Marcelo Brozović opened the scoring for Inter Milan Wednesday night in a 3-1 victory over Sheriff Tiraspol and received ‘Man of the Match’ honors for his efforts with a 9.1 rating (FOTMOB). With the game scoreless in the 54th minute, Brozović ripped a low shot from 18 yards out that “nutmegged” a Sheriff defender before hitting the back of the net. The win puts Inter Milan and Real Madrid in position to book knockout round berths with two matches remaining in group stage.
Ivo Grbić and Lille dodged a huge bullet on Tuesday as the reigning French champions needed a result against Sevilla to stay relevant in their Champions League group. Sevilla would score in the 15th minute when a medium-paced shot came right at Grbić, only to be partially blocked right to the foot of Lucas Ocampos for the goal. Grbić needs to catch the ball or get a fist on it to punch it away. With Livaković slipping, solid performances by Grbić in Ligue 1 and Champions League could see him become the Croatia #1 sooner than later.
Lille would convert a penalty just before halftime and score the winner in the 2nd half of a 2-1 victory over Sevilla. Grbić made three saves on the day as Lille now find themselves in 2nd place, two points behind group leaders RB Salzburg.
Luka Modrić played the full 90 minutes for Real Madrid in a 2-1 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk. Modrić should have easily scored in the opening minutes of the match but his open shot on goal wasn’t wide enough with the keeper getting a hand on it for a corner. Modrić received a 5/10 grade (90 Min) as he was “Wasteful in front of goal. The chance he missed early on had an xG value of 0.39, but it looked an even easier opportunity than that. Picked up some nice positions, but final ball was lacking.”
In other Champions League news, Mario Pašalić played the 1st half for Atalanta in a 2-2 draw versus Manchester United. Luka Sučić played 77 minutes for RB Salzburg in a 2-1 defeat to Wolfsburg. Dejan Lovren played the full 90 minutes for Zenit and picked up a yellow card in a 4-2 loss to Juventus. Joško Gvardiol played 90 minutes in defense for RB Leipzig in a 2-2 draw vs. PSG. He was partially responsible for not marking Wijnaldum on PSG’s second goal. The play looked to be offside initially but the goal was good. Šime Vrsaljko played the last 20 minutes for Atletico in a 2-0 loss to Liverpool. Marin Pongračić came on for Thorgan Hazard in the 34th minute as Ajax beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1.
Player ratings are entertaining and sometimes makes one wonder if they’re watching the same game. Real Madrid from espnfc.com …. (only Benzema and Vini Jr. got 9s, and no one else got an 8, everyone under).
MF Luka Modric, 8 — Started really well, getting forward and almost scoring twice early on, denied both times by the goalkeeper.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH – MARCELO BROZOVIC
The Croatian was key in midfield as ever, netting his first goal of the season at an important time after Inter had struggled in front of goal. As vital as his goal was, the rest of his game was good as well, classily dominating in midfield.
This dude is a world class #8.
He is about to get a big time contract either at Inter or Spurs.
Brozovic puts up Inter 1-0 !
Cant play 3 5 2 gotta practice it was a formation that died off with 4 2 3 1 being modern formation. Moving foward we can play it but these 2 games we should bot experiment.
Livakovic Juranovic Gvardiol CC Sosa-Modric Broz Pasalic/Vlasic- Kramaric Livaja Perisic but most likley vid and lovren play which if dalic.does that we deserve to not go id dont want that being the cb partnership at 2022
I don’t want to see no Pongracic or Grbic or Lovro Majer or any other kid at this moment. With 2 games to go we go with what’s got us here.
Probably what will happen is that Dalić will go with experienced players to close out the qualifying cycle. Then, if we qualify, he will begin training a new team with a new formation and younger players. If he does that, it’s a good strategy for approaching a world cup in the desert. You want players who are fast and less injury-prone for the world cup finals because it’s a lot of games in quick succession, especially since it comes after the regular season begins and on the heels of the Nations League. One year is plenty of time to make a total change in how the team plays. He can change the core of the team across that time. He can’t do it between now and the Russia game. And yes, I think Dalić intends to change the team if Croatia goes to the world cup. If we don’t go, he will likely resign anyway and let someone else take over and start from nista
Well said. Makes sense.
3 in the back formation, right center back could be vida, stanisic, or maybe even pongracic, but we all know dalic will put in lovren
…………Perisic…………………..Kramaric…………..
………………………..Pasalic…………………………….
………………..Brozo…………Modric………………….
Sosa…………………………………………..Juranovic
…………Gvardiol…….DCC……..Vida……………….
……………………….Livakovic………………………….
I fully expect Lovren to play the next two matches
I cant see grbic ahead of livi for some reason. But lovren should not play imo. Against malta is gonna be hard game also No kovacic brekalo for 2 games v malta i have no idea what lineup will look like. V russia i think Dalic will put wrong lineup it will be a X. I hope not if we dont get result in malta poljud will be empty v russia deservingly i have a ticket and if we fuck up v malta im not gonna go 80 kunas wasted
Seriously…they were selling tickets for 80 kuna?
That’s about $16 Canadian?
The torcida section was 80 kuna east 100 to120 west 150 to 200 kuna
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