What did we learn this week?
- Ivica Ivušić is a much better goalie than Dominik Livaković and should be Dalić’s first choice at the moment. Ivušić shows a confidence in the box Livaković simply does not have right now. There was nothing Ivušić could do on the Bulgarian goal as he was left high and dry on a break away.
- Andrej Kramarić is still Croatia’s best striking option. We can give him shit for failed attempts in front of goal (*cough* Spain game) but no one else has stepped up to challenge him for the position. Not Livaja. Not Pašalić. Not Livaja. That was a wonderful and confident goal from Krama in the box today.
- Borna Barišić is ready to ball and send rockets towards the opposing goal. He could have easily scored from long-range in the 1st half but the opportunity simply did not fall. If Croatia can manufacture long-range threats from defense and midfield (Modrić, Oršić, Perišić); that will add another layer of threat heading into the World Cup. Historically, Croatia has never been a “shoot from outside the box” team.
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The final friendly of the week for Croatia kicks off at 10AM (ET) Tuesday in Doha, Qatar. The Vatreni will face Bulgaria, who lost 2-1 to Qatar on Saturday. This match means absolutely nothing for Croatia as they have already locked up a Pot 2 seeding for this Friday’s World Cup draw.
Manager, Zlatko Dalić, has already stated publicly that the B-team will play against Bulgaria. Here is the squad that is will take the field Tuesday. Once again all eyes on goalkeeper Ivica Ivušić and striker Marko Livaja, as Croatia’s two biggest holes at this time are in the forward and goalie departments.
Too many chances for the opposition. A better opponent will embarrass us. Need to tighten the defense.
It’s hard to take away anything from these late in-season friendlies but a few things stood out and most of them we kind of knew:
1) the 3-5-2 formation is for the birds. You need speedy backs to play it and we just don’t have it. Yes only friendlies with compromised lineups, but scary that we couldn’t keep a clean sheet vs Slovenia or Bulgaria.
2) Kramaric needed these 2 games and hopefully gets his confidence going.
3) Orsic can start for this team. He seems to be a step ahead of the other fringe bench players and always seems to create something out of nothing. Have no issues with giving him a starting role.
4)Majer is gonna be good for a long time if healthy.
5) Not his greatest effort, but feel much more comfortable with Ivusic between the pipes rather than Livakovic.
6) Biggest disappointment from this past week were Vlasic and Livaja.
Pongracic’s inability to get playing time at Dortmund seems to have been clear in the 2nd game. Poor defensive positioning for the goal and poor decisions with the ball when under pressure. He’s got the talent but needs to be sharper in the back. Hate or love him, Lovren may still have a vital to our back line.
Krama is our best attacking option. Too bad for Brekalo’s and Brozo’s injuries, otherwise it would have been nice to see Pasalic play up top.
Perisic is still crucial to our attack from the wing. In a 352 formation, do we try him at RWB and Sosa as LWB. Imagine Sosa crossing the ball for Perisic flying in to the back post.
352 seemed to have allowed our CB to show off more of their offensive skills. I like it.
Pongračić was good in the first game though.
Ćaleta-Car had a pretty bad game too…but most of us see him as a starter.
We need a bigger sample. Hopefully Pongračić gets more time in the UNL games.
We also need to see Stanišić called up to the senior squad, and play some CB alongside Gvardiol.
We’re wasting him on the U21 squad when he might be an even better fit next to Gvardiol than any one of Ćaleta-Car, Pongračić, and Lovren.
Pongracic was really good throughout both games. Some poor decisions though which is a bit worrisome.
If Stanisic can get minutes at Bayern, he definitely could play for the senior squad. But the next two U21 games are important so I don’t see it happening.
Vrsaljko also played RCB quite a bit this season. Along with Uremovic, we have a lot of players that could fit this 3 in the back lineup.
If Jedvaj can reach his potential, this lineup would be great for him as well.
Highlights here:
https://highlightssoccerhd.com/video/croatia-vs-bulgaria-highlights/
Legend! Thank you, i came here hoping someone had posted highlights and you came through you bloody champ!
If Ivusic can’t cut it, then we can’t go back to Livakovic.
Gotta keep the goalkeeper train going.
Next up: Kristijan Kahlina from Charlotte FC in the MLS is doing very well now. Lower league, but still…a former good HNL keeper playing first team football.
https://youtu.be/UVBfO993U-w
And the Modric pen
https://youtu.be/v5a6jqfhO8k
Here’s the Kramaric goal
Denmark 3 – 0 Serbia feels pretty good too
One thing i have no problem with older player who have class like perisic modric are beasts who train and spend money on their body to be fit in mid late 30s.
Ivusic for me is solid keeper with feet and in air. Has done nothing wrong in his 3 games for croatia. Hope to see him in nations league if healthy.
3 5 2 is not the formation for me our 4 3 3 is the way for me. But dalic wants the 3 5 2.
Also i think players who are in form should ger calls vlasic you can tell has no self esteem and confidence on tv atleast. Musa should get a try
As much we shit on krama he is only pure goal getter we have..
All in all gotta do better and find chemistry or else we finish like at euros out of group one and done.
Hey Miki- i hope it’s Krama that can take us to the promise land as striker but love to see one of these kids challenge him- Pusalic ? Not sure but I just don’t trust Krama to do it when it counts/
We have to keep in mind other players like Sosa couldn’t play due to injury so I am sure he would have changed the dynamic of the team as well. I am a bit disappointed that Livaja couldn’t play better I am not sure what’s happening with him, is it maybe the structure of players as well, having strong characters in the middle also helps. This seemed more like an exhibition match so we would have to see this kind of thing in a tournament.
Maybe some players selected are not the right fit, not too sure about this one. We may be very lucky to make it out of group stage. If you put us next to a team like Portugal or Spain I don’t feel that confident right now that we would win.
Kind of scares me actually. I hope I am wrong but I see more problems in this kind of a result. Our accuracy in the front seems to be a big problem, 20 shots with 10 on target, I think it needs to be a bit better then that. I know it’s not easy, and it’s easier said then done. Maybe I was wrong earlier in my posts, maybe we need a strong poacher up front??
Time and time again, from what I am hearing, is that Modric and Perisic keep producing and bailing the team out of problems. Quote me if I am wrong, but this technically proves Dalic right for relying the older players I believe. The younger players need to step up and start making a difference and putting the ball in the net. Otherwise we have the same problems time and again.
This is why I don’t hold much stock in under 21, under 19, etc. They are just kids, barely out of high school. Rather Croatia makes the QF of a World Cup than win an under 21 title.
Any highlights anywhere? Youtube is just full of fake uploads since they removed the dislikes so you tend to have to go elsewhere
U21 FT Croatia 2 – Finland 3
Reality check for Biscan and our U21side. First half was a disaster with our defence gifting Finland 3 goals. We only started to play the last 30 minutes and were able to pull back 2 goals but not enough to avoid defeat. The worrying thing is that our star players were poor. Luka Sucic, Josip Sutalo, Josip Stanisic and Roko Simic who missed a penalty in the 68 minute when the score was 0 – 3.
Biuk came on and changed the flow of the match in our favour.
Good news is that Austria beat Norway 2 – 1 so we are still first. Last two matches are away to Norway and Estonia. Need 4 points to ensure qualification.
U21 HT – Croatia 0 – Finland 3.
Our defence making silly mistakes and gifting Finland.
Josip Sutalo in the middle of defence also having a shocker.
3-5-2 is not the formation, regardless if it’s the A or B team playing.
Agree, although it might be use full against stronger teams where it becomes 5-3-2 and occasionally in quick transition it becomes 3-5-2.
Pongracic is incredibly slow. Should never be called up again.
Luka bails out the team again by coming off the bench.
A positive is that Kramaric scored a goal that actually required some skill. He’s our only legitimate forward, so let’s pray that it will give him some confidence going forward.
U21 Croatia 0 – Finland 2 after 29 minutes.
Pongracic has little defensive awareness. he was jogging looking the other way not paying attention while his man was making a full sprint right behind him. DCC looked clumsy today, but plays much better alongside gvardiol. Orsic>Brekalo at RB? Kovacic plays too stupid sometimes, lost the ball in our defensive third at the end of the game, it was a 3v1 for bulgaria idk how they didnt score. livaja/vlasic uptop doesn’t work out. when budimir is on the field it seems perisic and kramaric have more space. all of our goalies suck, ivusic just sucks least overall. majer misplaced some passes. Barisic looked “ok” at LCB when we had 3 in the back. think we should just stick with 4 in the back; sosa-gvard-dcc-jj
The game was hard to gauge.
It was entertaining, but sloppy and all over the place.
This is why I don’t like friendlies where we just empty the bench and play them all at the same time (without the key starters).
We would never field this lineup in an actual tournament, and a lot of these guys have zero chemistry together, and some are playing out of their desired position.
I understand that you want to give players rest, but then you can’t really assess the game if every single starter is on the bench at the same time.
If we put maybe half of the key starters in the game in the beginning (like Gvardiol, Modric, Kovacic, Kramaric)… we could try out different “real life” combos that we would realistically want to play in a tournament.
It’s hard to gauge strikers when you have neither Sosa nor Juranovic sending in crosses. Hard to do “three at the back” when starting the two CBs that are least known for passing (like Skoric and Vida). I personally would never start Livaja or Vlasic up top…but it’s hard to criticize them too hard as they didn’t have any one of our starting central midfielders behind them.
Orsic is a great player…playing out of his favored position, then a bad pass from him, causes a run and a mistake from Pongracic which led to a goal on Ivusic.
I hope now that Dalic doesn’t read this as Orsic, Pongracic and Ivusic not being starting material.
I like these three players…but I would love to see them tried out with Brozovic, Sosa, and the other key starters and see how they do.
Which sutalo is the good one?
Josip right?
Him and of course stanisic(at cb?)I need to be seen
Josip Sutalo is the good one. According to the media he might be going to Italy ? Not sure if that is a good idea, as Italy has been a graveyard for many young talented Croatian players that have gone there to play and have dissapeared of the radar.
U21 Finland 1 – Croatia 0 after 10 minutes.
Our goalkeeper Kotarski receives a back pass, tries to dribble, loses the ball and they score. Shocking mistake.
I agree with the article. We had a number of longer range shots that were actually quite close and dangerous. Our attack while not having that classic striker comes from all varieties now
During the 2010s you could rinse and repeat coming down the flank and usually srna trying to bomb in into whoever could finish
Now it’s so much harder to defend our attack
Not sure about the 3-5-2 formation, as our defenders are too slow. I know that we were missing Gavardol today but DCC and Pongarcic were exposed badly today due to lack of pace.
Watching now U21 on HNTV v Finland. We need a win after the dissapointing draw against Austria on Friday.
Things I learned
Barisic very well has things to offer still
Majer we need to see more and more of him there was one point he got dumped and wanted a foul, got up and made a really nice run. Has some anger in him. I like his potential Also looked solid from
The corner kicks
Perisic still the man
Skoric I bashed his call up. Only cause I want to see younger guys get played but guy you can see has heart and is not a dumb defender at all
Budimir/krama thing may be legit
Ivusic needs to be seen more of. I’m not sure if they go with grbic next but at this point If I personally had to pick a keeper from what we know of the last year or so I take ivusic
Orsic dangerous on the set pieces. Would love to see him on his good side
Livaja had one really nice pass but I don’t think he’s got it for us
Pasalic I can’t tell if he had a good match or not
Honestly Via Lovren can go
Call up Sutalo
Stanisic
Uremovic
Hamburg Defender from Split
Nah Vida and probably Lovren are more secure than the youngsters. Post WC sure
i though that was quite good. positive performances. no worries at all. I still think 433/4231 suits us better but it was a good two games. dominated both games in 2nd gear. every player showed quality in different phases. no problem
seeing Pogracic was Sloopy _ that’s not good sign!
meaning Stupid Dalic would go to Lovren over him
Ivusic Number 1
Grbic backup
3rd goalie Slugaaaaaa
Let’s goooooo
Lucky to win this match. Dalic had to bring on the big guns to turn the match around. Defence all over the shop, Bulgaria created quite a few good chances and deserved to get something out of this match.
Ya they played like it was their World Cup for sure
Gvardiol makes a huge impact in defence
What about gvardiol DCC and skoric for back 3? If we play the 3 cbs
Another comment and I’ll chill out
As much as we will miss luka
When Perisic came on, he influenced things so damn much
Barisic with a strong game. Unlucky not to score
No way ivusic doesn’t warrant more minutes in nations league
He at least makes a choice and drives for the ball
He ain’t no bitch in there
DCC started well
Both him and pongarcic doing their best To keep lovren relevant
Skoric for sure can be that guy when we need some sureness
I am not in want to start him but he plays hard
Pongracic is absolutely awful! No mas! No mas!
He’s good.
But he and CC aren’t doing as well today.
Looks like it’s Lovren/Vida at the World Cup lol.
Would gladly take lovren over Pongracic
Pongracic fell asleep on the goal, allowing the Bulgarian player run behind him and then had two awful giveaways that should have led to two more.
No way he should be taken to Qatar.
3 on 1 very lucky they didn’t tie it…nice to see us still goin for goals..games getting a lil scrappy cards lol
What a fuckin goal !
If any hrvati or anyone in general wants to get firestick my cro brother from another mother sells them. You get everything 4K HDR watching on nova tv now but tons of countries and Croatian channels
I need Marki
I’m sick of these terrible dieing streams
Does budimir give krama space and confidence?
That was delightfully done by krama
Let’s hope he makes a come back for us
Two goals in two games and quality finishes
I think so, budimir is the only actual striker on the team, he’s a good partner for krama
2 – 1 Kramaric. Good goal.
What a goal by kramaric !!
I’m not the only one that didn’t want luka to take that I know
But done with authority
Lucky to get a soft penalty. Not Modric ? 1 – 1.
Kova and orisic both with really good chances in second half
I’m not mad at being down 1-0
Lol now Bulgaria gets a red as well
Entertaining at least
Still like ivusic play on that goal
Almost gets it as well
Yup. He didn’t hesitate. Came out and almost saved it.
Hopefully Dalić sees it this way.
I spoke too soon. DCC deservedly and foolishly gets RED.
One thing is clear after this match and that is that Orsic cannot play on the Right Hand Side. 1 – 0 Bulgaria. Lucky that we got the draw against Slovenia as this is not looking good.
Lucky it is a friendly, otherwise DCC would have seen RED. In the NOVA TV studio prior to kick off Robert Jarni saying that Livakovic is our No.1 GK.
Not sure if Livaja has touched the ball 2-3 times.
What are these guys seeing in liva that most of us don’t??
Jarni is an idiot and was an utter failure during his coaching career.
I wouldn’t tske anything he says seriously.
any link to watch the game thanks
https://daddylive.fun/stream/stream-8.php
majer so good. key player for us
dalic should swap vlasic and pasalic. pasilc is horrible when picks the ball up deep. let him makes runs behind the defence
Ivusic in first 30 mins already displays more confidence in a good save and with the ball in his feet and a pretty confident punch out
I missed the first half hour. But tuned in right when Ivušić was playing the ball at his feet and calmly cleared it straight down the field while under pressure from a Bulgarian. It actually led to a chance for us.
Livaković can’t do this.
Ya hard to ignore what ivusic has shown in his 2.5 games
Sure it’s a small sample size but the confidence he shows can’t be ignored
Quality attempt from distance from Moro
Also skoric puts in max effort no doubt
It’s early and my feed sucks
But majer and cc showing their smooth passing and showing why they need be starters
My simulation
France
The good guys
Japan
Tunisia
Id take that
Orsic at RWB? Not even his right side + we asking him to do defensive duties… weird.
its a friendly, relax. I read in sportske novosti that dalic say he doesnt want any players to start two games in a road including juranovic. Hence, he put orsic cuz there is no one else to put.
Also CC is starting again because lovren cant play cause he is not in “competitive rhythm”
Oh phew I thought they were just counting lovren as auto A team starter
just to add on. In the world cup orsic is not gonna start once on the left side. Barring a injury or serious drop of form from Perisic.
Orisic is the rwb today
World Cup 2022 Draw Simulator:
https://stattosoftware.com/wc2022/
and we should let the Serbs pick as many Russians to be on their team as they want and we’d still bury them- interesting draw- rather have Argentina- we for some reason have their number and it’s usually 3-0 for us. Thank you for sharing -we’ll see.
U19 Euro Qualifier FT – Croatia 0 v Georgia 1
Romania wins the group with 6 points, Iceland 4, Georgia 4 and Croatia 3.
We did not create one clear chance in the entire match, played on a concrete like field in Karlovac. I wonder if Josip Simunic will have a coaching job with HNS after this debacle ?
And we rested a bunch of our starters (how you not gonna play Vidovic!!) this is ridiculous and embarrassing. They used this like a friendly.
Once we lost to Romania on Saturday and Iceland drew with Georgia we could no longer qualify (if equal points head to head decides winner of the group). That is why two days ago they decided to send Vidovic to U21.
Is this a shit team or shit managing or just a period of shit play for the 19s?
Although I’m a Livaković fan, dudes been under bad form for too long, shouldn’t be starting. Haven’t seen him play a confident game for Club or Country since the 2020-21 season.
Hopefully Ivušić or Grbić can step up or at least wake Livaković up.
I wish you were right
But as I stated before we gave livakovic a way longer leash then kalinic. Not that I’m saying either one should be playing
But I still say we have a more capable keeper against Spain In the summer we would have beaten them despite the shoe saga
Another midnight game for us Aussies, sigh. If someone can post highlights that’d be great cos i obv won’t be watching at that time.