🇭🇷🏆 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! The Croatian group!
Rebić, Kovačić, Sučić, Dinamo Zagreb will all play each other in group stage this year. AC Milan and Chelsea are expected to easily get out of group as the top two clubs but can Dinamo challenge Salzburg for 3rd spot and a Europa knockout round berth? Possibly. It will be a tough ask but at least two European giants are coming to Maksimir this Fall. Which is never a bad thing.
Sad to see Vrsaljko retire.
He played a bigger part in our success in Russia than he is given credit for.
Great player, heart of a lion, true Hrvatski fighting spirit!!!
Hvala Šime!
Bog i Hrvati
https://www.football-espana.net/2022/08/27/luka-modric-reaches-a-decade-in-the-white-of-real-madrid
Prefer majer stays in France for first half of season at least
So he can play and be match fit for Qatar
If he starts slow he may be on bench in Spain
And not good for him or us
Half our team last World Cup has changed. That’s a significant number. Not to mention they were all key players. A starting power forward, starting Barca midfielder, starting goalkeeper that was possibly our best yet, gritty and defensive minded defence. The only key players on that squad are Modric, Brozovic and Perisic and two of them will play their last tournament this year. I agree with Lovren and Vida status. Time to retire. Both are tools and had their stints. Lovren’s was short and Vida’s was 2016-2019. Our goaltending stresses the hell out of me. All three are on Croatian clubs. Livakovic’s performance in champion’s league will provide us a glimpse on our chances. Defending wise…Stanisic, Sosa, Gvardiol, Sutalo, Erlic and Pongracic are our hope. Midfield well’ll be fine without Modric and Brozovic. Obviously not as strong and organized but still good. Offence wise, the glimmer of hopeful talent is Musa, Brekalo, Vidovic and Simic. I can’t think of any talented goalies in the system on the top of my head. We’ve never produced a goalie that was a top player at a successful club. That blows my mind considering that Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia currently have better starting goalkeepers.
https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2022/atletico-madrid-want-lovro-majer-rennes-dont-want-to-talk/
Crazy valuation if there’s any truth to this.
In my opinion at his peak Vrsaljko was a close second to Darijo Srna at right back for Croatia. Srna was a better attacking player, while Vrsaljko was a better defensive player. It is a pity that injuries have curtailed his career.
This in all probability means that Stanisic will be going to Qatar despite not getting a lot of play time at Bayern. Apart from Juranovic and Stanisic we really don’t have anybody else that can play at RB ?
From the two names mentioned I think both are suitable, and Stanisic did fantastic against the speed of Mbappe, as well as Juranovic. So I am fine with those two options. Personally I favour Stanisic from what I saw.
I am more worried about other positions right now.
Goalie and striker are our two biggest issues. The defense will get there in time I think.
Srna (for the first 5-6 years of his international stint with us) was great and one of our leading scorers.
After 2009, he was complete garbage and couldn’t send in a cross higher than 2 feet from the ground and spent more time flopping than defending or playing football.
He had a good closing tournament in 2016 as a last hurrah before he retired though.
It’s hard to gauge Srna’s career overall with us because he was like two completely different players in the first half of his career with us versus the second.
Kvartuc, here’s a legit leak of Hrvatska’s AWAY shirt for World Cup:
https://www.footyheadlines.com/2021/12/croatia-2022-world-cup-away-kit-info.html?m=1
Not too shabby.
A big thanks to our man sime
I will never forget his runs and crosses down the right wing of the last World Cup
He was a big piece of our success and we are are all grateful to him
I will miss his positivity the most and his cool nature
An article on Majer, possible transfer to Atletico Madrid:
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/madriduniversal.com/atletico-madrid-open-talks-to-sign-the-next-luka-modric/%3famp=1
Seeing Vrsaljko retire at a young age is shocking and upsetting. He played a key role for us at the last World Cup. I assume all the injuries added up and he’s not in top form to compete. Hence why he’s at a Greek club and not La Liga. There’s a bright side to it though, more full backs can develop. It’s difficult to grasp that almost all of our starting defence from last World Cup are either substitutes or retired. Strinic, Corluka, Vrsaljko, Lovren, and Vida. Our defence now have more of an offensive edge and are quicker. But I’ll certainly miss the grinders like Srna and Corluka that always gave it their all.
We need the offensive edge with our current problem in finding a decent striker. So I think it’s great that we have players like Gvardiol and Sosa to call upon, they are nothing short of being fantastic players.
I am more than grateful for what the above names mentioned did on 2018, and I respect Vrsaljko for being able to make the decision himself to call it quits not everyone has the able to keep playing at that level. What he managed during his time was great, but Lovren and Vida too should be following on suit with this decision because the younger generation of defenders need to be given the time to grow. So I think hanging on like this is a detriment to the team overall, unless your last name is specifically Modric, Perisic or Brozovic. Or as I will refer to them as the big three.
Aside from those three players I don’t see what the 2018 guys offer here other than being substitutes.
The only person who I felt shouldn’t have retired when they did was Rakitic, I felt like he could have had another tournament in him, personally. But, I still respect his choice.
https://www.croatiaweek.com/sime-vrsaljko-retires-from-international-football/?fbclid=IwAR3sfJCKBlQqD_WIjbstUt8lrqxc3ax3dJ9uql5J0hW9DnY8RuzROgdb2Uk
Sad but I guess it was time
If only his buddy lovren would as well now
And Vida.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t be sad but I may be a bit happy too
We can all mostly agree that cause of keeping and maybe lack of striker
This tourney won’t be a deep run
Let’s grow the youth
And you never know what may happen
I feel tho if we had a striker tho we could maybe try to win by pure offensive mindset
https://www.footyheadlines.com/2021/12/croatia-2022-world-cup-away-kit-info.html?m=1
https://www.footyheadlines.com/2021/11/croatia-home-kit-2022-world-cup.html?m=1
New kits for 2022 wc debut them v austria denmark in couple weeks
Ok I don’t like those
What the heck
The other ones from last month were much better IMO
Say it ain’t so decki?
I don’t like them that much either.
Please please please noooo!
Hopefully this is fake news.
This site is 99 percent correct so these are the kits
Didn’t this same site leak a dark red and blue kit too?
Or was that some other site.
This site is usually bang on with their leaks, so it’s likely these are the kits.
I worry that these are not going to look like checkers, and will just look like a basic dark kit (similar to our black Euro2021 ones).
Yeah the checkers are too small so from a distance (on TV) u wont really be able to make it out i reckon. The bigger bolder checks always look better imo, like the 2018 home one
The previous away kits that were leaked were better, but I can dig these. Needs more checkers though.
The home kit looks like my computer ran out of memory and stopped loading the PDF. I won’t be picking this up unless we win it all.
Oh shit.
I only clicked on the away kits. I didn’t realize you posted the home kits too.
The home kits look very very bad.
Group Hrvati !!
All these nogometaši playing in CL matches as a World Cup warm up is epic.
“Malo nas je, Al nas ima” – indeed epic Soul Champ
Kalinić with a fucking howler.
Sramota.
How can players play after this?
So demoralizing.
Hajduk has been outworking Villareal, but you have a weak link between the posts and it just ruins all your hard work.
when your best players aren’t their best!
Villarreal playing this game with their bench players!
I still say If we have World Cup final tomorrow I personally take ivusic
How can we be so talented in nogomet but can’t make a fucking solid keeper???
Hopefully some of the kids watched suba make those PK saves and said I’m gonna be the next suba but better.
But what is that like 10 years away???
Especially when you consider 90% of our tennis guys are like 6’4 or above with good reach and reactions etc, just need one of them to become a goalie lol. What’s Ivo Karlovic up to these days? 😉
…Hajduk looked great and Livaja seemed possessed and that he was going to score from any play but not lucky enough.
on another note, Kalinic could have done better and Sahiti and Krovinovic have to stop diving and play with a little more grit! Its really annoying to watch them flop every time they touch the ball!
Livaja seems like the type who works hard and can get into scoring position…but probably struggles when he faces quality defenders.
He missed the net in pretty much every chance, but if it was Gorica instead of Villarreal, he probably scores.
This result says a lot if you ask me. Its not like Hajduk rested their players and Villarreal did start their reserves.
Lovre Kalinić could have done better.
His reaction seemed a bit delayed.
Hajduk was pressing all game and created some chances (they just don’t have the quality finishing to score on the majority of these chances). But it felt like they were eventually going to get one, which would have been well deserved for their hard work.
Shame that Villarreal gets to score on one of the few chances they created.
This underlines how important it is to have a keeper with the ability to bail you out sometimes.
Chelsea and Milan definitely in the Group of Life.
Please, Break it down Ante! How many Teams do we have at least 1 Croatian? Is the number 13 or 14 out of 32? Outside of Dinamo how many Croatians are there in this years Group Stage? Where is “Ziva Istina” to give us the probability of having our 11th in a row?
Please, Break it down Ante! How many Teams do we have at least 1 Croatian? Is the number 13 or 14 out of 32? Outside of Dinamo how many Croatians are there in this years Group Stage? Where is “Ziva Istina” to give us the probability of having our 11th in a row?
Isn’t each point accumulated worth some money as well?
I’m sure they will get a transfer or two
But who is worth money for Dinamo really? Baturina, but I imagine they will keep him for more development and money
They certainly don’t really need the money
Tho money towards a new national stadium would be solid
And an update to poljud
This would be reasonable
They get roughly 1 million Euro for each point they get…on top of the 15 million they received just for qualifying.
The prize money blows away what they get in Europa, which is why I’m all for Dinamo qualifying for CL every chance they can (even if they’re in over their heads).
They’ll probably finish with at least 20+ million Euro from this Champions League PLUS whatever extra they get from Europa if they finish in third place and go directly into the Europa knockout phase.
Wonderful money for Dinamo and then their success also apparently brings 500K for each team in the HNS which is much needed funds for the smaller teams to stay competitive and viable. If another team like Hajduk ( but even Rijeka or Osijek ) would reach the Group Stage it would in my opinion built the league exponentially if done a few times over the next 4 to 5 years. It’s possible! Hajduk seem to want to make it happen with veterans! ( good or bad I don’t know ).
Ok never mind
Read the article again
Third place is doable
Any chance of simic being on the Salzburg squad for CL?
It’s cool
Some good matches. Lots of our boys
How does it work? 3rd place goes into Europa? Or is that like only the top couple of 3rd places ?