A pretty quiet night all around for Croatians in the Champions League playoff round. The one thing to mention is that Niko Kovač has his Borussia Dortmund side with one foot in the door for the Round of 16. Should they defend their 2-goal lead vs. Atalanta, the German side would then play either Arsenal or Bayern Munich in the next round. Kovač was rumored to be in line to take over Manchester United a few weeks back. Let’s see how he finishes the season with Dortmund, currently sitting only 6 points behind leaders Bayern for the Bundesliga crown.
✅Niko Kovač leads Borussia Dortmund to 2-0 victory over Atalanta
❌Mario Pašalić plays 90 minutes and receives 6.9 SofaScore rating in 2-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund
❌Franjo Ivanović unused sub in Benfica’s 1-0 loss to Real Madrid
Hopefully mourinho will get sacked because of his disgraceful comments. Essentially gaslighting a victim of racism. No way vini jr makes it up. Hopefully new coach likes Franjo. Argentina one of the most racist country.
Why wouldn’t Vini make it up?
People make up stuff all the time.
I’ll never forget when Rijeka’s junior team beat Man City’s junior team. Man City’s coach (Patrick Vieira) was such a bad sport about it, he walked off the field with his team refusing to shake hands. Then he claimed racism afterwards. He played on the fact that Croatians are white (and therefore racists), and a lot of French and English new articles highlighted that. FIFA then conducted a thorough investigation and found nothing.
Sports athletes are not some high quality individuals that we all need to look up to. Most of them are petty. Vini himself can be a pretty big douche at times.
That being said…
I really hope it actually is racism and Gianluca Prestianni gets a ban and Mourinho gets fired, ha ha.
I agree. Vini Jr. definitely can be provocative on the pitch. Whether the Benfica said something racist, Vini Jr shouldn’t be allowed to allowed to act the way he does at times. On another note, I hope Petar Sucic has a big game today.
So racism
Has a place in the pitch then ?
Only if it results in Ivanović gaining a starting spot.
During black history month let’s hearken the words of MLK let us not judge on the color of our skin but the content of our character man
Given RW Prestianni is likely looking at a 10-game ban
He’s played 1,459′ minutes for Benfica this season
Condemnable circumstances obviously
But perhaps Franjo will benefit ?
I know Prestianni’s a RW and when he came off Lukebakio came on (but he just returned after a broken ankle after being 2.5 months out) so Mourihno will have to rely on available players that can play 90 min
Might work out.
For the future, it would be nice to have a fast, pressing, and technically gifted trio of Baturina, Jagusic and Ivanovic in the attack (similar to how Como plays).
We may need to implement this immediately after the World Cup (especially if we have several retirements).
So, the sooner Ivanovic can get up to speed, the better for us.
I know it’s not realistic – but the future is now at this WC 2026 – NL in the fall will be tough (and as you say we don’t want to get relegated and lose our seeding for Euro qualifying) – nobody is expecting Croatia to go far in 2026 (as we’re at the end of the generation) so it would be prudent to use the 4 friendlies + 3+ WC games to gain valuable experience for 2030
Anonymous would take three losses in 2026 and experience for young players – in exchange for having a real shot in 2030 (look at the age profiles in 2030 – it all lines-up – it could be perfect (like in 1996/98 and 2018)) – obviously new/better players will present themselves in the next 4 years (e.g. one of the young CBs will no doubt come thru) – but you can see how it is starting to take shape…
WC 2026 Starting XI
[Franjo]
Baturina – Jagusic
Krama*
Pero
Modric
Stanisic LCB Vuskovic Jakic
Livakovic
*Anonymous would prefer Vlasic in-lieu of Krama, but we need at least two geriatrics starting to be realistic. Perisic 1st sub for Baturina or Jagusic (whoever is gassed or not playing well) as he can play LW or RW. As Perisic is more a touchline winger, that’s when you bring on Budimir for his crosses if trying to get a late goal. So all 4 geriatrics get to play.
WC 2030 Starting XI (age)
Igor (27)
Franjo (26) – Jagusic (24)
Baturina (27)*
Pero (26)
3rd midfielder
Gvardiol (28) TBD Next Gen CB (TBD) Vuskovic (25) Barisic 😉 (25)
Keeper
*Assumes Baturina goes more centrally, TBD whether it’s him or Jagusic or neither (i.e. they continue with their current positioning)
*Sorry, Vuskovic will only be 23 in 2030
Krama, Perisic and Budimir are all having good seasons.
There is no way you can bench these guys for youngsters who are still establishing themselves at their clubs.
However, I would love it if we could at least use the young guys as options off the bench if our offense becomes stale (like it was at Euro2024).
Prior to Euro2024, we looked good. We all thought that the Euros were lining up to be our tournament and we could win it.
Then the tournament begins, and we were arguably one of the worst teams in the tournament.
This doesn’t mean it will happen again, but at the same time, we haven’t really done anything new (other than swapping out Broz with Sucic).
Some guys are in better form, and I’m sure the terrible Euro experience will motivate them to do better.
But I think that giving significant minutes to these young guys (like Vuskovic and Baturina) and taking advantage of our very in-form supersubs (like Vlasic) will be an ex-factor for us in going deep into the tournament…just like it was at WC2022.
This is where context matter
Budimir, Krama and Perisic are surrounded by intense, fast and/or running teammates – but they are the “slowest” on their teams (I can definetely say this about Hoffenheim – I know last year Ivan had guys like Noa Lang around him running like crazy)
So you have to look at their performance in that context
If Dalic slots them in together – you are slotting in three “snails” together – genius !
Vs England
Croatia will have zero pressing threat – so England will keep moving up their line further up the field and compress the midfield and Croatia will be pinned back and there will be no Plan B (long-balls out) as there will be no runners
To keep England defence line back and honest you need the threat of runners who can chase the ball and run in behind the defence (ironically similar to many of the goals Croatia has let in recent times)
But unfortunately I know what you’re saying is most likely what Dalic is going to do but it’s not the right approach
I tuned in to watch Borussia Dortmund v Atalanta at exact KO time only to find that players were still warming up. Match was delayed by 15 minutes because one team was late arriving at the ground because of the traffic.
The TV commentator and probably like everyone else watching thought it was Atalanta that was late ? however, it was the home team that was late.
Unbelievable, so much for German efficiency and organisation. I cannot believe that this happened to Niko Kovac.
You’re kidding me….that’s why it started 15 minutes late?? Was every lane on the autobahn closed???
This is literally impossible per German efficiency – I mean it’s like one in a trillion odds of a German being even a second late (never mind 15 minutes late)
Only explanation is Niko planned it on purpose to keep the opponents waiting (you know like when a player is waiting to take a penalty and is standing there for too long and then they miss bc to much time to think – in this case the opponents whole pre-game routine (when to eat, when to pee, etc) is too early by 15 minutes and you throw them off)
Might explain why the Atalanta coach refused to shake Niko’s hand after the game ?