Marcelo Brozović has definitely not enjoyed great performances at the 2024 European Championship against Spain and Albania. His role as the central defensive midfielder in Croatia’s iconic, and six-year long, 4-3-3 formation seems to have come to an end and fans of the Vatreni are calling for a change of identity on the pitch. An attacking midfielder, of which Croatia have seven, is required to break through defensive lines and add punch to this lacklustre Croatian offence. 21 year old Luka Sučić impressed against the Albanians and has received many shouts to start in the “win-or-go-home” match Monday June 24th against the Italians.
Dalić addressed Brozović’s performance in the post-Albania press conference and had this to say about the 31 year old:
“Marcelo is a giant of Croatian football, always gives his maximum. Now we don’t function as a team, so he is not at his best. We’ve never lost so many easy balls in the midfield. It’s not just about Broz. We can’t focus on one individual.”
Of course, Dalić would never speak poorly or single out one player despite their weak performances. However, he seems to be alluding to the poor Albanian performance as being a “team” problem rather than a tactical one.
Dalić also spoke on the subject of the Saudi Pro League:
“The Saudi league is what it is, Broz had a good season there, but it’s proof that the league isn’t meaningless. Kante returned to the French national team, and was the player of the match. It’s a consequence of the entire team’s performance.”
Dalić seems to think that since Kante played well, Brozović can find form too. Who’s going to tell him that there is absolutely no correlation between the two players here?
My worry is that Dalić is deflecting his poor tactical choices and switching the narrative to this being a poor team performance, when in truth that is not the case. The lineup Dalić rolled out with was simply not good enough. Midfielders occupying the winger roles and no offensive/youthful spark in the midfield was a huge mistake.
Croatiansports’ odds Brozović starts against Italy: 51% (based on these recent comments)
Do you think Dalić is just defending Broz in front of the media, or does he truly intend to start him once again?
What’s the logic in starting Erlic ?
Sassuolo got regulated and in 75 goals last year
vs. Pong’s Lecce only 54
But in either case does Dalic not realize Italy will have a detailed scouting report on each of them (including specifically what their weaknesses are) and be able to exploit like no tomorrow
It’s like leading sheep to the slaughter
Illogical
Keep it the same.
Budimir and Krama up top.
Gvardiol at Lb, Erlic, Pograncic cbs, Stanisic at Rb.
Croatia will beat Italy.
Bog i Hrvati
To all those who keep posting pure negativity on this site, take a look at how football is being played these days. France versus Netherlands: are they really that great? Neither team is creating many good chances or finishing the good chances they do create. There is a lot of hacking the other team’s players and a lot of diving. This is poor quality football. Italy? Absolutely terrible football. So yes, I am negative too, but about the way the game is these days, not about Croatia. Croatia is one of the better teams for actual football. Spain is probably the very best team. I hope, for the sake of the game, that Croatia beat Italy and advance.
Even though the Dutch got screwed, they can still get first in their group if they beat Austria by the same margin as the French beat Poland. If they do get first, the top half of the playoff round would have Spain, Germany, France and Portugal. Only England would be in the bottom half among the favourites. Croatia would be in the bottom section if they get second place. There is a scenario where Portugal play Italy, then the winner gets France, and then the winner of that play the Spain-Germany QF winner. What a tough road.
The Dutch scored and it went straight to VAR for France. Wow…the player in question for offside did not even touch the ball.
Are you surprised? The French team gets evey call their way I’m so sick of the North African French team
Are you surprised? North African French team gets every call their way
Netherlands just took the lead against France.
If they top the group, this means our path to the Finals just got easier (with Netherlands replacing France as our semifinal opponent!)
Let’s make this Croatia vs France finals rematch happen!!!!!!!
Nope, goal taken back. Yet another example of corrupt UEFA/FIFA to benefit France. If that was the other way, France goal would have stood, 100%. And Croatia ain’t making it anywhere near the finals anyway. They will be hard pressed to beat a bunkering Italy.
Nah. We’ll be in the quarters.
Getting by England will be tough, but it’ll be a close game either way.
I’d rather play the Dutch in the semis though.
Man i dunno where you guys get your confidence in our team after our results so far lol
Watching France NED. Is antoine griezmann the diversity hire of this French team?! Los bleus more like Le Crnci
I dont have a problem with losing its the way you lose that bugs me.
Euro 2012 example we fell out but we played great because ref screwd us.
Im Cro original from 2002 to 2018 use to failure.
One good thing is even those bad cro teams we were always in the race in that third game we never had a third game where the game was irelavent
Idemo dalje
This is looking like the first time since 2014 we fail to get out of a group
It’s these friggin new shirts from Nike that’s tripping us up. Not only are they ugly, their puffiness around the collars or whatever is allowing the opposition to freely pull us down and hold us back! We need skin tight shirts so that we can’t be grabbed by teams like Spain. And Italy are known shirt pullers of the highest order! We can’t win with those shirts!! Get rid of the shirts!!! The shirts are shit!!
Yup nike screwed our defensive positioning as well, lol. The checkers are so big that our defense players think they are closer to their teammates than they actually are.
lol thanks you two for the laugh haha
We play good in the new away Jerseys.
Totally Agree- their kits are awful- let’s go to Kappa- 2 naked chicks sitting back to back. Nothing says soccer like that logo. At least, something might get Brozovic to pay attention. Kappa- check out that logo . Best logo of the 80’s sports brands and they love it in Europe
Kappa logo is a naked MAN and a naked chick.
Pray you never find yourself at a brothel.
i dont like them.it dosent suit the team hopefully they can rise above that.
I’ve always warned that this site was too result oriented and as a result frequently deceived by luck (18 and 22 world cups). Now that luck has swung the other way, the towel is ready to be thrown in. As always, people focus a lot on the offense, but there is a strong argument to be made that Croatia’s offense has been elite and better than in previous tournaments but just unlucky.
Croatia is dominating possession (even outpossessing spain which no team has done in the last 136 matches). They are 4th in the tournament in possession and that is with playing Spain.
They are current 2nd in shots per game (18) and second in shots on target (7)
They are 2nd in expected goals scored per game (2.31).
The catch is undoubtedly the defense has looked messy and Croatia’s 1.6 goals expected goals per game that they are conceding ranks 8th worst. Then again, they have played Spain who a staunch Italian defense gave up 2 expected goals to.
The big question remains, is it old legs in the midfield that is leaving so many gaps or inexperience and lack of talent in the back that is the culprit. Maybe a bit of all.
https://xgscore.io/xg-statistics/euro/2024
Once you loose the legs in mid-field everything else falls apart. And it’s not just the midfield. The wingers in Dalic’s formation of 3-3-4 aren’t playing as wingers compounding the effect. So you are left with old legs who cannot keep up and no outlet along the flanks. The result is pressure on the two center backs. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Too many ego’s on this team. Dalic doesn’t want one of the 3 midgets to chase him around the locker room again if they don’t get the start.
Broz looks like a washed up junkie with those tatted up sleeves looking for his next fix.
Lol
I 100% agree with you! we went into this tournament as the group of death. we played Spain very well except for the horrid defensive blunders but when you re-watch the game you can easily see we created phenomenal chances…more than usual…but everything went to shit when we don’t score and we conceive ridiculous goals, ball watching as one player dribble 4 of our in the box…Brozovic had nothing to do with the defensive blunders and yet we wanna crucify him? why? there’s only a few reasons why we’d pin this on Broz…1) you aren’t seeing/acknowledging how many times our team is loosely losing possession far too easily. 2) we are playing far too slow and our opponents can easily adjust when we aren’t forcing them out of their positions to challenge for the ball
Prior to this tournament starting I believe everyone here would have been ok with our defensive lineup in the first game. Stop calling out Dalic regarding Perisic playing at left back. our only other option is Sosa and he’s barely played any decent games at Ajax. Is it Dalic’s fault we don’t have anyone else to depend on? you’d really start Sosa to defend Yamal against Spain??? If your answer is yes then sit down and stop debating. nobody in the football world would start a defensively weak Sosa and its his fault he hasn’t improved…and screw all the haters that just do not have the aptitude to understand we are thin at left back!
Do i want Perisic to start on left wing> He’s nowhere near as lethal as he’s been in the past. He doesn’t take anyone on, he rarely cuts in and takes a right footed shot, he’s only making a step over and taking players down the wing and crossing the ball. still decent but not the Perisic we all know. remember the saying “we go as Perisic goes”? well, if he’s our best option then that says a lot about our attack….AND EVEN WITH ALL THIS BEING SAID, we were good against Spain, Modric was probably our worst midfield against Albania, Majer was running into traffic and was very ineffective, Sutalo was the guy I would have hung after the game….he is one of the guys I was so impressed with and he was an absolute nightmare…and we are complaining about Brozovic?
sometimes I get frustrated when I see a stupid comment and then 30,000 people that have zero common sense, repeat the same stupid comment because they’re all of a sudden an expert who couldn’t name more than 4 of our players. repeat the same crap every day without truly understand how we got scored on.
After the Spain game people were debating about why we were playing midfielders as wingers, tactical errors by Dalic…and soo many wild things while our #1 issue was Pograncic and Sutalo. we created incredible chances, we had the majority of possession, we have rarely seen our team create this many high quality chances in a game, never mind the game being against Spain and then we go out and criticize Dalic and our wingers instead of focus on the real issues!
I’m not defending Brozovic, I’m simply saying we need to lay the blame where it belongs. watch the games, evaluate what you see and stop repeating stupidity about the lesser of our problems. at the moment, we need to stabilize our defense, Brozovic might need to be benched…no matter how bad this looks but he’s far from the “reason we get scored on”.
I meant to say “Stop calling out Dalic regarding Gvardiol playing at left back”…
Give us another shot at Spain. This has to be our motivation going forward in this tournament. We need to redeem ourselves in the finals against them. We can do it. Who’s with me? Who wants to win? Luka just needs to have a nap before the Italy match and he’ll be fine. Naps have become more important than training for our old guard at this stage.
Put us in coach
I hope Milan Rapaic is in the arena on Monday.
He seems to put a hex on these people for some reason.
Too bad Austria and Poland didnt draw.. if we had Scotland draw with Hungary and then these 2 guys draw this game and lose the next it would be possible to get through with 2 points lol.
No chance we get through with 2 points and a minus 3 goal difference. Zero. They have to beat Italy.
Dalic will likely start Brozovic against Italy. He brought 26 players to the Euros but you wouldn’t know it, since he relies on 14 -15 “favorites”. It’s a strategy that won’t win us anything, even IF we do get out the group. As these players will start to burn out, we saw it happen in WC 2022 against Argentina.
@ Croatian Inspector General
Yes, Dalic’s contract runs through 2026 WC. Don’t know the specifics on HNS removing him. But if Croatia don’ t make it out of the group stage, the classy thing for him to do is resign.
I think his time has run out regardless of what happens.
Personally, I still think we make the quarterfinals and put up a good fight against England.
But I still want Dalić gone if it means that we can score one of Jurić or Terzić as coach.
If we lose badly he is still there and we then go into nations league and the losing continues I cannot imagine he would be able to sustain that type of pressure
If we lose badly then the HNS will let him go.
He won’t resign (he’ll take his money) but if we lose badly, it means he’s lost the lockerroom which was his biggest selling factor as a coach.
Too hard for the HNS to justify keeping him.
Croatian – Rimac
starting 11-
Pjaca – Budimir – Marco P
Sučić
Modrić
Kovačić
Sosa – Gvardiol – Šutalo – Stanisic
Livakovic
Subs –
Majer
Perišić
Mario P
Kramaric
JJ
3-1 Croatia
More importantly we have a formal for to score in the knockout rounds.
This lineup would have been better against Albania. We needed that wing support.
Not sure how open this game against Italy will be. If we’re completely dominating possession in the Italy half, we may need those technical players like Krama and Majer.
Surprised Ivanušec hasn’t played yet.
Correct me if I am wrong . Does dalic have a contract until 2026 ? If we crash and burn and the savez chooses to remove him . How costly would that be for us . I cannot imagine he has a mega millions deal . Is the savez in the right to remove him . Would he put up a fight ? Basically what I am asking is would it be costly for us to bounce him
Yes I’m pretty sure he’s signed until 2026 at around 1.6 million Euro per season.
If he resigns then the HNS won’t have to pay him, but there’s no chance Dalić would resign. He would want them to fire him so he could collect that 3.2 million remaining on his contract.
This is why I don’t think they’ll fire him unless we’re humiliated in the Italy game. Even then, I doubt the HNS would go on to splurge on a top coach (because of the money owed to Dalić).
We’d probably hire some HNL coach or a former player. Maybe even Bišćan, lol.
We’re in a similar situation to the previous Euros where Dalić was pretty much out the door, but Oršić took. us to extra time against Spain gave us a good fight at the end there. It changed the overall sentiment of the match, and Dalić held on.
I think if we squeeze by Italy, and have a decent showing in the R16 then HNS will keep him on.
Shame, because we have a couple of good Croatian coaches available right now.
I would imagine or like to think that the Savez would give themselves some escape plan regarding his contract if things began to tank . I always thought he got credit for things he had nothing to do with . If I am being honest I think it’s time to go outside the box and bring a foreigner in . They have the money or can find the money . I was actually always surprised that HNS never had fund raisers like Hajduk has Bila Noc events . I just know they could squeeze money out of the diaspora to fund the team . Argentina does it . Then again they have a winning pedigree
@maminjo- I hear ya, but your assuming the HNS will do something they have never done before and hire a competent coach.. there is a real chance the new hire would be a catastrophe (one of the HNS groupies on the side line)
There are so many bad choices available that I almost hope dalic stays long term, and I’m not being dramatic
Juric and terzic would be awesome if they end up making a move, but I would bet the field if you put a gun to my head with the HNS running the show. I don’t think the board or whatever wants to be instantaneously second fiddle to a big name coach, that’s not croatian mentality, and probably would hurt thier ability to siphon of euros in the process.
@ Croatian inspectors general
Sniper rifle will be on full display against the Wops or there’s a bowl of pasta on the pitch. Lol
God Bless my brother.
???? Glad to hear it
Slavic sniper sorry about the ??? Had the autocorrect on . Keeps coming back on lol
Luka Vuskovic Westerloo
x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1804170008815100413
Dear Dalic,
The changes I want to see vs Italy are:
-Stanisic in for Juranovic
-Budha in for Petko
-Mario P in for Majer at RW (Mario P is not a winger but Dalic with never start Marco)
-Sosa in for Perisic at LB
-Majer in for Broz
-Ivanusec for Krama
Krama is just to slow and not a winger. Unless he get the ball at his feet he is just a pylon out there. Ivanusec is also not a winger but he is more mobile and has played well at LW for Feyenoord.
Ivanusec – Budha – Mario P
Majer
Kova – Modric
Sosa – Gvardi – Sutalo – Stani
Livako
Subs:
Any combination of:
Marco for Mario
Pjaca for Ivanusec
Susic for Modric
Baturina for Majer
Broz for Kova
Krama for Budha
Petko & Perisic sit this one out.
@Mate1
I agree about Spain, I mentioned that Carvajal goal was all from shirt pulling. Same tactics against Italy as well.
As well the pundits total disregard for Hrvatska is blatant. The amount of crying over Canada getting screwed doesn’t even register for us or any other team.
One pundit had the nerve to say Canada played well against us in the World Cup. Mind you they looked a million times better against Argentina.
Canadas roster are all big guys fast and in shape . There conditioning allowed them to keep up with the Argentina team . Argentina was more skillful . Messi game was off . Argentina had 5 clear chances to score . The score should have been way higher . Those pundits are paid to talk crap . And have to make Canada out to be something they are not . They want to promote them as some rising power in concaf they are not and never will be . We will never be respected . We have to teach people to respect us . Stay well brother . A sniper life is hazardous
Slovakia with a starting eleven with an average age older than 31, having no problems in this tournament.
Honestly I hope they are all pissed, they should be. It just means they care.
It’s gonna be some semblance of the same lineup again, maybe a touch faster on the trigger finger with the subs because it’s a MUST win. Dalic isn’t a tactician, he’s a politician in the locker room, it is what it is.
Italy had a .16 xpg vs Spain, that’s not good, and Italy has also got their own pressure from the media, realistically 3 points gets them thru (unless Albania wins)
4-1 Croatia, Italy melts down under pressure but still get thru
Niko my brother you have no idea how much I wish that comment to be true for your lips to Gods ears . I don’t care if he lose in the round of 16 . As long as we beat those Italians to me that’s the World Cup . You know those people look down upon us .
4-1 ??? lol
As bad as Italy looked yesterday, we are not beating them 4-1. They are not Canada. They will park the bus, clog the middle and go for 0-0, which may work against this team. We had two 0-0 games in the last WC and were lucky to get out of the group.
Then Dalic and the rest of the vets will go down in flames. Until we win a Euro or World Cup we cannot compare ourselves to the Italians. Nevermind silver or bronze medals mean nothing. We need to actually win something.
I agree that we can’t compare ourselves to the Italians/Germans/Argentinians etc until we win a tournament. That’s why I was cringing at some Croatians who were adamant that we be considered a favourite and given the same clout as the bigger teams, end of the day we will always be a “dark horse”.
But I disagree that our silver/bronzes mean nothing. Let’s be realistic here we are a small country that FIFA does not want to win…for us, those medals DO mean something that they wouldn’t mean for an Italy or a Brazil and there’s nothing wrong with taking pride in them.
Different categories and that’s just a reflection of our small population compared to the big teams. it is what it is
Sacchi blaiming Serie A, lol
football-italia.net/sacchi-analyses-italy-loss-spain/
He’s right though
Spaletti saying he didn’t give the players enough rest b/w matches (only gave them 1.5 days – he thinks he should have given more)
The one thing we have in our favour – is our 2nd game was played 1.5 days ahead of Italy’s 2nd game – so we get the extra 1.5 days of rest – doesn’t hurt (especially for Modric) – maybe the schedulers were trying to help Croatia (think ahead we’ll need the extra rest)
football-italia.net/spalletti-admits-mistake-spain-italy-style/
Here’s the Spaletti-cam (it’s pretty intrusive if u think about it) – but would love to see the equivalent for Dalic
Fun to see all the assistants show him stuff to bring on Christante (which they did at half-time)
sport.sky.it/calcio/europei/2024/06/21/italia-spagna-spalletti-cam-video
Guess Jorginho not starting next game, lol
football-italia.net/spalletti-loses-patience-jorginho-italy/
We’re in trouble when we have Modric our captain and leader behaving like this. It’s the old guys in this squad that are trying to capture something they couldn’t in the past and it’s their last chance. They need to put the crest on the front ahead of the name on the back. Just like Subasic should never have played in the 2018 final. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why we haven’t really won anything yet.
Serbs threatening to quit bc of chants
***.sportbible.com/football/football-news/uefa-euro-2024-serbia-albania-croatia-chants-509404-20240621
I can’t believe we are talking about a lacklustre Italy team! Again, they beat Albania, we didn’t. We should be worrying about getting spanked and not talking about how much damage we can do to them. This Croatia team is old and lacklustre and until we see something different we can’t expect different results. Stop the insanity and wake up. We need to bring on the young guns and go for it. Modric, Petkovic, and Broz need to sit.
We aren’t getting spanked green eggs and Ham,and do you really think Dalic is going to start Marco pasalic,baturina,sucic etc in a must win game like this…it’s not happening…especially with his dying allegiance to vets!
They beat Albania 2-1 after trailing. We trailed also and were leading 2-1 and gave up a goal at the end of the game. Shit happens. Fine margins etc., but it sure as shit does not prove that Italy is 10X the team that we are.
Don’t start Modric? Did you watch the second half? He played very well.
A fair score line of the Spain Italy game would have been 4-0 in my eyes. I’ve never seen a more lackluster Italy squad in my life.. Donnaroma stood on his head all game long.
#2 Di Lorenzo got absolutely COOKED by Williams at least half a dozen times it was painful to watch for his nonna no doubt?I can honestly see perisic doing some damage on the left flank though he’s hardly Nico Williams?
It gives me great hope that we can muster up 3 points if we get our govno together.
lol
Nico Williams is one of the top winger (prospects) in the world
Yesterday he reminded us why
Spurs were trying to buy him months ago – after y’day – I’m sure he is too expensive for Spurs to afford
Yeah – I’m sure Di Lorenzo is shaking at this boots at the prospects of facing our 35 y.o. automatic baseball pitching machine in the LW position
I said he’s HARDLY Nico Williams but I still say perisic is capable of getting the best of him a few times Monday,especially if he brings his best knucklball 😉
On a side note, seems VAR or referee corruption really screwed Canada.
5 missed calls on corners, two fouls, one in the box and then allowing Argentina to be 8 mins late for the 2nd half.
TSN pundits are all over this questioning the incredibly bad reffing. As I stated earlier in past posts, the fix is always in for the elite teams.
Fair point, and referees have been favouring the “elite” teams. A word used to describe someone who has already won the tournament really.
However, should we talk about how unfair these same pundits have been towards Croatia since 1998? I do not care for their opinions to be honest, not one person talked about the insane amount of jersey pulling against Croatia in the match against Spain. There should have been atleast one yellow card against Spain but it never materialized. There were times it impeded Croatia’s progress on the press, and it happened every time a Spanish player was bested by one of our own. I personally think it’s BS.
Can’t stand the TSN guys. I watched on Fox Sports 1. Yes, Lalas is a smug twat but I don’t watch the pre-game or halftime jib jab. Over at TSN it’s like you need a UK accent to get the job.
I’m fine with Dalić defending Brozović, so long as he isn’t compelled to play him unless the time comes to slow the pace.
Any strategy for this match that doesn’t involve pressing and scoring is suicide, and for me, that should mean no Brozo or Petković in the opening 60-65. I’m not sure yet which permutation I would play here, but there are some willing runners on the team who must be considered, experience and chemistry be damned. Sučić probably tops that list for me. Mario Pašalić is nobody’s favourite, but his motor should not be questioned. Majer can create in tight areas, but he might be another odd man out early on. We would miss him on set pieces, though. Whatever happens, we can’t sit Kova, for his dribbling and line splitting passes could be the difference. Tough calls to be made.
We need some Gegenpressing
Modric p*ssed off w/ journalist question….
x.com/korinaaa55/status/1803514014959329355
Modric is a bit precious. He needs to HTFU. What does he expect that everyone has to kiss his ass? He’s slowing down and it’s becoming glaringly obvious, he should be smart enough to tell Dalic that he’s good for a 1st half or to come on off the bench. Instead he’s getting irritated at a valid question posed by a reporter then storming off like a petulant child.
Person who comes on here to obsessively and creepily bash Kovacic at every opportunity compares someone’s actions to that of a petulant child. It writes itself…
I’ve gone for long periods of time without bashing Kovacic but I will stick the boot in whenever I feel it’s necessary. What I say about Kovacic is always factually correct whether you like it or not I could care less. If I really wanted to I could crap on Kovacic even more but It’s good to show a bit of restraint.
Secondly Modric is a public figure who is supposed to answer such questions from the media, he’s not some young 18 year old that doesn’t know any better. He gets paid to do that stuff otherwise retire. Don’t get c#@#ty because the team and your individual performance is lacklustre.
Modric’s interviews are usually boring as f#$k this one at least had a funny ending.
Could care less or couldn’t care less?
Everyone’s different. Some athletes would have snapped at the question and went on a tirade. Others would have laughed it off. Others would have left. Some might have said “next question.” Who cares.
No one is obliged or is “supposed” to answer every question. Have you never seen a sports press conference before?
“Factually correct”….. God bless the internet lol.
The could care less thing is a case of predictive text / no edit function. I’ve seen a lot of press conferences before and Modric’s are boring as fuck but now when someone poses a question he doesn’t like he storms off and acts like who the f#$k are you to ask me that. He comes off as a wanker to me. But whatever.
Have I said anything about Kovacic that isn’t true?
Forget about statistics. We saw where our Game 2 stars brought us with Albania. The same thing with Italy. If we couldn’t beat the Albanians what is the thought we’re even going to compete with the Italians especially with Broz and Modric. The Italians didn’t get spanked by Spain like us and they managed to beat Albania not tie. It’s time to wake up. Bring on the youth is our best chance and go all in!
If it wasn’t for Donnaruma, Italy would have lost at least 5-0! Yes we lost 3-0 but we played well against Spain…better than we did against Albania…our biggest issue is central defence….all 5 goals came down the middle.
No it’s 4 goals that came through the center of the pitch. 5th goal for Albania was from the flank of the 18 yd box.
Did you watch Spain v. Italy or just read the scoreboard?
Are you joking? Italy got completely smothered. They were unable to take a single shot until extra time in the first half, and waited almost another 45 minutes before they finally got a feeble one on target. They could hardly keep possession long enough to string together a few passes, and their counter never threatened. Donnarumma did have a decent game, but Spain hit the woodwork and missed at least one absolute sitter that I can recall. They look more like the team that missed 2 WCs than the one that won Euro 2020.
It seems that, like us, a lot of their can’t miss prospects never bloomed. The difference is that they don’t have much in the way of continuity from the previous generation to make up for it. That’s not to say that we will beat the handily, or even beat them, but I’m comfortable with our chances.
I agree. If we play two halves with the right personnel we win. If Dalic gets the starting lineup wrong and we dither in the first half for the third time beat we do is draw. To me Dalic fudged the lineup and the subs in the Spain game. He got the lineup half right against Albania. Now he’s gotta go fullkrug and get it right across the board.
The point I would make would be that it could have turned out differently had these players had a chance to start. The so called B Squad.
We were not really pressing in the first half, atleast not in a way that would materialize in a goal scoring opportunity.
Our pace was completely different in the second half and Albania was on the back foot at that point.
What is odd, atleast from my point of view and if I am correct, is that Sucic provided us with something that no other midfielder has been able to in the last two game. That is, a goal scoring threat and continuous press in the opposition’s half.
The other point to make is that the players of Sucic, Perisic, Budimir, and Mario Pasalic seemed to pair well with one another.
They all fed of one another and created tuns of opportunities.
Why not use this same set up??
With Italy being able to sit back and play for a draw it’s going to be tough for the Croats now. Kovacic and his dribbling skills are going to have to be key in this game if Croatia hopes to get the result they need. Kovacic has to score the first goal.
WTF are you smoking? Kovacic has to score the first goal. LMFAO
Kova has scored 5 goals in 103 games for the NT. I’ll give you this though Kova can dribble then actually hit an opposition player in the head, give off a lateral pass, pass it to the opposition, have an impotent shot at goal or just lose the ball.
We need the first goal period.
Maybe if he hits all 11 of them in the head hard enough they will have to be subbed off for HIA/concussion? 😀
Brozovic needs to be dropped and I think that Dalic will do that.
Italy did not look good against Spain and from what I saw created one half chance late on in the second half. Spain on the other hand could have scored a few more. We have a chance against Italy providing we are aggressive and full of running. We cannot afford to play like the first half against Albania which was at a walking pace.
Played Italy 8 times for 3 wins and 5 draws, let’s hope come Monday it will be 4 wins.
You make a lot of sense and I understand your point . Please keep mind that we are not Spain and Italy will create a lot chances against us because our defense will allow it . We can bend but cannot break . I fear we will not be aggressive until Italy scores . We have the talent to win . Like someone here said . We just need the right combination to put out on the field . Speed and youth will play a huge part in this game. The veterans don’t have that . Conditioning will play a huge part in this tournament and I am not so sure our boys even the younger guys are up for the task. I hope for the best
He will start Dalic hard on.. now may he make changes if things don’t pan out quickly yes I say he gets one half then come in the young guns..
I read some of these articles and watched some video clips. Dalic’s defense of Brozovic is insane. If Brozovic was exposed because the rest of the team left him to hang out and dry, then does that mean that he’s never actually been any good? Think about it…….
Of course he’s been good. Just not anymore.
He will not start. This is just keeping things calm for the next few days.
Ante in your recent video just a correction.. if we win we will have 4 points Italy 3 points and we take second.. the only complication is if Albania stunned Spain they would then most likely finish second with 4 points because of a better goal differential then us.. assuming and less likely we pump in a few goals.. same thing most likely say they pull off a tie with Spain and we tie we will most likely finish 4th then.. mathematically if we were to tie Italy and Albania loses we still have an outside chance to make it but very slim especially due to poor goal differential then.
Broz chased Dalic around the locker room. So whoever is standing behind Brozovic weilds a much greater amount of power than old Dalic. Dalic is a yes man that does what he’s told and has had some great results go his way. Now he’s like Fredo in that he gets no respect and is complaining about being taken for granted. There’s a reason no clubs came around sniffing after a 2nd place finish at the 2018 World Cup.
Well, it’s also not entirely impossible that a draw against Italy would be enough.
1. – Scotland-Hungary ends in a draw (our 2 points would be better than Scotland’s 2 points)
2. -Albania lose to Spain
3. -one other group end up w a 3rd place team with no more than 2 points, and a worse GD than ours
The first 2 above could very likely happen. The 3rd is tricky. Maybe group D is the best bet (Poland and Austria still w 0 points, and have Holland and France in the group)
Your actually talking about a scenario where Croatia advances on the back of 0 W 2 draws? That’s worse than Portugal’s 3 draws in 2016. I don’t even want to go forward to get beat down in the elimination round on the back of 2 draws.
The good news we don’t lose to italy
The bad news is italy only needs a draw
The other bad news is we are also playing for a tie and extra time;)
We need to score and we couldn’t even score with severina and a Coke bottle full of didas rakija;)
But as always with us anything could happen!
At this point if we scored 3 goals I wouldn’t be surprised or if we tried to bunker for 89 mins and realize we need a win
I’m just messing around
But ya let’s hope the boys come in crazy motivated
If winning gets us through and playing Italy and keeping our streak alive among the thousand other reasons can’t help motivate us then I hope they enjoy their early vacations
I would definitely be very surprised if we scored 3 goals
Did Spain play that great or did Italy just look bad . Any pressure on their Dmen , they gave the ball away. Pressure, pressure and more pressure.
it doesn’t matter we will draw with Italy 1-1 on Monday. The team is in shambles. Modric and Bronz are not fit. Some of you keep expecting miracles.
Rodri is suspended
Dalic is playing politicians all day long
First Petko coffee (do we really think he didn’t give the heads-up to the photographer to be there to snap some pics?)
Than Vlasic make up he has a 2nd injury that’s why he goes home (as opposed to Vlasic being told he won’t see the field so feel free to get some R&R)
Now Broz
Partly bc he doesn’t want Broz to chase him around the dressing room again trying to punch him before finally deciding to punch the wall instead (and showing up to training after the Czech game w/ his hand all bandages)
But also partly bc he wants to keep team unity – as he can’t afford to lose anyone else
Nevermind Brozo, but how bad would we like Lovren back right now LOL
Meh, let him play if he wants to play, he’s been good for us for a long time.
I don’t know man, his Joe Biden run into empty space away from his man was comical in the first Siptar gol.
@tbone.
I blame Bilicic for this debacle.
Why?
Because he likes trump, as everyone knows #ETTD
TDS sufferer.
Between Trump, this woke generation and Biden we are all gonna be toast.