Dominik Kotarski had a rough day at the office Tuesday night in Champions League, letting in four goals in a 4-2 Copenhagen loss to Borussia Dortmund. Kotarski received a 3.4/10 rating from FOTMOB for his efforts as he let in two “easy goals” that should have been prevented. You be the judge.
Not trying to shit on Kotarski here by any means. The reason this is important is because Kotarski is arguably Croatia’s #2 keeper at the moment — and #1 Livaković — has not played club football since late August. With the World Cup only 8 months away, something has to give here if Livaković isn’t seeing the pitch and Kotarski is playing like this in his biggest matches.
In other news around Champions League Tuesday night, Joško Gvardiol played the full 90 minutes in Manchester City’s 2-0 road win against Villarreal. He received a 5/10 rating from Goal.com as he “Lacked concentration at times and got a dressing down from Guardiola for sending a pass to an opponent.” Mateo Kovačić came off the bench in the 57′ and received a mediocre score from Goal.com. “Got 33 minutes after a cameo against Everton, but his arrival coincided with Villarreal improving.” Good to have Kova back and healthy going into 2026.
Ivan Perišić played 84 minutes for PSV Eindhoven in their impressive 6-2 victory over Napoli.
Petar Sučič played the last 31 minutes of Inter Milan’s win over USG to remain perfect in Champions League: 3/3.
Franjo Ivanović came off the bench in the 63rd minute for Benfica of their 3-0 loss to Newcastle.
still a lot of problems to fix, and not enough time to fix them in
My opinion stick with Livaković, until proven otherwise.
I recall Kotarski being shaky in the past.
Thought maybe he got better, but I guess not.
Shame because will will need a good keeper in the next 4-5 years if and when Livakovic drops off or retires.
SI.com said of Gvardiol yesterday:
LB: Joško Gvardiol—7.8: An unsung hero. Gvardiol did well to link up with Doku, yet consistently delivered inside his own half, boasting 12 clearances in a game Villarreal rarely had the ball.
Nothing more subjective than an objective soccer grade.
He mostly played well, but also gave some uncharacteristically bad passes.
Pink Pandur beat Leicester 1-2 today
His distribution, passing and long-balls stats still suck
Don’t like that he thought the goal was going over (so put down his hand) – and something similar with Winks hitting the cross-bar near the end (again he puts down his hand) – don’t know if he needs glasses (?) but judgement on both those plays leaves something to be desired
Anyways – Hull has won 3 games in a row – and flirting with play-off position – meanwhile Crnac’s Norwich lost again and sitting in relegation (nasty stuff)
***.youtube.com/watch?v=YGC0EbwxnaQ