Well, that didn’t last long. After two matches at the U21Euro 2023 tournament, the mladi Vatreni have already been eliminated. After a disappointing 2-0 loss to Ukraine where Croatia dominated shots and possession, the Croatian young guns lost 1-0 to Spain this Saturday. Spain scored within 60 seconds of the opening whistle and that would be that. Croatia have yet to score a single goal in two matches with tons of potential senior-team firepower in Beljo, Frigan, Baturina, Šimić, and Vidović on this current squad. Sučić and Gvardiol were also available to play with the U21s but both have already graduated to the senior squad. I suppose Sučić could have played but he’s coming off knee surgery.
It will be disappointing tournament as Croatia should have gone through with Spain to the quarterfinals but the status quo will remain as the U21s have only made it out of group stage once (2021) in their history and still have not qualified for the Olympic summer games in soccer.
As long as one striker in Beljo, Frigan, Šimić, or Vidović pan out in the next 2-3 years and Baturina stays on the same trajectory with Dinamo, the Croatian senior side will be in good hands.
Lets go boys were going after Euro 2024 Kakarot has his checkered gi ready to fight!
For those criticizing Dalic for not playing Beljo vs. Netherlands / Spain
He played almost 200 minutes – and produced nothing in 3 games
@ Maminjo
As Croatians we are the latest bloomers I have seen in world football.
Great point.
I guess I’d give up on u21 success when you have a superstar playing at 38 at the absolute highest level in the form of one Luka “the legend” Modrić.
Aka Živa “the bust” Istina!!
I remember those threads .. back in the day.
Stay thirsty my friend.
Watched the game vs Spain. Spain completely dominated. The Canadian playing right back for Croatia was terrible along and the left back as well.
Baturina was very good, particularly in the second half. Frigan has a lot of hustle…there is definitely potential with him.
The rest were smeće.
Yeah the backline sucked, but to be fair…our U21 backline is now our Senior NT backline (so it left our U21 team using a couple of midfielders as backline players).
@Maminjo
We also cannot forget that we are missing two key centrebacks in both Smolcic and Vuskovic with one getting his knee done and one getting suspended in football overall
So unless I’m living under a rock I see luka signed with Madrid
Surely it’s his last year
Anything for euro???
I imagine he will retire from both after this year?
Not that he has to but I think he gives it all for one final year and retires as a legend on top of his game
Also how much of the struggles with youth squads can be chalked up to the Croats maturing late thing??
Croats do tend to mature in their mid-20s, that’s for sure.
But I think the issues is our depth, being a small country with a smaller talent pool which makes it very difficult to spread it across two National teams (both the U21 and Senior team at the same time).
The great thing about us is that despite having a smaller talent pool of players, our high end talent is on par with the top-10 nations in the World.
For this current U21 generation of backline players, we have Gvardiol, Sutalo, Stanisic…then a pretty big dropoff.
Absolutely great trio of talent right there that any National Team would love to have in their ranks…but then our junior team suffers because we won’t have replacements until the U19 players get a little better (like Vuskovic, Katinic, Đolonga, etc.)
Same thing as our U21 central midfield.
We had a good trio of Baturina, Kacavenda, and Sucic…but then two of them blew their knees.
Then the next set of uber talented guys (like Zvonarek and Brkljača) are still a bit too young to throw into the U21 Euros.
When you compare us to our opponent (Spain), you could see that Baturina is better than any midfielder on either team. If Gvardiol played, he would easily tear everyone apart too and would be head and shoulders above of everyone out there in terms of talent.
But Spain has a larger talent pool, and even though they don’t have a Gvardiol-caliber defender, they will have like 5 or 6 Stanisic level ones…so if any of their youth is promoted to the senior team, they will have the depth to cover it for their U21 team.
Luka Modrić at Real Madrid for 12 years!!
His longevity at the highest level spans almost three generations of national team players.
Hopefully he can play “regular” minutes for Ancelotti.
Real Modrić needs to be retired.
Let Luka enjoy his last year at Real Madrid and fine tune his body for an historic Euro run in Germany.
Actually, l hope isn’t played as a workhorse. Ideally Luka plays 60-70 minutes a game with the occasional load management day off so he is fresh and ready for Euros next year.
I used to give a pass to our youth team performances or lack there of because of our war and simple lack of depth of talent.
Now I am realizing that a competitive youth set up needs a legit HNS.
To be organized at youth level takes a surprisingly high level of leadership.
Rakitic choosing HNS has to been one of the most underrated moves in our historic run of 2018. His choice as a teenager to honor his heart and compete with Croatia was a game changer.
Could you imagine Pulisic on the wing for us these past 5 years?!
Germany is in shambles and nogometaši choosing Croatia has been thorn in their side.
I wonder if a Ibrahimović type coming up and seeing the success of Croatia would choose a Sweden over us ever again?
Stanisic is a legit starter on most national teams and should be worked in with us as one this Fall.
Sučić is the goods and hopefully comes back from his knee injury even stronger.
Dijaspora has to always compliment our homegrown squad because they grow up in places that have infrastructure like Germany – Switzerland – Austria etc..
Gvardiol to become the highest nogometaš transfer ever ?
I don’t know any other Canadian Croats that have chosen Croatia
Niko Sigur born where I am and am sure a couple others here
Burnaby, British Columbia
I hope this kid makes it big
But yes we need to be bringing our boys back home
They are out there
Can’t stop genetics and as we know we can’t stop the pull Croatia has on its blood
We continue are flops with the kids but let’s keep going with the seniors
We never had a chance of coming in the top 3, not with the squad that was available to Skocic. Due to injuries, suspensions and unavailability we were missing half a dozen key players. The missing players were the main reason why we qualified in the first place. The players that replaced them are just not good enough and majority of the starting 11 had very little match play at their respective clubs and were totally out of form.
I heard Skocic say that 14 of the 23 players at this U21 EURO can also participate at the next U21 Euro. I hope for the last match against Romania he gives a chance to Simic and Vidovic from the opening whistle.
I read somewhere we have only won once in 15 matches at the U21 Euro finals. Let’s beat Romania on Tuesday and improve on that dismal record. Also looking for Beljo or Frigan to break his/our duck in this tourney.