in our grasp….only for injuries, bad form and awful play kill that dream yesterday.
Majer and Brekalo both looked lively. Petko played hurt but gave it a go. Musa was invisible. Baresic and Vlasic need to be cut loose for some fresh options (Baturina/Sucic/Pjaca and give Bradaric another go)
Agree
They better put on a better performance on Sunday and win that game. I can’t even wear the checkers down the street on a walk without being embarassed and ashamed. And for what? Because Stanisic has two left feet and defends like my baka? Sramota. I would have gone into the locker room at half time and beat up each of our players to knock some sense into them (yes, even little Luka). Just like my dad did with me when I played shit and his dad did to him in Velika Gorica when he played shit in the late 1950s. And you know what? I still played like shit and so did my dad and so did my grandfather. Make of it what you will but batina sometimes works. Just not in my family for some reason.
Remember in Euro 2016 qualifying
They tied Azerbaijan then lost 2-0 to Norway
So they have had two bad back to back games
Mike…you’re not wrong. Thought you would bring up the disaster that World Cup 2018 qualifying was where I had to publicly shame the entire team.
In a 4-game span Croatia:
Lost 1-0 to Iceland
Barely beat Kosovo 1-0
Lost 1-0 to Turkey
Drew Finland 1-1
The worst 4-game run in Croatian qualifying….
…the rest is history.
…and I think the game with Finland is when we “lost” the Pjaca of old too. It was indeed a bad 4 game stretch… Pjaca was going to be Perisic level in my opinion…
No. Pjaca blew his knee in an unnecessary friendly with Estonia. You got your neighboring countries mixed up.