Marcelo Brozović (above) is quickly making a name for himself in Europe. The 23 year-old Dinamo Zagreb midfielder, who is currently on loan at Italian club Inter Milan, had a phenomenal day at the office Tuesday in a 3-0 Coppa Italia win over Cagliari. In the 71st minute, Brozović would light up a right footed shot from 24 yards out, freezing the keeper, before hitting the side netting. But Broz wasn’t done. 10 minutes later, he would hit the right post with another hard shot only to have his rebound picked up by substitute Ivan Perišić for the goal and 3-0 win. Inter Milan are currently in first place in Italy with both their Croatian midfielders playing well. Brozović is scheduled to be sold for a good amount of money by Dinamo at the end of the season. But these performances continue to set the bar for Croatian players around Europe.
Brozović goal @ 0:38 and shot off the post @ 1:04
Halilovic scores twice in Copa del Rey
Sporting Gijon’s wunder-kind Alen Halilović scored twice Tuesday in a 3-3 Copa del Rey draw to Real Betis. In the 47th minute, Halilović utilized his patented cut from the right side to the middle of the field, firing a left-footed shot from 24 yards out. The ball took a funny skip and the keeper had a good look at it but it still ended up in the back of the net. This is Halilović’s signature move. And when he learns to master it as Arjen Robben has, Croatia will be in goof shape. Rakitić scored a bomb on Saturday and Brozović had one himself on Tuesday. One thing lacking from Croatia’s offense are shots from outside the box. So if this remains consistent leading up to Euro 2016; the Vatreni should be a confident bunch.
Halilović also added a penalty shot in the 72nd minute which shows respect from his teammates more than anything else for the 19 year-old. Real Betis would score twice late to win the tie on aggregate, 5-3.
Main thing is playing time if a player wants to get to the world cup.
I believe that Inter is the right team for Brozovic to develop his talents because his talents are no question developing at Inter.
@Armada87
Nenad Bjelica unluckily is no longer managing Spezia. He was fired a few weeks ago following a bad run that buried the team only a few points from relegation, while they were supposed to fight for a play off spot. Supporters protested against the boards decision as the croat was loved over there, but results did make a drastic decision necessary.
It is also true that Roma as of now are in a huge crisis (did not even manage to beat Bate Borisov at home in a must win CH.L. match).They are short of ideas and awful to watch. They should have fired the manager in the summer and I personally think he won’t last until the end of the season.
On the other hand Ivan Jurić’s Crotone are the big surprise this season in serie B. Playing attractive football and topping the table with a roster that was deemed to fight hard to avoid relegation.
Ante Budimir is leading the team with 9 goals and appears as a poor man’s Kalinić at the moment.
Will it last?
This time last year Carpi was predicted to eventually drop after january according to pundits, but we all know how it ended. Serie B is an extremely equilibrated tournament: usually between the last playoff spot and playout spot there are 10/12 points difference (after 42 matches). Three victories on a row and you are in heaven, 3 losses and it’s hell.
All in all an interesting watch!
I agree with you on Kovačić : he should have not moved to RM. But:
Mancini did not know how to make him fit into his system (whatever it might be as no one has still understood it here). He even played him as a right wing on a 4.4.2 …
Plus inter needed money and it was either him or Icardi on the way out.
Likewise for Brozović: if inter want to bolster the squad they need to sell somebody. At the moment Brozović looks like to be the only one that might generate an economic gain (even if as somebody pointed, Inter still has to pay the agreed final fee).
Despite their summer market transfer Inter are in need of money. They got almost all players on loan last summer (just like last january). It is in their business model to delay payments to be covered later following (hopefully) good results. So If they manage to get a champions league spot they will eventually acquire and keep those players , if not they still will be forced to get them for the agreements in place but will have to sell a few of them (like done with Podolski and Shaqiri) and get some other new ones on loan on a new cycle of delayed payments.
In this scenario keeping Brozović purely means that they foresee that he will be more valuable in the next summer transfer window.
20M for a non starter aren’t bad at all.
The fact he is scoring regularly draws more attention, but stats still saying that in last 4 serie A matches he played 164′.
– In general played 620′ minutes out of 11 Serie A matches
even if he always delivered good performances.
Not starter figurers, not a regular bench player either. Question is : could a move to PL imply less Playing Time for him?
Are Inter the right team for him to develop his talents?
Ask yourself what you would do if it was a Muslim carrying a rifle on his back?
Know all we need is grubby Muslim wearing a rag on his head to do the same. Ha ha ha
That’s funny. Great stuff by Daniel!
CSR reader from Ohio?
http://www.cleveland.com/akron/index.ssf/2015/12/man_carrying_gun_around_akron.html
who let the child on loan take the pk….things that bad at gijon??
srna to arsenal….why event post that stupid rumor Hector Bellerin??????
kudos to Spezia and all the Rijeka loaners on the team
if Rijeka brought all there loaners out back from Spezia/Lugano (Canadija, Kvrzic, Milos, Datkovic, Sluga) and played a full HNL season with Rijeka, I’d put money down that they would finish #1 and win a title finally.
But Fiorentina with Kalinic and Badelj 90 minutes on the pitch and Rebic playing the first half, eliminated by Carpi by 0-1.
Italian Cup: Spezia eliminates AS Roma in Roma
Five Hrvati on the pitch for Spezia and a Croatian coach!
http://www.flashscores.co.uk/match/MJGpyEiU/#lineups;1
He can’t go to a club where he’ll get buried on the bench or will have to be a sub for X amount of years until whatever other stars move on.
Kovacic comes to mind when thinking about that. Great on Mateo to move to RM, he deserved it and is getting spot minutes usually coming on for Modric. But when is he going to get regular time there? The kid should of stayed at Inter longer. They loved him there, he was a lock for a starting spot. He needs more first team football at this age, not to be a bench player.
Feel the same about Brozo; is moving to a Chelsea good for him at this point (aside for being good for his wallet)? He’s a regular starter at Inter. He has a fellow Hrvat there. Is he going to break into say a Chelsea midfield that already has Hazard, Willian, Matic, Oscar and Cesc Fabregas? In my opinion, no.
Now that was a real cracker from Brozović. He was played as a left wing, in fact he’s become the man of all trades for Roberto Mancini : Played in all midfield positions with good performances.
News saying that he is tickling some english clubs interest (Arsenal and Chelsea on top).
The price tag is rumored to be in the region of 20M.
no way Srna moves now – for what? he’s comfortable in Donetsk. Club legend. Gets paid a nice sum. Will keep the armband as long as he wants. Plays in Europe every year. I think the time has passed on him ever moving to Western Europe.
Replicating his form is one thing to shoot for, but wanting to “be like” Davor Suker is a travesty. Someone failed someone in the event someone wants to model their life after Suker.
To be fair it wouldn’t hurt to have someone replicate his on the field production, but he is a terrible human being.
No kid should ever dream about being the next Davor Suker. I doubt anyone wants to grow up dreaming about being hated by teammates and former teammates and walking g around with debts over his head.
So much talent in midfield, but, where are all the forwards? Don’t we have any Croatian kids who dream about being the next Davor Suker?
…er, I think I just answered my own question.
Please don’t tell me this is true. Only about 10 years too late.
http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/arsenal-turn-to-shakhtar-donetsk-captain-darijo-srna-4108594
now that we are getting goals from the outside what is zivas new betting racket gonna be?
too bad marcelo hit the post but great that perisic finished it… man we really need someone to organize that midfield… sure is a lot of guns in it right now