Photo: Ante Čizmić/Cropix
Mandžukić, Kalinić seal 3 points for Croatia
It only took one shot from Georgia in March to defeat Croatia 1-0. Well, the Georgians nearly did it again in June. With Croatians worldwide knowing not to take this Georgia team lightly due to their stubborn bunker, the Croatian national side came out firing in the opening minutes in front of a jam-packed 28,000 capacity Stadion Poljud in Split. The fans stayed quiet for the first 14 minutes of the match to silently protest Split not hosting a qualifier in 14 years. A tremendous roar could finally be heard as the game clock hit 14:00, with flares being lit, delaying the game less than one minute. The Croatians fans were finally feeling the big game atmosphere in Split, only to have the Georgians suck all the air out of the stadium three minutes later with a J. Kankava header from six yards out. Darijo Srna and Mario Mandžukić got tied up on defense giving Kankava a run-up header, which he struck into the corner of the net. There was nothing goalie Vedran Runje could do. Croatia went into halftime losing 1-0 as Luka Modrić’s shot halfway through the period went off the right post.
Georgia shock Croatian fans…again.
As panic and disappointment started filling Croatian minds worldwide, manager Slaven Bilić took off an unproductive Nikica Jelavić at the start of the second half in place of Nikola Kalinić. Croatia controlled ball possession for 67% of the match but couldn’t catch a break on scoring a goal. Eduardo received an open header in the second half and ‘stoinked’ it off the crossbar. It looked as if it would be another disappointing result for the Vatreni.
In the 71′, Bilić took off Ognjen Vukojević and Ivan Perišić for the likes of Tomislav Dujmović and Ivan Klasnić, in a last gasp effort to get some goals on the board. What a beautiful decision it was as Klasnić and Dujmović played ‘give n’ go’ in the box to set up a close range shot from Mandžukić for the equalizing goal in the 76′.
Klasnić to Dujmović for the Mandžukić goal
It only took Croatia two minutes after the equalizing goal to score another as Eduardo slotted a beautiful pass in the box to Nikola Kalinić, who toe-poked home the winner in the 78′ from the middle of the box. For good measure, Srna hit the bar after the go-ahead goal to make it three hit posts for Croatia on the day. With the win, Croatia go ahead of Greece, who play Malta tomorrow (June 4).
Kalinić wins it in front of his Splićani
Croatia ended the jinx at Poljud with this 2-1 win over Georgia, however, they celebrated as if they won the World Cup. Croatia should be happy that they won, but why should they be happy? Gained an important 3 points? Got the result with half the team missing? Come from behind win?
All Croatian players wore Drago Gabrić shirts under their jerseys in support of their teammate. Gabrić fell into a coma after running his car through a guard rail near Split. There was no foul play reported in the incident as rainy road conditions were the main culprit. Gabrić has since woken up from the coma and should make a full recovery.
"nil-nil at the half, with Super Mario Mandzukic coming through with an "Ivica Olic goal" in the 60th minute to secure the three points."
I didnt do so bad, did I? Makes me look like I know what I'm talking about here on CSR. Good for business.
I still dont get what everyone sees in Perisic and Jelavic. Good young players. Breathtaking goals. However, goals in the mediocre Scottish and Belgian leagues. Enormous potential in both, however, time to play with the big boys. I'm not worried about Perisic. He is making all the right moves. Still a year of Bundesliga away to compete for Croatia.
@Mishko,
"I was the FIRST one to say Jelavic with 2 tomorrow"
What haaaaaaaaaappened to your boy? 🙂
Jelavic really needs to leave Glasgow. Hajduk can beat Dundee United. Perisic made the jump, now its Jelavic' turn. Scoring hat tricks against Motherwell doesnt impress me.
@Ante Kvartuc
"If Georgia scores first, Cro players will get so hungry that they will play like the last 5 mins of the Geo match. All you gotta do is make our players mad."
I thought so too. I guess they took the wise old owl approach, "it's still eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarly"
@Ante B
"Croatia 4
Georgia 0"
You must have been under "copious amounts of Jameson."
Whoever thinks that Runje couldn't do anything about that goal has got to be kidding! He stood on his line picking his ass and watching the flares while he should have been on his way to punching the ball out. He even hesitated for a second. Whether he would've gotten there in time or not, we'll never know. But it's a no brainer that he's gotta come out in that scenario. He knows it.
i voted lower, i gave them a D rating, because football is a game of 2 halves, and that first half was dreadful, that guy that was smoking ciggies said it best when he said they were running around like headless chickens and playing with no ticker. 2nd half was much better to come from behind and win, but you judge the game as a whole, so the first half a give an E and the 2nd a C+, even it out, its a D. I was a bit critical to say someone put us out of our misery, but i was fuming that we didnt so more fire in our bellies, and if we play like that in greece we would surely lose.
Yea RUnje player real well …… 1 shot one goal….usless
I'm surprised the Georgia poll on the site looks like a Bell Curve. D's and F's??? Why?
I voted for B. Got the three points coming from behind. For those of you who voted lower, what's your reason?
someone needs to put us out of our misery. take us out to some field and shoot us between the eyes. Yes its a win, but it sure feels alot like a loss.
tesko protive bunkera. bilic i dalje majstor, dobre zamjene
@Zach G,
YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!
Hvala!
We're still #10 in the world, even after conceding 2 goals to Georgia… that's amazing.
@Anonymous
http://www.justin.tv/ginger_bloke6/b/287287823
your welcome
Yes, Mandzukic is improving. Doesn't mean he didn't suck before Slaven. So you can go sit on a hat.
All these smaller teams are mastering these bunker techniques, it's hard to break down and with our current situation we did great. If it were Euro 2008 where we had Eduardo in his "prime", Petric consistent and Olic the machine he still is it would have been a different situation today. Though we managed to lose to Macedonia in Euro 2008 qualifications.
Some of you have to realize we were missing Kranjcar (top scorer for our team) Rakitic and Olic (our best striker). I would say Eduardo but sadly since his injury he hasn't been the same but lack of playing time has quite a bit to do with it.
Even with our team being at full strength we didn't make it to the World Cup, though England throwing their game against Ukraine wasn't unnoticeable.
Any updates on Croatiansports.com ? 🙂
Does anyone have a link out there of the entire game?
HVALA!!!
Black Zodiac, I agree with everything you said other than Georgia's goal being well deserved. It looked like it hit the player on the back of the head and went in, not to mention it was Georgia's ONLY shot on goal.
I give our boys an A, they played with heart, determination, and with pace, and what that got them was that they shot the wheels out from under the bus.
A full recap will be held from me tomorrow. I have pictures from the epic comeback as the game was wild. Free Karlavachos weren't the only thing that satisfied and having fun with some drunk out of hand Croatian chicas. We grinded it out and won it in the end. The three points is what all that mattered, I will break it down tomorrow after my graduation. The game was so bad at one point me and my friend Alex started singing the England national anthem exciting for tomorrows qualifier.
A/B overall rating for Croatia, I don't know what some of you are expecting (C & D voters) against a team that's bunker-ed down. Look at this Euro campaign, Romania tied 1-1 with Albania; Belarus beat France 1-0 then tied them today 1-1, Portugal tied Cyprus 4-4, Finland lost to Moldova 2-0, Norway beat Portugal 1-0, Czech Republic lost to Lithuania 1-0, Serbia lost to Estonia 3-1, Italy tied Northern Ireland 0-0, Azerbaijan beat Turkey 1-0, Montenegro tied England 0-0. Point being, these things happen. So let's not whine and complain about Bilic not doing his job and how we don't even deserve to be in Euro 2012. You know who you are, quit the piss and moan.
I voted an A for the performance of the TEAM today, Mandzukic, Kalinic, Klasnic, Eduardo, Modric, Simunic, Persic, Corluka, Dujmović, Runje, all played well, upset with Jelavic and his performance. The goal by Georgia was good and well deserved, Srna got lazy, and a goal was given. I got to add I was a little impressed with Vuko not screwing up.
The Khazar bunker? Was Dinamo playing in Israel. LMMFAO.
there ya go Slaven!!
The reason why I liked Mandzukic from day one is because he actually scored in meaningful games from Dinamo and now to Wolfsburg and hopefully the NT. He won't pack the stats, but that trait is important. Mandzukic bailed Dinamo out many times in Europe, most importantly when they dumped Ajax, but he also scored against Salzburg, he broke the Khazar bunker when Dinamo were struggling against them and he pretty much single handedly kept Wolfsburg up. Yes he is a clown and a seljak, but I think Magath will mold him into a better player, at least I hope!
..and all you Mandukic doubters can fuck your hats. I've always been behind him so fuck you ziva istina and bandwagon faggots.
This is a win that we deserved for a while. Eduardo is the man. For CL he beat his old team by himself, leaving them to the wolves. He's one of the top 3 in the world. He plays with heart and there's nothing more important than that.
nema do poljuda!!!!!!!!!
Delac has struggled with the U21s and hasn't played at all at Vitesse, but he is still 18
Hopefully Pletikosa finds a club where he will play, anywhere will do in all honesty
So happy for Mandzukic, ok, he didn't have the best game, but he scored a goal and this guy for some reason gets shit on by all fans.
Disappointments: Jelavic (he worked hard but other than that useless), Pranjic was poor and Srna was at his antics again, poor crossing, one good free kick and faking injuries
Runje: I really don't want to admit but he is probably our number 1 choice at the moment, I am a Pletikosa fan. Hopefully Pletikosa gets some chances to play to prove himself.
Srna: Wasn't fully impressed with his first half performance, also I firmly believe Srna should be our CDM. He has some good defensive quality, much rather see him in the middle of the field working up on the attack up center or drifting onto the right wing for support. If anything he is our closest thing to a Niko Kovac replacement.
Corluka: Great defender on the wing, always was good with the run ups and crosses although in the center back he's questionable at times.
Simunic: Still a fan of him, after Euro 2008 he wasn't doing so well although now it seems hes getting things back in line and still has it to be a starting defender.
Lovren: Good defender, needs more playing time. Didn't catch too much of him on the pitch today.
Eduardo: On the right wing he's pretty deadly, great with the ball & opens up opportunity on the net.
Mandzukic: Played very well this game, was quite impressed with his performance and don't believe he was on a little streak at Wolfsburg. He's gotten much better.
Jelavic: Very disappointing, I am a big fan of Jelavic. I hope it was just a bad game.
Klasnic: A little stunned with his performance this game, I use to be a big Klasnic fan 2008 prior. Didn't think he had it in him anymore after that dual kidney surgery he had a few years back.
Dujmović: Clearly needs to be starting over Vuko, hands down.
"Now all we need is the Croatian/German goalie that I've been waiting for!"
Not German but what do you/everyone else think of this Delac kid? Also Blažević? 6'7 now there's a good advantage with that.
So i couldn't watch much of the game, due to a basic meltdown at work. I was told to calm down at one point, so I had to turn it off for most of the game, but I had the commentary going.
As I've stated in the past. Same guys scoring in the last 7 games. There has to be something said for that. The Klasnic addition seems to be a good one. I know it's one game, but from what I saw of him, he did ok.
Thank God we won. Mandzukic, another great job…and Kalinic tacks another goal onto his stat sheet for the national team.
Finally, is it possible to give the Georgia goalkeeper citizenship and sign him up? The goalkeeper, plus the post was Georgia's saving grace.
To all the haters of Mandzukic, Klasnic, Eduardo, and Dumjovic….you should be ashamed. =) I'll throw myself under the bus on this one.
For the record I've been watching almost the entire game on youtube and OUR BOYS played with pace and desire.
The Georgian goal was a fluke, it was hit off the back of the guys head.
The result should have been 5 – 0 with all the crossbars that were struck.
This was a great win for us and we showed a lot of patience and improvement. Now it's time for pivo.
All thsi shows is that Bilic is stupid! We 100% need Klasnic!!!!!
All the time!
Seems like we almost had a meltdown on this board. No questions from me on the lineup and the formation. Poor first half. Second half much better. Plenty of chances – and that is all you can ask from the coach. He can't score for you. The subs prooved to be home runs.
A win at the end and that is all that matters, but still some concerns about the team. What was most impressive is coming back from a goal down.
Wow, Bilic was 20 minutes from finally being fired!
Klasnic saved his ass yet again! Hopefully the team and Bilic have learned something about how to beat the bunker through these experiences.
Once again Jelavic proves that he is nowhere near repka material. Don't know what you all see in him, dude can barely stand on the turf.
Dudu's pass was sublime, and Dujmo showed why Vuki should hardly see the field again.
Kudos to Mandza, he really is improving. Funny how almost all of our players improve once they get to Germany, where there are real coaches and training is deadly serious. I'd bet we'll see tremendous improvement from Perisic, and hopefully Kranjcar gets over there too!
Now all we need is the Croatian/German goalie that I've been waiting for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6YCcSutCJ4
Here are the two goals. You might want to download it in case those bastards at UEFO force it's removal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5NRSA01R78
I kept saying that Klasnic is the man.
I only watched the first 15 minutes then went to lunch I was damn nervous.
BTW – A 2 – 1 from a team that only knows to park a bus in front of the goal is pretty good.
How was our possession etc?
Hrvatska! Hrvatska! Hrvatska! Hrvatska! Hrvatska!
yeah, 3 points is 3 points. But c'mon, Georgia? I could stomach one upset every couple of years. Happens to the best of them. But c'mon…we were about 10 minutes away from dropping 2 in a row to them. That's just unacceptable for a team of our ranking and clout. Almost our entire squad plays in a top 5 league in Europe or at least on Europe bound teams. We have a nice mix of vets and youngsters now. It's not a lack of talent, lack of play in quality leagues…to me it's coming down to motivation, discipline and strategy. And all that falls on the shoulders of the coach…Either after the Euro or maybe even now, since we have a big break until the next round of quals, get Slaven out of there and get a quality foreign coach in there.
I just expect a lot more from this team…
MANDZUKIC!!! 😉
Still, not a great game, but both goals came from good actions, when our players actually ran at Georgia's defense. Dujmovic and Eduardo deserve credit for their assists and Klasnic did well to free Dujmovic for the first goal
Still concerning that we basically conceded two goals to Georgia on two shots
Jordan – Montenegro tied England, without their two best players. I would state that has more cause for concern.
Either way, 3 points is 3 points. Take them whatever way you can.
this match shows how important eduardo and klasnic are!!!
We're gonna win this one, probably qualify for the Euro's too….but Bilic mustr be given the boot. It's fuckin ridiculous that we didn't beat Gerogia both times by 2+ goals. Apparently Slaven can't light a fire under the squads ass anymore and if that's the case, it's time to go. I'm sick of this shit where every game, no matter the opponent is a nail biter. Yes, upsets happen here and there and you have your days when you hit a couple of posts and miss easy gimme's, but it seems like that's the case with our boys all the time. WTF are we gonna do against a quality defensive team such as Greece in October? Or against some of the european big dogs in 2012?
Somethiung has to change. Either that or FIFA needs to stop ranking us around the top 10.
SUPER MARIO!!!
YEAAAAAAAAAAH
MA TOOOOO!!!!
2:1 Kalinic!
They finally woke-up. Now, don't do anything stupid in the next 15 minutes.
Ajde konacno u picku materinu, 1:1…ajmo decki do pobjede!
Another save by the geogrian keeper from Srna freekick……………………………………………….
Srna hit the post by his freekick…………
Third post.
WHAT A SAVE FROM THE GEORGIAN KEEPER WOW!
srna cannot defend…he cannot win headers…he is outmuscled by the georgia scorer….
omg…hit the post twice…modric and eduardo….luck is not on our side
Fully blaming Bilic for the lack of skill on the pitch is the wrong approach.
Playing Runje over Pletikosa is questionable but understandable.
Bilic seems pretty firm with this formation, I don't see our players making much out of it.
Decent effort by Mandzukic on net, Modric making little impact on the game, one good opportunity on net but failed to make a mark on the score board.
Few good defends by Simunic.
They can't do anything right. I dislike everything about this team right now from the coach down to the blue uniforms. Our corner kicks are weak, free kicks awful, defense shaky; even the throw-ins are amatuerish.
Only positive out of a tie or a loss is that surely it would mean goodbye to Bilic.
darquo site is back up
if we don't beat this team today we don't deserve to got to euro2012. I don't care that the team is playing 10 men back this is a disgrace if they lose. Only modric is hustling
Seems like all links have died.
Link please Darquo site is dead!
Win or lose Bilic MUST go!!!!!!!
Dear Croatia,
You dropped us in the first half.
Signed,
Your heart and balls
You can hear a pin-drop in Split right now at the stadium.
How? Why? WTF is happening?
wtf was that.
game live here
stream is on now!
http://darquo.site90.net/index.html
Lineup is:
Runje, Simunic, Corluka, Pranjic Vukojevic, Eduardo, Modric, Srna, Mandzukic, Perisic, Jelavic
SUBS: Pleti, Lovren, Klasnic, Kalinic, Dujmovic, Vrsaljko, Badelj
from
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro2012/matches/season=2012
/live/day=12/session=1/match=2002250/matchcenterlight
/index.html
not sure how simunic gets in ahead of lovren.
Seems very narrow in midfield, looks like bilic is hoping that pranjic and srna provide the width again
A little clip to get the blood flowing, vocal chords ready, and emotions up…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52j0xJEjk8
is there a link to u-21 game?
just took of Celjak for Sliskovic, looks like were going for it
I see a close game with very little open space. 1-0 for us, with a late goal from Klasnic. It will be like the game against Borat at Kazahstan at the end of the World Cup qualifying. Not a game to watch for those with weak hearts.
U21s currently losing 1:0 and being outplayed by Georgia…hopefully not a sign of things to come, and you see what happens when the youth teams have too many Hajduk guys 😉
try atdhenet.tv
also try myp2p.eu
theres also a channel on justin tv called Hajduk_St, or something like that.
Gentlemen,
They've now blocked adthe at work and it seems that BalkanSport.info is the only site that would make it possible to watch the game live.
Once I go to that site, what screens do I go to to find the match? It's a bit confusing. Thanks to anyone who can help!!!
Stupid Miami!
If Croatia doesn't win, I will riot!!! I was so pissed at the great Miami collapse as my head was literally down on the bar and the bartender just kept filling me some Gusiness up and shots of Jameson. I am pretty hungover but still ready for Scorpicos today. I hope to see Ivica there and I got a couple of friends going. If anyone is going, I am wearing Crottenham CSR shirt. I will be more than happy to talk to any of you great guys. Just don't give me shit about the Miami game, because I am not in the mood to rant.
yeah baby, Dirk Dagger strikes again!!!!
game should be live here via hrt2
http://darquo.site90.net/index.html
FYI – I was the FIRST one to say Jelavic with 2 tomorrow, I think I said that over a month ago.
Jelavic is playing great and so is Modric. I think we're going to see some wonderful stuff tomorrow.
Excited for the game tomorrow, must disagree with the few that sugest this is not a must win game, we already droped points against georgia and greece, as we learned last time around ties arent enough, plus this team is due a big game and i think, the time has come. As for the line up i beleive its the best line up weve seen in some time, would i like to have rakitic, yes but its the first line up thats dynamic and some width play to it, the days of crunchie, raketa, modric and vucko all playing in the mid should be over as it dosent work. I believe modric will have his best game since euro 08 as well,
gonna go with 2-0 for us.
Also, if we win tomorrow, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just take a deep breathe, calm down and realize we are supposed to be beat them. Years ago this would have been practice for us.
GoldenChild,
I can see Jelavic making his triumphant return to Poljud with a 2 goal game. I still stand behind 4:0.
If we lose tomorrow or drop pints its not because Bilic got the tactics wrong. Every guy lining up tomorrow will be playing a position that they usually or have played plenty of times at the club level..the only exception being if Pranjic is out and we are left with a thrid choice option at that spot by moving Corluka. That is it. Everyone else is playing in spot they usually play.
I think we will win, but nothing is a surprise in soccer any more. Our biggest issue is depth. Well, no Kranjcar, Petric, Rakitic or Strinic tomorrow…those are all guys would would either start or be the first off the bench in their positions. This should not matter against a team like Georgia in Split.
July 31st we find out who is in our World Cup qualifying group. They take the FIFA July 2011 rankings and group us like that. Which still means we can be in Pot A with the strongest teams.
400 people went to the practice in Split and emulated a Maksimir match day atmosphere 🙂
I can tell you this game makes me nervous…
It will make or break my day tomorrow and last time I it broke my day. I am just not ready for disappointment. I know we are no world beaters but damn I can tell you I feel as if we are going as the underdogs for all 3 points tomorrow. There is just something about playing teams who bunker that drives me insane and we have yet to prove we can break them down effectively under Bilic. Bilic is great when it comes to counter attacking against the big boys but when we are supposed to be favorites we actually play like underdogs.
Bilic said a 442 is the most attacking formation you can play when we played vs Greece so I am not surprised he went with it I am just worried about it being the wrong players in the wrong positions. Tomorrow if things are not going right its never to early to make changes…
Ante… 4-0?
Unless Bilic has changed his tactics recently, I see us getting out of this maaaaaaybe at 2-0. I haven't seen or heard anything since that would make me change my mind about us playing better.
Rest & a few streaky players is the only good thing we may have on our side.
Well, if they do decide to boo the Dinamo players, then at least one half will be dedicated to it. I wouldn't be shocked if they did everything I said two or three posts ago.
Runje (Hajduk)
Srna (Hajduk)
Ćorluka (Dinamo)
Šimunić (Neither)
Pranjić (Dinamo)
Modrić (Dinamo)
Vukojević (Dinamo)
Mandžukić (Dinamo)
Eduardo (Dinamo)
Perišić (Hajduk)
Jelavić (Hajduk)
Croatia 4
Georgia 0
Jelavic x2, Dudu and Modric.
some good news……. at least on paper….
Stefan Johannesson, Sweden, will ref the match. Swedes love sausage.. A cool plate of Cevapcici before the match and we dont have anything to worry about.
I wouldn't boo, but it is what it is. We are not exactly talking about some of the brightest people on this planet when discussing our fans.
Hell, look at Spain. Barca players got booed at times by the public when they play any international matches in Madrid.
I didn't know where this whole riot started over Dinamo and Hajduk. Let's talk about an actual game that has that must win hype to it. I agree Ante if the game is 0-0 at half, people will start to feel very nervy. I will be at Scorpicos wearing my CSR Crottenham shirt because Olic is hurt, Kranjcar is suspeded, and my Boban jersey doesn't really fit me (smh). Anyway I got this game being 2-0, I want to lean to 3-0 but the lack of playmakers in Kranjcar and Rakitic concerns me. I like Persic to score to make the stadium rocking in the 24th minute then in the 68th minute we get some Jelavic magic for a header in the back of the net.
I am not saying they don't have the right to boo but to boo because a player played for Dinamo is just stupid. If they pick up less then 3 points tomorrow I would expect/want them to walk away ashamed as that is unacceptable…Booing based of performance is understandable don't get me wrong and booing at the fact that its been 14 years since a meaningful match is also acceptable but to boo the player for playing for Dinamo is not and is just stupid in my opinion.
Mark,
Kranjcar picked up to many yellows and is suspended for this one.
I've been out of the loop for a little while. Why isn't Kranjcar expected to play? Is it due to injury or just because he's seen the bench for so long and isn't in shape? …..or did he injure his ass from sitting too much??
I'll confirm what Ante said. Never any boos in ZG directed at individual players, but we also never lost much in ZG either. The team has been booed for a bad half or for the rare bad game, but not individuals outside of a few hecklers.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not much for the 14 minute of silence, I rather have them chant for 14 minutes at Markovic and the savez and make them uncomfortable in the VIP section. Now that would be funny. Similar to how they booed Tudjman to protest state money being used to finance Dinamo in the mid-90s
If the team plays bad they will get booed and they should get booed. The crowd has that right.
We all have our own experiences. I went to a couple of repka games at Maksimir and I haven't heard any booing towards dalmatinci or Hajduk players except towards Niko Kranjcar. As for songs played before the game and during, no zagrebacke or Dinamo songs, only Croatian. Then again I was under the influence of copious amounts of rakija so they could've played Bozic songs and I would've went insane.
As for any fans who boo Dinamo players they are pathetic and same would go if the game was in Zagreb and people were booing Hajduk players. I would be nothing short of embarrassed! Rivalry? Yea, like the equivalent to my high school quality sports rivalries! Where were those Hajduk vs Dinamo rivalries prior to the godly HNS? Thats right NOWHERE! I understand wanting to win is one thing but the ridiculous hatred is idiotic! The stupid media hyped idiot fans who boo there own players shouldn't go to the games!
You think in Europa or CL I give a **** who wins games? No! Hajduk and Dinamo are Croatia! I don't give two ****s and support both. The media is the ones to blame for this ridiculous nonsense.
The atmosphere? Here's a preview: 14 minutes of silence, the booing of Dinamo players and anything Zagreb related, the playing of dalmatinske pjesme and Hajduk songs only with maybe one or two actual Croatian songs.
The fact is not a single team in this group will make it to the end of qualifying without dropping more points! Including us! This isn't a must win but it is a huge fail if we pick up 1 point vs Georgia in two games.
I don't understand how we still play Srna at RB…count how many crosses he has put in since playing back there and its not very much. He is not slow but he isn't fast either and his best quality is providing service and he does none of that from RB.
Mandzukic RM in a 442? I am still very confused there! Last time this was tried was in England 5-1 loss and he looked fairly confused when to attack and when to defend. He has a lot of winger type attacking traits but a 442 is all about playing with balance and throwing players like him there I will never understand. 433 up top as a winger wouldn't seem terrible but in 442 seems stupid. Bilic sees it in training so he must know something I don't.
The players want respect back from a lot of fans the 3 points are going to be needed here. I am not confident fully confident but i still believe. Its not a must win and we are still safe if we only get 1 point but I don't want to hear any post match reactions if they get 1 point….no more it wasn't our day. Just shut it and swallow it and say we are not good enough because I am tired of everyone making excuses. I love Bilic and he is fairly young and could one day again coach our side in the future and i will stand here and support croatia regardless of wins or losses but I just cringe at the lame excuses. It hasn't been our day for over 3 years so lets get that straightened out and quickly we can't win on Kranjcar and Rakitic stunners every game.
3-0 Hrvatska
Goals by Eduardo, Jelavic and Perisic
no need to speculate becuase Bilic announced his lineup, and Vukusic has been sent back to the U21s
The lineup will be: Runje; Srna, Corluka, Simunic, Pranjic; Mandzukic, Modric, Vukojevic, Perisic; Jelavic, Eduardo
I don't have a good feeling, the atmosphere seems to relaxed (seemed like the guys were on the beach more than training) and the crowd in Split can very quickly turn on the team, they do it on Hajduk so many times and this team hasn't played a good game in a while…the fact Bilic says he will use the same approach as the Georgia game (slow possession game) worries me
i think greece will be at advantage when playing at georgia in final game…by then, georgia maybe out of contention for qualification and will put a "friendly" against greece who will grab all 3 pts easily…
its a must win game for croatia against georgia..i dont wish croatia to depend on rival nations to lose pts…just remember the previous WC qualifier when croatia needs england to beat ukraine to qualify ahead of ukraine..england has qualified by then..and did not win the game in the end..
Pranjic will play.
the only thing that worries me about this game is how the players will react if the crowd turns on them if we are still 0-0 late in the game or even finish tied. Right or wrong, the fans in Split are pissed that it has been 14 yrs since the national team played a meaningful game in Split.
Too bad they changed the game from a Saturday to a Friday. Looking forward to see everyone at Alpine for the big game.
The last month or so, I was thinking "this is a must win game for Croatia." Today, I took a deep breathe, analyzed the standings and realized that this is no "must win game."
Even a draw wouldn't be the end of the world. Croatia would have to win in Malta and Greece and at home to Israel and Latvia to automatically top the group.
Also, Greece have a difficult end to their qualifying campaign as they still have to travel to Israel, Latvia and Georgia with a home game against us.
Obviously, its pointless looking for others to stumble. If Croatia continue like this, qualifying for the Euro will be a waste as they will finish three and out.
With all the injuries, this game will not be a cake walk. Georgia will bunker most of the game with a few random counter-attack plays hoping to catch a slow Croatian defense asleep. Remember, this is Georgia's world cup. They are getting better, but are no tournament team. This is their tournament, their time to shine. nil-nil at the half, with Super Mario Mandzukic coming through with an "Ivica Olic goal" in the 60th minute to secure the three points.
But a smiling visitor here to share the love (:, btw outstanding design and style .
Goalie will not matter. Runje and Pletikosa can play rock-paper-scissors before the match as Georgia will be playing for a scoreless draw and will bunker with 9 or even 10 men behind the ball.
D-line: Simunic and Lovren in the middle with Srna and Corluka on the wings making runs.
Midfield: Perisic, Modric, Mandzukic
Strikers: Eduardo, Jelavic, Kalinic
Make it rain at Poljud. I have to put Kalinic in there because Vuki doesnt need to be played in this game and no one else has the experience to step up. You can put in Vuki, Bartulovic late if we are up 2-0.
Bottom line…there needs to be a goal scored in the first 30 minutes of the match, by either team. If Croatia scores, Georgia will have to push up and then we can proceed with counter-attacking and playing regular ball. If Georgia scores first, Cro players will get so hungry that they will play like the last 5 mins of the Geo match. All you gotta do is make our players mad.
I look forward to the atmosphere at Poljud. It's going to be a beautiful night.
2-0 Croatia…Srna free kick in the 38' and Jelavic muscles in a header off a corner in the 70'.