New Croatia #1 goalkeeper, Ivo Grbić, and French side Lille were huge winners in Champions League Tuesday night with a 1-0 victory over Luka Sučić’s RB Salzburg. Grbić stopped two shots on his way to a clean sheet, which now sees Lille (8 points) at the top of their Champions League group by one point, in front of Salzburg (7 points), Sevilla (6 points), and Wolfsburg (5 points). The reigning French champions will now head to Germany to face Wolfsburg in the final group stage match on December 8th. A draw will see them play in the Round of 16 knockout stages. 19 year-old Luka Sučić got the start for RB Salzburg but couldn’t get much going in the 59 minutes he was on the pitch.
Mario Pašalić remains HOT as he assisted on Atalanta’s second goal versus Youngs Boys Tuesday night. In the 51st minute, Pašalić cooly laid a light touch to teammate Palomino in the box, who immediately ripped a perfect shot for the go-ahead goal. However, Young Boys would claw back and earn a hard fought 3-3 draw with Atalanta. The draw means that a win – and a win only – is needed against Villareal on December 8th for Atalanta to progress to the Champions League Round of 16 after the new year.
Ivan Rakitić is still holding his own in Champions League at only 33 years old. The former Croatia international captained Sevilla to an important 2-0 victory over Wolfsburg and supplied the assist on the opening goal with a perfect, long-range cross from outside the box. Could Raketa be interested in a cameo appearance for Croatia at the 2022 World Cup? Imagine having him on the squad purely for leadership and penalty kicks; being inserted into a knockout round match in the 119th minute. I would take that all day long!
Joško Gvardiol was the best defender on the pitch today in Leipzig’s dismantling of Belgian side Club Brugge. Gvardiol registered 8 clearances, 1 blocked shot, 3 interceptions, and 1 tackle in 80 minutes of play. Not to mention, he won 3/5 ground duels, completed 4/7 long balls, completed 1/1 dribbles and recorded 81% pass accuracy as the anchor to Leipzig’s shut down defense. The Croatian wonderkid is proving himself more and more on the big stage. See below as he destroys a beer in mid-air during a goal celebration…
https://www.instagram.com/stories/josko_gvardiol/2714337207340172767/
Ivan Perišić and Marcelo Brozović were key to Inter’s confident 2-0 victory over Shakhtar. After being refused a goal due to a questionable off-side, Perišić came storming back and sent a wonderful cross in to meet Bosnian international Edin Džeko, who sent it flying into the back of the net. Perišić received the second highest rating (8.0) of the match, behind only Džeko, who scored 2 goals.
Perišić: 1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 big chance created, 3/6 crosses, 3/6 ground duels, 2 interceptions, 3 tackles
Brozović: 92% pass accuracy, 2/3 long balls, 1/1 dribble, 2 shots, 5/6 ground duels won, 2 tackles
Luka Modrić and Real Madrid made easy work of Sheriff Tiraspol after having suffered a shock loss in their first encounter. Modrić put together a solid display, like usual. With 88 touches, Modrić recorded 91% pass accuracy, 1 key pass, 5/6 long balls, 5/5 dribbles, 7/10 ground duels, and 2 tackles. Just Modrić being Modrić.
Dortmund might be heading to Europa! Marin Pongračić had a decent match in his side’s shocking defeat against the second best team in Portugal. Pongračić had 2 clearances, 85% pass accuracy, 1 key pass, 3/6 long balls and 1 dribble completed.
Domagoj Vida and company fall short to a Sebastian Haller brace as Ajax clinch their spot at the top of the group. Vida recorded 1 blocked shot, 3 interceptions, 2 tackles, 5/7 ground duels, 90% pass accuracy and 1/1 dribbles completed.
Šime Vrsaljko and Madrid lose a must-win game against a Rebić-less Milan. Vrsaljko recorded 2 tackles, 2/4 ground duels and 4 passes. A pretty impactful 13 minutes.
It’s said Perisic is for sure leaving after this season
He obviously still has a lot to offer
Where will he go?
Some people say hajduk
Not now he can maybe do that at end of career
I think he has a couple high years left in him in champions league
Inter would be insane to let him go!
He is at the top of his game, and only getting better.
I remember when CSR came on the scene and only Srna was making some noise with Shaktar in the CL.
2018 was a direct result of the critical mass of Croatian footballers competing in the business end of the CL.
I am thankful for this site to share in our collective love for Croatia and our nogomet.
A big part of that gratitude is for all of our boys who are leading their clubs throughout the CL, as this will strengthen us going forward for generations to come.
Special thanks to Rakitic for being world class and playing lights out in 2018.
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Amercansi.
Bog i Hrvati.
Amen
We are so used to seeing so much success now
I think this is just the tip of the iceberg
It’s cool to play for Croatia again and the diaspora know it
How lucky and talented are we
Portugal and Italy both in playoffs
See guys we just can’t steam roll everyone, no one can anymore
Let’s hope the ship is back on course
With the above average talent and actually playing and working as hard as they showed against Russia. Great things can truly happen again
Teams will fear drawing us for the World Cup. They know the giant has been awakened!!
Perisic is a freak of nature. Just so solid in every aspect of the game
Inter, Inzaghi: “Perisic is extraordinary, the club knows what I think”
Perisic was the best player on inter today. I lost count of all the perfect crosses that he provided.
What a goal starting with Luka…criticized dzeko and Kroos today and almost immediately they both make me eat my on words lol – maybe I should try that with NT although I hate being negative/pessimistic towards us !
Stupid Kroos making Luka use his legs more then needed – can tell he’s frustrated with play and overall shape of mid
Ivusic gonna be the guy that steps up for us again
Let’s pray he is one of those guys that kill it for us more then club
Grbic should develop more then livakovic in HNL
Barella missing a few quality chances from perisic also- poor brozo gets smacked in the face from handanovic goal kick almost ricochet’d into net for 2nd own goal in a few weeks
Perisic what a nice goal called back and don’t see why- there saying darmian off side but he didn’t interfere nor was pass intended for him-regardless him and brozo playing pretty good – dzeko looks washed up
Bosna had an elite striker in Džeko along with a very good CAM in Pjanić.
They really blew their chance to do anything at NT level.
that Dzeko guy can play for sure- BH needs Livakovic to round out their team of underperformers.
I’m glad to see that Grbić is getting Champions League experience. However, I watched this game, and he did not get tested…even Livakovic would get a clean sheet in this game 😉
Hopefully he will become the keeper that we are praying for, but I’m still not convinced. Lille didn’t really play out from the back much, so its hard to tell if Ivo is good with his feet.
Yeah, no doubt we are all praying for a goalie that is currently ranked amongst the world’s top 10. However, he is our current best option, and as long as continues to progress up to and including Qatar, its all good in my mind.
Good to see Grbić doing well, and I hope he continues developing into a better goalkeeper i imagine that his size coupled with good positioning forces a relatively good number of shots off target.