How big was Croatia’s 1-0 win over Russia on Sunday? Much bigger than we could have ever imagined!
Look, I’m not saying Croatia couldn’t have gotten through the playoff round if they needed to, but this will be the toughest playoff path for European nations in the history of World Cup qualifying. 12 teams will battle for the last three UEFA berths. The days of the 2-legged ‘home and away’ matches against the same team are over. In short, four teams will each play a mini tournament in March to see who goes to Qatar in 2022. Lose and you go home. In each of the three groups of four, there will be two one-leg semifinals with the winners battling it out days later in the World Cup decider. Even if you are a seeded team, you may not have the right to host the final leg on home soil. It’s a really tough situation for all teams involved with no margin for error.
Croatia didn’t just qualify automatically on Sunday but they dodged a HUGE bullet in not having to play some of Europe’s best teams in the playoff. Instead, Luka Modrić and the boys get to relax, kick their feet up, and play some friendlies in March while Cristiano Ronaldo and reigning Euro champions Italy battle for a spot in the World Cup.
I mean, just look at the teams. Every single one of the 12 playoff teams just played in EURO 2020. Portugal, Sweden, Wales, Ukraine, Austria, Czech Republic all made it to the knockout rounds. Italy won the whole thing!
This playoff is going to be absolutely nuts. Expect some solid competition to fall out.
[…] prediction of the UEFA World Cup qualifying playoff route being an absolute shitstorm came to […]
Yes I have read the article in Sportske Novosti. It would explain why we have been so bad after the 2018 WC. Dalic had lost authority and was to reluctant to bring in younger players. According to the article there were issues with Vrsaljko, Rebic, Petkovic, Brekalo, Kramaric to name some.
Lovren almost sent packing at 2:30 am, at the Moscow airport when the aeroplane was running late for flight to Bratislava. He blamed poor organisation and suggested that they should have spent the night in Moscow. What saved him is that Gvardiol was injured and DCC was not fit to play two matches.
Must read for those that can read Croatian.
Alot of news out from croatian medis regarding euro 2021 and september and october qualifying games.
Lovren almost got kicked off team by dalic and hns president.
Vrsaljko is also hot water with Dalic and rebic we all know
Hns had plan b after euro Prosinecki had a secret meeting with hns but hey stuck out with Dalic beacuse modric gave him a second chance.
Lovren shouldn’t be starting no more, it should be DCC and Gvardiol.
Vrsaljko can’t even pass juranovic or stanisic in the team and he was terrible in the Euros.
If they had gone for Prosinecki, that would of been a disgrace. He coached Red Star, played there and has also coached Bosnia and Hercegovina.
The story goes lovren complained about tactics and traveling plans in september qualyfiers.
Vrsaljko was angry he didnt start vs scotland and because of that he didnt play v spain.
Kramaric almost got kicked off team after euros for interviews he gave that a grandma from a village knows his postion. But Dalic forgave him because they had a sit down before velika gospa 15.8
The malta and the Russia game showed both sides of our game at it’s best. The free flowing attacking football against malta and the absolute pride and determination against Russia. Epic. We can do it. Honestly the only thing that worries me is perisic he makes so many basic errors it disrupts our build up. I know he can come up with the goods when its clutch time but we need him to concentrate for 90 minutes all tourney. Isuze boze
I remember when I was the only one saying that Croatia should try win the UNL because they’ve never won anything, and that the UNL was a pretty good trophy to try and win. All you guys said it was meaningless (perhaps not wanting to get your hopes up being a little fish surrounded by sharks), and have a look at Maminjo now, whinging about “reputation,” “winning mentality,” and lastly “FIFA ranking,” lol, all lost in a meaningless competition.
Hahaha! Nice try Frenchie! With your little passive aggressive jabs. The time for talk is over.
We are in and we’ll be ready!
It’s time for this ‘little fish’ to go shark hunting.
See you in Qatar.
I hope for your sake your United Nations team of prima donnas doesn’t implode again like it did at the Euros.
Bog i Hrvati
If France’s national team was made up of only Frenchmen, they wouldn’t qualify for any major tournament.
I am gonna say –
stupid fucking Dalic will bring these 23 players
for the world cup 2022:
|Goalkeepers:
Ivucic
Livakovic
Grbic
|Defenders:
Vida (instead Uremovic)
Lovren (instead Pogracic)
Barisic
Juranovic
Caleta Car
Gvardiol
Stanisic
Sosa
|Midfielders:
Modric
Kovacic
Brozovic
Pasalic
Majer
Jakic
Vlasic
Brekalo
|Forwards:
Perisic
Kramaric
Livaja (instead Roko Simic)
Petkovic (instead Budimir)
and he is going for 4-1-2-3 formation:
……Perisic……Kramaric……Vlasic……
…………..Modric………Kovacic………….
……………………Brozovic………………….
Sosa…..Gvardiol….Lovren…..Jurnovic
……………………..Grbic……………………..
instead for the best lineup ever ->
……Perisic……Kramaric……Majer……
…………..Modric………Kovacic………….
…………………..Brozovic……………………
Sosa……..Gvdiol….Pogra……Jurnovic
…………………….Grbic………………………
or the best formation ever ->
………….Perisic………Kramaric…………
………….Modric……..Lov majer…………
B Sosa………..Brozovic……..Juranovic
…..Gvardiol….Pogracic….CaleCar…..
……………………..Grbic……………………..
Canada pumping Mexico 2-0 in second half
They are legit the cream of concacaf right now
Nothing like bringing the Mexicans to play in Edmonton in November. -10 there lol
Even better how the Canadian guys all have hockey mentality of stirring it up at the end – i loved it – but come on somebody throw a punch for God’s sake- nonetheless, happy to see Croatian -Canadians happy all the time now.
Germany better be careful all they will have is Slavic players and Africans one day
Croatia gonna stay as Croatian and white as all our pasty Canadian croat asses
African and mostly Turkish. Ozil, Ter-Stegen, Boateng, Rudgier, Gomez, Klose, Podolski, Sule, Trapp, Gundogan, Sane, Gnabry. Lots of German youth isn’t even ethically German. Ever since the 2014 World Cup. The team is less German year after year. Same goes to any western country; France, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland etc. Only teams that use they’re own is any former Yugoslavia team, Czech, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland & Hungary. Croatia will always be Croatian. Austria, Switzerland, Australia and other eastern nations are benefiting from our nation.
Who besides the euro teams have a legit shot at the cup
Brazil/Argentina standard I guess and really anyone else?
Canada pretty well ruling concacaf right now
Any African teams besides an upset or two
We have a legit top ten chance of taking it I feel
Would be funny if we drew Argentina again lol.
They aren’t a mentally strong team and the PTSD from last World Cup would probably make them complacent and lose again.
Algeria are on the longest unbeaten run in history. They are African champions and have also played friendlies against Colombia who they beat 3-0 and Mexico. They have top players playing in big leagues in almost every position. They have a great coach and great spirit in the team. African have not just caused upsets they have chocked at the quarter final stage despite out playing their opponents: cameroon were better than england 1990 and deserved to go through, ghana were the better side against Uruguay and deserved to go through to the semi. It’s been coming. This world cup will be held in Qatar which will give Algeria an added advantage (if they qualify) better hope we dont get them in our group.
So let me get this straight, we reach the finals of the World Cup, follow that with a knock out game at the Euros, then win our group for the next World Cup and we’re likely a pot 3 team? Holy shit, all because Dalic didn’t give a flying fuck about the Nations League?
You are spot on there, he was all over the shop with player selections and tactics, now we will most likely pay a price for it.
The “not giving a fuck about the Nations League” thing hurt us in more ways than one.
First…it destroyed our reputation.
I remember that first Nations League game against Spain and the Spanish press being nervous about Spain’s chances against a top notch Croatian team.
They gave so much respect and were worried whether Spain would be a competitive team again, and if they could cope with Croatia.
They were fucking ecstatic when they plowed us 6-1 and they were writing how Spanish football was back. The fans in Spain were going crazy in that game as if they won the World Cup. That’s how important it was to beat Croatia for them.
We didn’t even get to enjoy our standing in world football for long. We ended up getting slapped around by Spain, England and pretty much every single team we played. The sentiment went from being a top team in the world, to a good team who just happened to do well at that one tournament.
Secondly… The constant experimenting and losing destroyed our winning mentality and we carried that into the Euros.
Expectations were constantly lowered, and draws were on par with wins. Any team that outranked us was an automatic loss (Portugal, France, England). Any team that was below us in the rankings, but were still decent, still ended up drawing us (and these draws were sold as achievements). We were woefully unprepared for that tournament and our confidence was at an all time low. Again, sadly, the tournament was sold as being an achievement.
Lastly, it killed our FIFA ranking which hurt our seeding position in the next couple of tournaments.
Unless we get lucky with a bad seeded team (like Qatar), this hurts our World Cup chances and it also hurts our pot position for the Euro2024 draw as well. We probably won’t be seeded for that one like we were for these World Cup qualifications. We may end up in a qualification group with France, England or Portugal for that one. No more beatable teams like Russia and Wales to qualify for tournaments anymore. We’re gonna have to take down a contender just to qualify.
Who cares! We have always been better as underdogs anyway.
To be the best you have to beat the best.
Rankings are meaningless on the pitch.
Look what happened to Portugal and Italy having to go to the playoff…did their high rankings help them?
Russia the weakest seeded team. Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and Czech Republic have a chance if they can avoid Italy and Portugal in the first match of play offs.
I won’t be surprised if Portugal or Italy miss out. They could come up against each other in the final leg of play offs ? well I’m hoping.
For Croatia to be in Pot 2 for World Cup draw we need teams like Portugal, Italy not to make the WC. Also in South American qualifiers for Uruguay or Colombia to miss out. All of them are currently ranked above us on FIFA ranking table.
Big ask, but if two of the above mentioned countries miss out we are in with a chance of being in Pot 2 and easier draw for Qatar.
Index is reporting that Dalić is still crying
Oh God- I can see why after reading all the headlines- Lovren can’t sleep on a plane, Kramaric is slagging the coach to some old lady- looks like our prima donna players need to just focus on playing- Kramaric shouldn’t be saying a word till he figures out how to score from 2 feet out- Kramaric and Livakovic are trade bait – send them BH for a bag of apples and a box of Kleenex for Dalic
And this is the reason we have VAR.
I expect someone of seeded teams to be VAR’d through. We’ll see.
Hahah hilarious title ante
You still hitting the makers mark
Too stuff brother
More than half these teams got of out the group stages in the euros. Biggest threat in the unseeded pot is Ukraine and seeded Scotland. I’d like to see the euro champs and Portugal out to open the tournament for other teams. Besides, Germany & Netherlands are overrated and nowhere near what they were in the 2008-2014 era. France, England and Spain are all favourites. After that, you gotta include Denmark, Switzerland and Czech as dark horses. Grant you if Czech makes it. Is won’t be possible for Italy to play Portugal in a final in any of the tournaments. Fifa want more viewers and money and will find a way to ensure both qualify. Turkey, Russia & Wales are the weakest teams. Still shocked Wales was able to hold Belgium to a draw. Even Belgium, nothing impressed me about them. They 2014-2020 generation is finished. Wouldn’t even consider them favourites anymore.