There was tons of action for Croatians in Champions League this week! Atalanta’s Mario Pašalić scored the opener at Old Trafford vs. Manchester United Wednesday night with a sharp tap-in right in front of goal. Atalanta would take a 2-0 lead against the Red Devils, however, Man United would roar back to a 3-2 victory capped off by an 81st minute winning header by Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s good to see Pašalić on the board with a start in Champions League as he usually comes off the bench to play the super-sub role.
Real Madrid blanked Shakhtar Donetsk Tuesday night in a 5-0 win. Luka Modrić had one of the most accurate and precise passes you will ever see, assisting on Vinicius’ goal to make it 2-0 in the 51′. The man is 36 years old and still doing stuff like this at the top level. Simply amazing!
Josip Stanišić (21 years old) came on for Bayern Munich in the 77th minute of a blowout game against Benfica. Bayern would win 4-0 with Stanišić assisting on the fourth and final goal, feeding Leroy Sane in the box with a cool pass after blazing down the right wing. Sure, the game was out of hand, but we have a young defender playing Champions League ball for Bayern Munich. There’s something to be said for that.
Croatian defender Joško Gvardiol came on for RB Leipzig in the 70th minute against PSG Tuesday night and nearly put his side up with a header following a long free kick. Gvardiol did not get enough on his head as the ball glanced well wide of the right post. In injury time, Gvardiol was called for a penalty following a long VAR review. It appeared as if Gvardiol got a piece of the ball but it doesn’t matter anyways as Mbappe missed from the spot. PSG won 3-2.
The Croatian young guns were out in full force for RB Salzburg in their 3-1 win over Wolfsburg. Luka Sučić (19 years old) played the full 90 minutes with a 7.6 rating while his compatriot, Roko Šimić (18 years old) made his Salzburg AND Champions League debut in the 87th minute. Sučić looked solid in midfield with tons of pace and was fearless to shoot from long range. He had a wonderful dribble where he took on two Wolfsburg defenders at the same time, megging one in the process.
Lille goalkeeper, Ivo Grbić, posted a clean sheet versus Sevilla on Wednesday in a 0-0 draw. Grbić made six saves during the match as the reigning French champions now find themselves with only two points from their first three Champions League matches.
Say what you want but pasalic does have a nose for goal
Someone needs to check but I bet he is probably right up there for active repka champions league goal scorers
The bit I saw of sucic
He looked into the game
Nice corner kicks
Kid will be more of an impact for the repka then kova
Prove me wrong
What he’s doing at this age, none of our guys did.
Modric was in BiH at the same age, and then did a loan spell at Zapresic after that (where people started to take notice). He played at Dinamo the following year, and got called up to the national team for WC2006…but was just a backup. He really started to take off after that tournament (at age 21).
Rakitic did do well as an 19 year old with Schalke (and scored a CL goal himself I believe)…but he didn’t really progress for the next few years and was sold to Sevilla for peanuts. It was only at 23-24 where he started to take off.
Kovacic was bought by Inter Milan at 19, at an impressive fee, but this was largely based off of hype. He looked good for the repka at age 18, but did little at club level. Kovacic has always performed below expectations…until the past year or so. It looks like he’s turning a corner.
None of these career paths are linear, so anything can happen. Some guys get better every year, some guys plateau early…it’s so hard to predict.
But it is pretty great seeing a 19 year old, carve himself a leading role on a Champions League caliber club already.
He looks like he is going to be just as good as the three mentioned above. Maybe not Modric level, but I’m hoping for something better than Kovacic (hopefully as good as Rakitic or better).
If he keeps the hunger he should rate quite high
I think modric is showing many what true class is
The amount of work and effort he puts in
It’s something mandzo had as well
That work rate
These kids need to know just cause you are good you have to be like luka and bloody Ronaldo
Not many people train as hard as Ronaldo
It’s what makes them so exceptional and playing so high at top level
Knock on wood luka can probably play till like 40 like zlatan
Maybe he will lose a bit every year
But look at that pass yesterday… his ability to see the game is so far beyond many that it makes up for some loss of physical
Anyways I’m glad the young kids can watch and be around luka a bit
This new generation should be pretty darn solid in the not so distant future