Oh man. That was rough. I don’t care that we lost to a better squad in England…but you can’t concede 7 goals to anyone on Croatian soil. You just can’t!!
-horrible defensive display where every goal came from tap-ins in front of Livaković. No one being marked
-Modrić/Kovačić cannot play together against the world’s top teams…they are too slow
-we are clearly not on the same level as Spain/England (conceding 11 goals to them this week)
-hopefully playing Spain/England/Spain in the same week won’t be a confidence buster for Bilić and the boys. These are the best teams in the world. Remember that. But you know what England. We got you in 2018 and that’s all that matters!
-Silver lining. It’s still only Nations League at the end of the day and all that matters is we finish top-3 for a euro 2028 qualifying top seed
-Kovaaaaaaa. My man! How could you miss that empty net????
Grab a beer and have a great weekend guys after that one. Jesus. CroatianSports loves you.
67′ Another goal for England. 6-0. Defensive blunder. Stanišić puts the ball right t the top of the Croatian box. Saka picks it up and easily scores. What a disaster.
57′ SUB Modrić off, Jakić on. Great move. No reason for him to be out there. Bilić just needs to take Perišić off now to save him for Spain.
53′ 5-0 England. Kane taps in a cross right in front of the goal. Every goal has come the exact same way for them…right in front of the goal. they are making complete Swiss cheese of the Croatian defense and making this look like a training exercise.
47′ Matanović rips a shot from 40 out with Pickford off his line but it goes wide.
46′ SUBS Musa, Petar Sučić, Baturina come off. Matanović, Mario Pašalić, Vlašić come on.
HT 4-0 England. Probably the worst half of Croatian football this century. I honestly can’t tell if the Vatreni care about this game or if England is that far ahead of them with ability. Croatian defense looks like amateurs and Kova missed an open look on goal. I will say it once, I will say it again…Kova and Modrić are too slow in the middle together. One has to sit. I would gut this team and change face players right now. No reason for Modrić or Perišić to be out there any more with Spain on Tuesday in Split. Games like these are so bad for confidence….but you know what guys? At the end of the day…it’s still only Nations League.
45′ 4-0 England. They are just playing with us now and the Croatian defense has not looked this bad in a long time. Saka is left wide open in front of Livaković for an easy tap-in on the other side of a Bellingham pass.
41′ NOOOOOOOO Kovačić!!! Kova dances around the entire English defense in the box and fakes a shot on Pickford to make him go down early. Kova has a WIDE OPEN shot on the right side of goal but misses wide. From bad to worse tonight in Rijeka.
39′ 3-0 England. Quansah with a perfect cross from the right side. It bounces once in the box and Anthony Gordon easily slams it home. Stanišić left Gordon WIDE OPEN and unmarked in the box. Isuse.
25′ Gordon with a wide open shot in front of the Croatian goal. Livaković makes himself big and makes a great save. Should be 3-0. Hopefully this doesn’t get ugly for our boys. It’s all England in Rijeka.
22′ 2-0 England. It has been all England so far. Not looking good for Croatia. Anthony Gordon keeps the ball in on the Croatian enplane and slides the ball in front of the Croatian net. Jude comes in unmarked for an easy tap-in. Croatian defense looks like Swiss cheese and uninspired. Especially Gvardiol.
10′ England march down eh field on a 2v1 but Livaković makes a great save. Could easily be 2-0 England inside 10 minutes. Not looking good for our boys. We have yet to possess the ball in the England half.
7′ England score early. 1-0. An awful pass from the back by Gvardiol gives it to England 40 yards from goal. Jude marches down and threads a perfect pass to Kane in the box. Kane goes top shelf. Not much Livaković could do.
Here we go!
This is more than likely a make or break game for the Vatreni as far as this Nations League campaign goes. The goal for the next two matches is to grab 3-4 points on Croatian soil. That would be ideal!
Croatia vs. Spain at Poljud will be electric! However, for the England match, it will be in Rijeka behind closed doors…kind of. 100 English fans will be allowed to spectate the match while 5,000 Croatian kids under the age of 15 will be bussed into Rijeka from all around Croatia.
Bilić is expected to play his strongest lineup with Modrić and Baturina included. Let’s see what happens!
Modrić and Stanišić return to the starting XI. Baturina and Musa will see their first action this international window. Ivanović gets the start again from Bilić…why???
@Bartolec
https://x.com/fmeetsdata/status/2106791668913479765?s=46
Need to switch the lineup up, somehow we currently cant attack and also aren’t back on defense. Perisic in the back hasn’t worked, josko and vuskovic together dont work, and petar sucic needs to be played at defensive midfielder. Long term I’m more worried we can’t replace perisic more so than modric. My two preferred lineup options
Perisic——— Matanovic ————Vlasic
——–Baturina—————– kovacic———
———————-Sucic——————————
Gvardiol—-Vuskovic—-Sutalo—-Stanisic
or
———-Beljo——————Matanovic———
Perisic————————————–Baturina
———Kovacic—————–Sucic—————
Gvardiol—-Vuskovic—-Sutalo—-Stanisic
Modric as a super sub
Wish we had someone better than sutalo but I don’t think we do. We need to develop some wingers and finally find a Mandzukic replacement. Croatia isn’t at their peak any more but this team has potential. Petar sucic and baturina are budding stars, Gvardiol and vuskovic haven’t looked great but they will figure it out, stanisic other than yesterday has been very good for us. Long term we just need to develop one more mid-fielder, hopefully find a sutalo replacement, hope one of the strikers takes the next step and find a couple of wingers. I feel good about 7/11 positions for the next decade.
A good post by Tito.
You’re post is ok thanks. I see your using the name tito I’m a senior and don’t like your call sighn and as a civilized Hervat on this sight ask please use it with the most upright respect to everything on this sight. Some here don’t like this name. Are you maybe South American backgroun tito is a very common name there. No disrespect intended please continue in good taste . Thanks
Spain has a lot of love for Croatia – well Modric specifically – but also Rakitic, Zuti, Suker, etc
Spain ain’t going to give us the game – but could live with a draw – 4-5 players already sent home – maybe Yamal sits next game load management and some more kids get the chance
They won’t give us the game – but maybe won’t go full squad maximum pressure as they have 9 points already
Hey Bilic –
It ain’t hard
Tell the players Spain players are Serbs that want to rape/mutilate/kill them and their families and steal Croatian land
Too bad Hrgovic LB not there to listen – he’s from Vukovar and has the best tattoo Anonymous has ever seen (Vukovar water tower on left calf with person underneath – presumably a family member that was killed by Serbs) – I would call him up based on the tattoo alone
Show them Gotovina “Every day is a new day, and every day a warrior must fight” speech two days into Storm
Also – u can show them yesterday Croatia 25-6 demolition of the dirty Serbs in the Rugby Europa – here’s the full match replay
https://www.rugbyeurope.eu/competitions/season-2627/xv-competitions/mens-xv-competitions/mens-conference-202627/croatia-v-serbia?embedReplay=true
Billic said they will play like men in Split, let’s see some.leadership from the Coach, some smarts tactically and some courage on the field. Man up!
Dont talk about a game afterwards like you were there watching it %^^ do something!
Did some of the players identify as women or non-binary during yesterdays game?
That might explain it
vi ste rekli da je mali Vušković odličan. ali nije. spor je. Gordon Schildenfeld je Usain Bolt za njega.
the paring with him and gvardiol does not work.
i expect hard played match tuesday. we will lose 1-3 or 1-2. and that is ok. this version of hrvatska has limits.
the players who we think will one day be leaders need to lead. only way possible that can happen is for natioanl team to say good bye to modric. he is old and the younger players can not lead while he is still on team. give him high five and say hvala stari. time to go and finish career in milan.
The drop off of josko from the 22 WC to now needs to be studied and don’t blame it on his injury.He is playing well at city why the mental breakdown with us?
His positioning and mental mistakes have nothing to do with his legs.
He’s a 1goal liability minimum when he plays and yesterday it was close to 3!
As I said months ago in this forum, Josko isn’t the same player anymore. Pep changed him for the worse for us (maybe better for Mancity but not us). And he may never come back. I’d leave him on left back and see if we can develop him into something there for us. It has nothing to do with his injury. He’s not a tiger anymore as he was for us in WC 2022.
Like it or not, we got gang banged by England. Luka himself is ashamed. And as more time passes the humilation of what has happened will sink in even deeper. And other teams will feed off of it too. Italy may not have qualified for the last 3 world cups, but they haven’t been gang banged at home like us in the last 12 years. I never liked Bilic even the first time around. Hope he didn’t practice law in this way…
Didn’t Norway gangbang them at home just this last cycle?
@Vlad
Kindly look at the recent Real Sociedad vs. Atletico match running stats
https://www.sofascore.com/football/match/atletico-madrid-real-sociedad/zgbsLgb#id:16416332
Take a look at front 6 players for Real Sociedad – all of them have 15-16% of distance covered as “running” – while Luka Sucic has only 11.3%
That means he spends significantly more time on the field WALKING on the field as opposed to his teammates – that’s being a lazy teammate – and a bad teammate (and he didn’t score or assist so can’t hide behind that)
Meanwhile you have Alex Baena (remember him from the Spain game) who spent 18% of distance covered “running” – that’s basically double Luka Sucic
In fact, out of the 20 outfield players that started in the game – he ranked 18th worse in terms of “running” as percent of distance covered (only Cuti Romero 10% and Dávid Hancko 11.1% were worse)
Very very troubling statistics – but also consistent with eye testing
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news – but math/data never lie
As reference
Jude Bellingham 17-18% “running” for Real Madrid
Both Baturina and Nico Paz 15% “running” last Champions League game
Jagusic 21% “running” last Conference League game
You get the point
Luka Sucic is less talented than above four players (I could name more) and significantly lazier with his 11.3% “running” which makes him a terrible teammate – ok for a club like Real Sociedad (like Krama at Hoffenheim) but he’ll never reach the top echelon (or anywhere close)
So it’s up to him – if he wants to prance around the field like a prima donna with no work-rate and no defensive responsibility – fine – but don’t be surprised as football flies right by him
On a more Macro level – the reason Croatia is stuck with so many CAM/#10s – that could probably be useful as wingers (or have the skill set to be wingers) – but they all prefer the 10 they are able to drift and walk around (like Baturina at Dinamo) – the reason Croatia hasn’t created more wingers – is because Croats are inherently lazy and don’t want to run – they want to play with ball at the feet in the 10 as that’s the least effort – as e.g. if Niko Kranjcar lost 30 pounds during his career and had the desire to run he could have been a work class winger (but he famously said he doesn’t want to run and just play with the ball) – it’s really unfortunate – we can’t really blame Dalic/Bilic for the lack of wingers – it’s a lazy Croatia thing where people want to chill out in the 10
100 % correct. It’s not that Spain and England have players that are more talented (they have more of them just by population size) but that they are willing to run and work. Every time we get the ball an English or Spanish player is right on us applying pressure. And there’s no one to pass to either because we’re too lazy to run to our player to give them a passing option. The opposition gets the ball and 70 persent of the time there’s no pressure and when there is they have someone else to pass to or is open across the field. What sort of system is Bilic trying here? I don’t think he brings anything new to the team or has any fresh tactics or ideas. Bilic was the wrong choice to take over. I don’t know what the right choice would have been.
For that particular stat you used his worse game as you usually do when trying to prove a point. He has one game with 12% I think 4 games with 14 15 or 16 percent of running.
He also usually covers most KM he quite often is close to reached highest speed on his team also.
I think has the most matches where the best rating on his team.
Let’s face it…we can’t compete with sides like England and Spain. Did we really expect to win any of the four games against them two? This result does shock me but when you have young studs and players like Gordon, Saka, Bellingham, etc you can’t make mistakes and if you do you’ll get exposed. Our back line looked so lost and Livakovic was hung there to dry. He was the one who made the result against England stay at 4-2 at the World Cup. Had it not been for him, the result would’ve equaled yesterdays. It can’t get worse than this. We can’t say anything and only be shamed for conceding 11 goals in two games. Yes we are playing the defending champs and teams that are going far in tournaments with countless talent. I’m not saying we sort have talent but it’s not even close to their levels. Nevertheless, that doesn’t excuse us to lose 7-0 at home in front of these passionate screaming kids cheering on their Vatreni…they’ve been devastated. Modric, Perisic, anyone that’s overstaying their time here. Please for the love of mercy retire. It’s embarrassing we are using recycled players, coaches like Bilic who hasn’t won jack and has nothing to show for. Dalic built this reputation for our football nation and this moron’s tactics has destroyed it. I don’t expect a win against Spain at home or England away. Just play with fire and passion.
Didn’t expect to win but hoped to. We beat Spain 3-2 last time we played them at home in NL. Certainly wasn’t expecting a spanking at home in either of those games, possibly away but not at home.
That Spanish side was awful man! Compare that Spain to this squad. Not even close in terms of quality! We hardly beat a Spain 3rd team back in 2018.
so Modric/Kovacic were in the recommended lineup by CroatianSports, yet now they can’t play together?
Guys, I’m gonna refrain from commenting too much as I haven’t watched all of our last 3 games. I’m baffled, shocked and disappointed like everyone here and still processing the fallout.
Just looking forward to seeing us bounce back… some way somehow. In terms of concrete objectives, we must do everything we can to hold on to 3rd place in our Nations League group (secure Pot 1 seeding for EURO 2028 qualifying) and also avoid relegation to League B as I suspect that could have implications in regard to seeding for WC 2030 qualifying hence my question to MART below.
Bog i Hrvati 🇭🇷
@Bartolec1912
Good to hear from you. . . The key objective right now, as you say, is third place.
And to bounce back with a strong effort against Spain.
Bog i Hrvati🇭🇷
Agree with mart..england is more superior in pace speed and technically as well. Partly the players play in epl. And they are playing for RM and barcelona these days to learn IQ of football. They have the $$ to attract players from other descent to play for them. Jamaica, ivory coast. They will only get stronger over time.
Loom at eastern european countries. State of romania hungary russia serbia and bulgaria. They were stronger than spain and england previously. But they cannot improve quickly just relying on own homeground players.
The only way to deal with england and spain is to play counter attacking football. Just soak the pressure. We played so well defensively against brazil in 2022.
@MART… Hello there I wonder if you’re able to help clarify something for me…
I wasn’t able to get a definite answer from AI and I’d rather not search for an answer from the UEFA website.
I know we’ll be seeded in Pot 1 for EURO 2028 qualifying if we can hold on to 3rd place in our Nations League group.
But I’d like to know what happens in the unfortunate event we get relegated to League B via the relegation playoffs or finishing last in our Nations League group.
If we end up in League B for Nations League 2028-2029, does that mean there is no avenue for us to be seeded in Pot 1 of WC 2030 qualifying which according to AI comprises a group of the top 12 European teams?
There will be no more pot 1 for the 2030 world cup qualifier games. The new Nations league format will be set in the Swiss style same as the champions league is now.If we finish 3rd. in this group A and as the last or 2nd. last team we will be in pot 1 but in the 2028/29 Nations league will 1st. have to play a team from group B and win to remain in group A if we lose we will have to go down to group B. This will seriously make it more difficult for us to qualify for 2930.We Need to fish as the 1st. or 2nd. best 3rd. place team in group A.
Davorin is correct there won’t be any seedings from 2028 for the WC or the EURO’s.
You will have 36 top ranked teams split into 3 groups of 12 with each team playing 6 matches (3 home and 3 away). Similar to UEFA club comps.
Yahoo sports put out an article saying lots of premier league clubs are tracking Igor Matanović. Then they put Beljo’s picture on the article. Lol, they can’t even get the picture right.
Ante I have just posted something and have no idea why it was moderated ?
Yet you allow certain individuals to post insulting remarks collectively calling us all MORONS and IMBECILES.
Come on how about you start moderating posts that are insulting and offending to all decent contributors to this site.
Bilić je Udbas
Came across the below statement on Cro social media. How true, when I think of all the negativity that was written on this site about Lovren and Vida but Lovren in particular.
Bilić(🇭🇷) vs Engleska
2:0
3:2
1:5
1:4
0:7
Ekipa je pljuvala po Vidi i Lovrenu kao stoperima, evo im sada ova dva manekena.
Gvardiol 90 mil, Vuskovic 50 mil)
Ne znaju braniti prostor, nema komunikacije, izlasci u prazno, spori….
Ma užas!!
The more i think about this game, the more pissed off i am, lol. The goals looked so bad, it was pathetic, honestly. My Sunday arvo indoor team would be embarrassed to concede some of those goals even on our more hungover days.
It was just so simple for England to pass it out wide, low cross into the box and tap it in. Just so embarrassing.
Tactically, Bilic tried to play an open wide style and thought we could sustain it against strong teams. We cannot. I didn’t see anyone undertake the defensive midfielder role. That left a huge gap in the middle and meant the English players were essentially shooting right next to the goal. I think. P Sucic will develop into a key player, although he was invisible yesterday. Baturina was also invisible, but I don’t see the pace with lateral movement that is needed for the modern game with him. I fear he will be Majer 2. As to the defence, it’s been bad for so long we need to stop deluding ourselves. Gvardiol is a liability, looks bored on the field, and I don’t care if he can score goals. Overall, we need pace more than anything and we have almost none of it. Some of the English players looked like they were playing at twice the speed as we were.
As to Bilic, I think we took a step backwards bringing him back. It’s not as if he changed the entire lineup and can be excused for having started a rebuild. He knows this team, he knows the players he should’ve had ideas on how to move forward productively. He clearly has none and tactically giving up on that game in Spain where we were not playing badly and the score was 2-1 made no sense. A new coach is supposed to bring a new impetus, excitement, something. To start like this as a catastrophe.
Looks like you signed off early as you missed one of the goals
Kova missing an empty net. Why am I not surprised?😂
There used to be a time not long ago (2018) when we were technically better than England, they were always quicker than us but now they are also technically better than us as well.
Could not believe how we were unable to keep possession of the ball in the first 20 – 30 minutes of the match in particular. Midfield was our big strength in the past but not anymore, not against strong countries. It is apparent that Brozovic played a crucial role in that regard and never got enough credit for his defensive work and tireless running.
For the 2026 WC, in qualifying England beat Andorra 1 – 0 away and also 1 – 0 at home. At the time I could not believe the scorelines.
Bilic and his coaching staff perhaps need to watch the reply’s of these matches and see how Andorra defended against England.
When you lose 7-0 to England, it can’t just be one thing.
Even minnows never lose 7-0.
This makes me feel there is a tactics issue.
Croatia trying to play as though they are on the level of England or Spain when they should be bunkering.
I long attested that a solid midfield trio allowed Croatia to take the ball out of the air and compete with the best.
I think it’s pretty reasonable to question if dalic would be fired as these are results well beyond a normal distribution
The Spain loss was understandable as we played largely backups, in an away game against the defending champs, and we started to clear the bench with 30 minutes left in the game (despite it still being a one-goal game).
The England game was just England out running and out pacing us, and not allowing us to touch the ball. Tuchel played us well and we didn’t do anything about it.
The frustrating thing was that we didn’t even foul or play physical at all. We were trying to get the ball off them without even touching them.
Even the untalented Czechs kept the England game at 0-0 by halftime, until their physicality got the best of them and they were red carded. It happened against versus Spain, but at least the Czech are keeping it close despite the massive talent gap.
I agree the England game loosing 7-0 is ??? 3 games left the goal difference is very bad for us hope we can get a win and tie
I speld protect as protest sorry about that dident see till after I sent it
When certain players on a team suddenly have no energy the rest of the players and fans can feel it. Is it because of a virus the player is getting older or is it a silent protest because some players don’t buy into the new changes and style Bilic is trying. Bilic will always protest his players publicly in press conference and the media and players will do the same.If just a few players intensity drops 5% to 10% a top team like in form England will win 7-0 every time. Dalic was very good at keeping the team united and is the most successful manager Croatia has ever had. He new when to step down and take the money good for him he deserves it. Bilic now has to find a way to bring the team together play more defensively this team is not ready for the high press system right now to much change to fast especiely against England and Spain. If we lose to Spain and play with heart fine as long as we finish 3rd. in this Nations league we will be a pot 1 seed. If we finish 3rd. but as the last or second last team in Nations league group A we will still be in pot 1 except in the new Nations league format which is how teams will make the 2030 world cup we will have to play against a B team and win to stay in Nations league group A . If we lose then we will drop down to group B. Wining futball is a team effort can we start being one again.
After seeing the extended highlights, it was obvious that are 2 middle defenders really got exposed. Sutalo and Pongracic have to go…..oops….I forgot! Vuskovic and Gvardiol played there today. With all the complaining I have heard about Dalic, Pongracic, and Sutalo, it just had to be their fault. I sure hope Bilic has a plan even if it means hurting some feelings on the National Team………..and on this website of ‘experts’.
Today was a far cry when they defeated the 22 WC favorite the samba boyz man
There is nothing to debate this is Croatia worse lose. I just find it funny that the worse loss in repka history had Gvardiol and Vuskovic as the CB pairing. I’m still waiting for @guest to write 1000 words how it is all Šutalo fault.
@Maminjo
Modric: “I’ve been here for 20 years, but this is the first time I’ve felt ashamed after a game.”
I guess Modric agrees with me that this was worse than any game under Dalic. Please keep on listing all the games under Dalic that you think were worse.
I’m not even being hard Bilic as a coach deserves time. But all of you who constantly ripped on Dalic for “no tactics!!!” are fools.
In the rest of his quote Modrić actually blamed himself and the rest of the team mainly for not playing physical at all and losing every duel.
I guess he agrees with me as well. 😉
Adidas announced Croatia is being replaced by French Guinea as Adidas sponsor, they feel FG has more potential. Bloody awful. The whole bunch should be taken to the city square and dealt with
Some shoes and aperal have FG written on them which means firm ground. The French Guiana team is sponserd by a Caribbean brand not Adidas. Croatia is a big signing for Adidas that they prid away from Nike.
Now I’m just a casual fan, but going against Spain with a B team to go all out against England with your A team shouldn’t have resulted in a 7 nil loss?
I always felt that a time would come when the national team would start to mirror the nation, and it looks like that time is here, absolute garbage.
The only reason we did well in 2 of the last 3 world cups was because Dalic tapped into something that it’s impossible for Bilic to tap into, and when you’ve never been a very talented side you need what Dalic tapped into to get the best out of yourselves. Bilic was a shocking appointment.
Joe Simunic should have been the coach after Dalic.
Bring back ZLATKO,NOW !!!!
I wouldn’t go as far to say they have never been a talented side. That is a very strange comment regarding a team that made it to the finals of the world cup then again winning the third place medal. Even the youth are very talented and have great potential and have shown in other cases they can make a difference.
Something just isn’t working here and it’s difficult to pinpoint what it is. Not saying there are excuses for such a loss against both Spain and especially England. But I wouldn’t buy into the bullshit your reading in headlines suggesting Croatia is done. This is just a very bad tournament so far. It is definitely going to be a period of rebuild. I think, like Vlad said, it’s time to play the youth and not think about results.
It’s hard to fathom how Gvardiol can go from being exceptional, like he was in World Cup 2022, to the way he is playing today. Playing basically the same position he was back then. Is it the injury? I have to go back to this. Maybe he is not in form. It is possible, I dunno. He doesn’t have the same speed, tenacity, or accuracy. He has been away for too long I think and hasn’t recouped his injury properly. Maybe like Maminjo said in an earlier post, he shouldn’t have rushed to come back.
Add to this that Vuskovic is exceptionally slow, against a team like England or Spain you cannot be that slow because the wingers will destroy you. He provided very little support. He has some growing to do, and some pounds to shave off on a treadmill every day. You cannot be a good soccer player without speed and endurance.
Stanišić also hasn’t been on-top of his game either. It’s very weird. None of them are playing well.
Add that to just about every other player minus a few. There aren’t many positives in this kind of defeat. Other than to say that Bilić has been given a rough hand of cards. I will go back to this, I really like Matanović and as I have said before he provides something the other strikers do not, with the exception of Beljo. Out of the two strikers they are the only ones that get called up at this stage in my eyes out of the strikers chosen by Bilić.
I think this will take some time for Bilić to figure out what to do and whom to play. The older guys, minus maybe Perisic on the wing and Kova in midfield, need to go I think.
Kramarić is just literally sitting on the bench, if he is injured, why is he there? This is one issue I think for Bilić, much like Dalic, we don’t need cheerleaders. Higher some female cheerleaders if you want that. If your gonna play the youth then play the youth regardless of the results. Go through the motions and swallow the losses you need to take until they start to gel with one another. Maybe that’s where things are right now.
The younger players have been sitting out for so long they are probably tired of doing it again for another tournament. Not that allowing this result is acceptable even in this case.
I can now see why Dalic said, back in the day, if he could have twelve players like Mandžukić he would win a tournament. Not suggesting you wouldn’t want twelve of some of the other players (Modrić, Perisic for example), but after so many years of Mandžukić being gone we can see the gap he left behind. There is noone who has successfully fill his boots yet. Since Šuker, he has scored the most for us in a short period of time. We desperately need a Mandžo or a Zlatan.
What else can be said. We sucked on every level. It still goes down as a loss whether it was 7-0 or 1-0. I’m glad the players are feeling ashamed, they should.
What sucks is that we have to play the world champs again, so we may have the taste of eating another shitburger in our mouths for a while.
But being seeded for Euros is still the most important thing for the NL campaign and as long as we take care of business against the Czechs at home, we’ll be alright for that.
Next call is more youth injection.. need to beat Czechs and get some results to remain in third and expose some new players before we hit the Euro qualifications
—————————Matanovic————————
—————L.Sucic——————Jagusic————
Baturina—————Kovacic—————Soticek
—————Vrbancic————P.Sucic—————
——Gvardiol———Vuskovic———Stanisic—
I think this is the direction we are going in very soon…
Won’t be surprised if not only Modric hangs the boots but Perisic as well…
I like this line up except baturina can’t play that position.
Take out vrbancic put Kova there
Put baturina where kova is
And find someone where baturina is
Vlad it would be Hrgovic can agree Baturina better in the Kovacic position
some honest questions need to be asked and then answered. we often pick on players like Sutalo (who was our best defender vs England in the World Cup loss)…why do we single him out and yet we tend to make excuses for Vuskovic and Gvardiol? I see it here daily. believe what you see and stop repeating the same old nonsense. I know both Vuskovic and Gvardiol have incredible potential but there’s nothing wrong with holding them accountable and we need to stop making excuses for them. we end up lying to ourselves.
I’ve said this multiple times and I’ll say it again…but first I’ll say maybe Maminjo is right, we are playing two top teams and we need to be sharper and focus on the basics of the game. now, Bilic is probably the BEST I’ve ever heard when it comes to discussing this game BUT it looks to me as if he doesn’t connect well with his players and thats a BIG problem.
when Dalic played certain players in certain positions…ie, Pasalic on the outside attacking position (vs England at WC). so many people went ballistic on him…BUT…we didn’t have a better option for a good attacker so he opted to fill in that position with a fairly responsible player that can defend and score if given the opportunity. Yes, Dalic played things safer and maybe Bilic has too much confidence in certain players, something I think he will eventually see and decide to go with the safer option.
if your team it overwhelmed by a team that is more talented and overall better, you can still compete by remaining disciplined, holding lines, staying compact and playing the safe and reliable options. after all, a tie playing defensive is better than getting smashed and then blaming everyone except those that deserve the blame.
Slavonac,
People continue to make excuses and to say we are playing the top two teams is laughable. We conceded 11 goals in two games! No excuse for that.
Our biggest accomplishments were with Dalic however he kept being thrown under the bus. With Bilić we get non stop excuses on here.
Play all the young players I hear and frankly sick of all this Vušković talk. A star in the making. lol. Has anyone been watching his play? Dalic had a way of bringing the best out of his players and he had a knack for what worked. For this team to lose by 7 on Croatian land is a disgrace.
I completely agree with you.
Regarding your comment about Dalić having of bringing out the best in players… you know why? Dalić had his system that required good performances and hard work in order to remain with the team. He had a hierarchy that took years to build. He didn’t jump at anyone on a 3 game scoring streak and he demanded professionalism, work rate and good performances. He also had his soccer etiquette and culture he believed in. Many of these things go way over the average guys head because they don’t understand the game at that level
Everyone’s the shizzle untill you show them otherwise(spain,england) lack of courage shown in front of young Croatian kids is simply not good enough ,Senior players and ones on massive money need to remember where they come from ,including the coach.
I agree with you about Sutalo and the fact that people on here are either ignorant, lack footballing knowledge or are blind with their own eyes about Gvardiol and Vuskovic.
People keep on talking about Gvardiol and the 2022 WC, but ignore the fact that he has not done much (defensively) for the national team since then. In fact, he has made so many defensive mistakes most of them playing as a CB.
Gvardiol is not a CB, he plays as a LB for Man City for a reason and that is where he should play for the national team. By chop and changing him from LB to CB at international level we are just making it difficult for him and not helping our cause in defence.
Luka Vuskovic is a young player still wet behind the ears and has great potential. However, his biggest problem is lack of speed, and it was on show again today.
The kid is 19 and people already have him playing for Real Madrid and Barcelona and having a transfer value of 100 million. Some on here have him as potentially the greatest defender of all time. He will never be that because people will always say that he was slow.
Real and Barca will never pay 100 million for a defender. If Luka does go on and excel in EPL over the next two or so years and I hope he does, the only clubs that might pay that sort of money and can afford it are the big EPL clubs.
Are you/Slavonac arguing that Sutalo is better than Vuskovic?
Not at all. I’m saying that Sutalo is a very good player but for some reason, people on this site started crapping all over him and now he’s the scape-goat and people are hard on him. NOW, all I ask is that people critique Vuskovic the same way they treat Sutalo.
Fair. But even with Vušković not being finished in his development, he’s objectively better than Sutalo is right now. Luka was terrible today, as was the entire team.
However, if you asked independent non-Croatian fans to judge Vušković against Sutalo over the last year, I can’t picture anyone thinking Sutalo should be starting over Vušković.
Stjepan, my argument here isn’t who’s better. I’m simply saying any time Sutalo is on the field tons of people tend to criticize him even when he plays well. They make it his fault when we are scored on, they say his passes are poor and THEY keep saying Vuskovic is a much better choice although Dalić thought otherwise which is why we saw Vuskovic on the bench under him. He may have been right. So far Vuskovic has had more bad than good for us.
Don’t look at the name on the back of the shirt before you decide to criticize or not. Just call it like it is
Yeah, but there has been more to criticize about Sutalo because he has played about 10 times more minutes for us compared to Vuskovic. Luka is a shiny new toy that we’re finally getting to see play on a regular basis, so the leash is longer for him (for now).
Don’t worry, when Vuskovic gets to over 3,000 minutes like Sutalo, there will be plenty of bitching about him too 😂.
Slavonac makes constructive assessments and honest comments on this site.
If someone has an honest disagreement with him, he will respect the point and listen. He makes insightful points. He knows soccer well.
I learned a lot reading his posts over some years now.
Tomislav is right about sticking together, and not being too negative. We can’t be too tough on each other. We have to stick together at some level, and rally around the team after a defeat of this nature.
This is not some NHL team, or some NBA team, it is the Croatian NT. This requires a completely different level of support and loyalty.
We are the greatest pound-for-pound soccer nation on earth. Two rough performances in a row doesn’t change that.
We’ll be back.
Thanks for the compliment buddy!
Regarding “sticking together”! We are Croatians and when push comes to shove we will sacrifice it all for each other and our people. I am always a National team fan but I think I’m also a realist and prefer to see the issues as they are and then we can make the improvements we can. Being Croatian is the greatest gift.
My friend ….at this point anyone is better than Vuskovic….. your mother is better than Vuskovic……. I am better than Vuskovic….. YOU are better than Vuskovic did you not see the scoreline? We are trash!!!!!!!!
Who cares who is what?!!? This site is becoming worse than EA FC with the toxicity…. maybe that’s why the NT IS SHIT……Weren’t we supposed to be the little nation that stuck together and could move mountains? Now you guys have a place to voice your frustrations and you’re talking about people being broke or if they are from certain places in Croatia…… so much for unity. Based on this website we deserved that 7-0 loss. As far as I was raised, that is not our culture….. but what do I know????All the best to you all.
Vuskovic is slower then baba roga
Line of the night!
I am truly rooting for coach Bilic as I want any Croatian to succeed. But let’s remember that Zlatko Dalic took the ‘18 team to the WC that underachieved in the qualifiers. He bailed them out by beating the Ukraine and then Greece in the 2 game playoff. He then took a declining ‘22 team (as so many of you ‘experts’ point out) to the WC seminals. Then he took an even more declining team (again the ‘experts’) to the ‘23 Nations League Final. He won a ‘boring’ semifinal game today too. Viva Zlatko! But I hope Coach Bilic can pull a stunner on Tuesday.
It’s three games in, and it may look bleak…but we’re playing the two best young teams in the World.
We need to go through some growing pains with this transition and (unfortunately) we’re dealing with two of the worst teams for it.
Look at Greece (as an example).
They have a crop of very good high end young players, and they failed to qualify for the World Cup (losing out to the lesser talented Scotland and Denmark in their group).
They went through that painful growing pain, and now they are first in their Nations League group after beating Germany (in Germany), Serbia (in Serbia), and they drew the Netherlands.
It’s not going to be fun…but we’re probably going to have to stick it out with Stanisic, Vuskovic, and Gvardiol in our backline and figure out a way to make it work.
Maybe it’s chemistry…maybe it’s Gvards at LB and someone else at CB…maybe it’s moving Perisic from the backline…or maybe it’s another formation altogether.
But the worst thing we can do is dragging out our 2018 senatori further and trying to squeeze 90 minutes out of them.
Listen bro stop with your futbol expertise you are wrong on vuskovic, Dalic, ect listen maybe start following women futbol and do you know the difference between futbol and football man
100% correct. The people who trashed Dalic are doing mental gymnastics trying to justify why a 7-0 loss wasn’t actually as bad as the Dalic era.
It’s only Bilic’s 3rd game let’s give him some time.
Dalic of course, should be praised but he had many mishaps too. In 18 he “stuck with his guy” and played an injured Subasic in the final, who was immobile and couldn’t make a save to save his life. In 22 Dalic has Lukaku to thank otherwise we would have been out in the group stage. And let’s not get started about our Euro performances under him.
I remember when I came home from a game in my early teens and my father asked me why I seem upset. I told him our new coach was not good the players dont like him he changed some players positions and dident use the same starting line up and we lost.He asked if playd my position I sead yes and tata sead you should all be upset at yourselves not the coach he dident play the game you all did . I’m not making excuses for Bilic today the way these players moved and played they have only themselves to blame
Dalic FT 1-0 win Oman
Will face Saudi in the finals
UAE 1 goal conceded in 4 games
Bring back Dalic y’all wanted him out now he doesn’t look so bad amigo
What I found interesting from the press conference from Bilic was what he said during the half time. Roughly, he mentioned that he wasn’t expecting them to turn it around, but to finish the match without conceding anymore.
Wouldn’t you want the team to fight and come back?
Also, that they prepared for this game and that England did everything they expected but for some reason we had no stamina to play.
Sorry for the spam. But in the press conference it looks like Bilic was crying
At least he waited. I was crying during the game.
Its strange to see Dalic coaching another team. I wonder how feels about this result if he was watching. There was a reason why he didn’t call some players to the national team that were called under Bilic. Some might call his play style boring but in the future people will remember that Croatia made it to 2nd/3rd place in the world cup. They won’t talk about how the team got there.
As for Bilic, we should respect what he did for us in the past. I think he is trying to be more open to the players and see what is working and what isnt. This isn’t an excuse but its tough when he gets the job and then has to face two top teams in less than two weeks. I’m sure it would have been better to experiment with lower teams.
Also, who do you think the players would fear more in the dressing room? Bilic or Dalic. I wonder if some of the players are purposely not playing because its nation league or the coach?
Also – after match interview Bilic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7AUsAH43C8
Press conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VISFCUqe7Ik
He looks like he was crying
Spain – England – Spain is your first 3/4 games can’t be much fun.
Bilic is a very good coach and, as you said, respect needs to be given there. It’s nice to see him experimenting with so many new players since Dalic never really did, but the past few games maybe showed why Dalic wasn’t willing to. We often played ‘boring’ soccer, but it worked.
Who knows, maybe this experimentation will pay off in the next tournament.
What championships has he won in his managerial career??
I think Bilić is more of a risk taker.
Dalić took a risk (for example) to play three at the back (with Vušković in the middle) at the past World Cup…then he immediately changed his idea afterwards and never tried it again.
Bilić seems to just stick with his decision, sink it swim.
In this scenario, you get a nice 2-1 away win in Prague after taking some risks and going for goal (in a game that looked like it was headed for a draw)…
Then you get drubbed at home 7-0.
Bring back Dalic
What exactly IS the experimentation he’s done? If this was an under 21 team, i’d agree. But i keep seeing ppl saying that, growing pains, experimentation – the issue is he hasnt done that EITHER. This is the worst of both worlds.
Thankfully wasn’t able the watch the game and was the first competitive match that I haven’t watched in years.
What in the actual f**k?!? How does this happen with our A team? No excuses to mail it in like we obviously did.
Judging by the comments our defending must have been horrendous. Considering we have Gvardiol and Vuskovic could it be that they are both just overhyped? Gvardiol hasn’t been anywhere near the same after his injury.
In the Spain game last week, Vuskovic was jogging back on a goal that Spain scored and I thought either he’s really slow or was a bit lazy. Either is worrisome.
Sofascore has the entire back line with a rating of less than 5 and Stanisic a 4.9. Can’t say I’ve ever seen a back line of ours anywhere near that bad.
Could it be that Dalic ball actually suits us better given our lack of pace? We aren’t a team that can press high and take chances because our lack of speed can’t cover the mistakes that can made playing that style.
For everyone who crapped all over Dalic, remember he got us results with that boring style of ball possession. Bilic hopefully can adapt…..
Mali Ante . . .
I agree that I have never seen the back line play like that. I hear you.
On the other hand, I can’t conclude they are overhyped.
Vuskovic has been very solid in the Premier League this season. His Bundesliga stats, as you probably know, were over the top. He did look slow today, but he has had adequate speed to do very well in both the Premier League and Bundesliga. And over a considerable period.
Gvardiol has proved his mettle for Manchester City, and for the NT.
There might be a question of fitness for Gvardiol, as you say. Maybe the leg is still not quite right? It also might be too many games in a row?
But the pairing of those two as central defenders does not seem to work. It does not seem to click.
As you note, a rough day for the back line across the board, as Stani also did not look good. Seemed sluggish compared to his usual self.
Maybe I am grasping at straws, but I wonder if it is possible that this virus went through the team (they would have been on the same plane together, etc) and many of them are something less than 100%?
I expect that Bilic will be transitioning this team to a younger squad, and will be adapting, as he moves forward toward 2028.
As others have said, this will take some time.
Fair points. For Bilic it’s life after Modric. Looks like Modric is finally becoming more of a bench option than a starter.
Maybe Bilic should just go with Kova and Sucic as the 2 mids, and find someone else to play behind the striker (we have a lot of these options)
It might just be a chemistry things with Gvardiol and Vuskovic but Gvardiol hasn’t been himself after his injury….I’d argue even before it.
Really hoping that changes and he can find his game again.
Vuskovic is young and can give him a pass. Typically, you see fewer stud defenders because experience really helps when being a defender.
Stanisic hasn’t been playing much for Bayern so for him, it’s very likely poor form. Perisic at LB is a band aid. We need to figure that out. If Gvardiol can find his game, he may have to be our LB going forward.
We do have CB options, albeit not great ones but serviceable.
I wonder how Baturina looked today? I figure he is out most in form player now….and was subbed out at half??
Mali Ante,
Baturina did not assert himself in this match.
He did not stand out. He was not a factor.
He was no better than the rest of the team, and no worse. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that he has not fully recovered from the virus that had kept him out of the lineup and he was not physically 100%.
Their clubs paid an insane amount of money for them and nobody is complaining.
They are talented but for whatever reason (I’m hoping it’s chemistry) there are some serious miscommunications between our backline and our midfield players.
Let’s start a petition to bring back ZLATKO man
This team misses Dalic. What the hell is going on with Bilić. Not enough respect for Dalic and what he accomplished. Most of you wanted Bilić. Congrats.
Amen to that
🎙️ Luka Modrić on Croatia’s performance against England:
“It’s difficult to find an explanation for a performance without duels, fouls, aggression, togetherness… I’ve been here for 20 years, but this is the first time I’ve felt ashamed after a game.
You can lose, someone can be better, they are currently better, but to lose like this and throw away the reputation we’ve built over the years is unacceptable. I feel ashamed.”
I blame you and maminjo for your disparaging comments on Dalic man
Sounds like he’s close to retiring – keep the notifications on could be coming shortly
🎙️ Luka Modrić on Croatia’s lack of intensity:
“From the first to the last minute, to play like this… This is not how football can be played. Even if you played with two players fewer, you couldn’t play like this, and we looked as if we had four or five players fewer. A catastrophic night.”
🎙️ Luka Modrić on what Croatia must improve:
“Playing like this is unacceptable. If we had played against a third-tier team, we would have lost. There is no point talking about tactics because everything starts with desire, will, fighting spirit, aggression, determination and duels.”
Only a moment ago . . .
Anon: “Where is captain Modric ? I thought he gives great speeches to the team ? Did he give one tonight ? He loves attention from media when suits him but not tonight ?”
Anon: “Kudus to Franjo – the only player that has the balls to face the media”
Well, reading Modric’s post-game comments, that was clearly a swing and a miss.
Modric has not run from this result, not at all. . . . .
The “100 percent hit rate” just dropped a couple of (more) notches.
Maybe it’s at about 94%?
And fading?
Is it time to retire? 😉
Exactly how old are you Anon?
I don’t think Modric retires after this. It’s not in his DNA to quit. I think he will stay and fight. He will walk away when the ship gets righted.
Agree with Robert. I don’t think Modric will walk away until things are stabilized and the ship is back on course.
@UTinA
When the ship is back on course?
Cool, when might that be??
Sideshow Bob will retire after he plays 1 game with his son. I said that before and stick by it.
Thinks he’s Gordie Howe
Z,
Soon.
2-18 months?
But not after a 7-0 loss, our worst on record. And not until he and Bilic feel it is best, the right time for the team.
Yes, he is roughly the football equivalent of Gordie. Good analogy. You could also say Gordie is the hockey equivalent of Luka in terms of longevity.
Gordie walked away from prime time hockey in his very early 40s. (Though he came back and played much longer, as events unfolded . . )
I think Luka will probably go about the same time as Howe did when he walked away the first time.
In hockey, in the old days, players would sometimes become player-coaches, either formally or informally, at some point late in the career. Modric, who understands the game as well as anyone, can ease into a similar role where he is not necessarily starting games, but providing leadership and continuity while the youth come to the fore.
“Sideshow Bob” was by far and away the highest rated player against the Czechs a few days ago. He is still a valuable contributor on this team.
I am confident Modric will do the right thing, at the right time.
Do you guys see how important praying the rosary is now?
I’m not joking!
Bog i Hrvati
Bog i Hrvati.
Trying to think of any positive.. is this a hammering we needed to have to spark necessary change?
The new coaching staff needs more time to be fair. Top foreign coaches are to expensive at 3 to 9 million per year for us and still wouldn’t take the job knowing that the senior players have more influence with the HNS than they would. Unless they were in it just for the money. Bilic when he took he’s first national team appointment was in a changing of the guard position from older players to younger ones same as now. He brought in Modric Raketic Manzukic ans Corluka changed our style to more modern attacking with youth and speed the results show for themselves. Now he is in a similar position we have the younger players some on the team right now and still some to be given a fair chance. Bilic now wants to play a more direct attacking high press game with the team pushing up more the central defenders are wanted to bring the ball up into midfield more . To play this style of game we need more younger but skills players. The older players can’t play full games this style if so our older players would still be starting for Real Bayern etc but there not. If certain players are interfering in the national team success for their own needs please stop. Bilic knows verry well what he sighed up for as long as we finish 3rd. in the group and not in the last two 3rd. places OK for now. .
Unlike Dalic, you can tell Bilic REALLY wants to play with wingers. They’re just not at his disposal right now.
Dalic worked around playing with wingers. Bilic can either force in high-pressing, quick players who aren’t ready, or he can do what Dalic did and work around that. I think Matanovic is a good player for what Bilic wants to do, but the LW/RW positions still need to be filled out. Guys like Ivanovic aren’t really the answer, so it’ll be interesting to see what the next squad list looks like
I don’t rate Ivanovic highly. As far as I know he barely played for Benfica but big $$$ brought him there. He doesn’t strike me as above average in any area. Not particularly fast, strong, doesn’t dribble that well, lacks size. I don’t think I saw him beat one Englishman. He’s like a Rebic without the toughness.
“The new coaching staff needs more time to be fair.”
Well said, Davorin. Exactly right.
We need a little patience at this juncture.
We need to draw on some positives.
I liked Bilic’s comments that Nations League was a test, that he gained some knowledge, and he got some answers.
Like Jo, I will be interested to see what the next squad list will look like.
Dalic and Corluka 1-0 Oman at HT
The entire squad plays in the USE league (save one player playing in Turkey) – 14 team league and most of the squad come from the top 4 teams
Super easy job scouting the league and picking players
Can’t blaim him
WTF.. i just woke up and watched the highlights and cannot believe what im seeing. When they showed the lineups i thought oh nice pretty good one.. Oof.. so glad i didnt get up for that game, what a disaster. Back to the drawing board for us, that is so disheartening. I was genuinely expecting a close game. Guess we are a country mile off teams like Eng and Spa atm. Sigh.
Hope Bilić comes fourth LON and gets fired.
Hey Bilić I got an answer for you how about you tell Modrić Perišić budimir Mario pasalic kramaric thanks and see you later.
How about you never play Ivanovic on wing again. Maybe let’s play Petar sucic where he belongs. Maybe play Luka sucic where he belongs.
Call up some kids
Basically start listening to vlad like I said
Stanisic.
Sutalo
Vuskovic
Gvardiol
Kova
P sucic
Baturina
L sucic
Vlasic
Matanovic
Vuskovic and gvardiol are terrible together. I said it last year only one to say it that they probably would be bad pairing as their both have their heads up their ass.
Sooner or later you lose everyone when you keep to many old guys around.
Time for this team to have new voices and the dressing room to be filled with young guys.
Do you expect P sucic to run around out of position for ever like an idiot.
Still waiting for @ guest to say how’s things all Šutalo fault
Still waiting for Vuskovic to play a good game for repka
If only there was a way to mute posters like Anonymiss and Super Slob. Would be a nicer board to read.
Anonymous says we’re like SAN Marino
San Marino FA claps back that they defend better than us!
Even SAN Marino FA follows World-famous Anonymous
https://x.com/sanmarinoteam/status/2106454724450849116?s=46
lol
After 7-0 all the geriatrics are hiding
Where is captain Modric ? I thought he gives great speeches to the team ? Did he give one tonight ? He loves attention from media when suits him but not tonight ?
Kudus to Franjo – the only player that has the balls to face the media
The geriatrics should be ashamed of themselves – fair weather – when good they take the plaudits, when bad they hide
🎙️ Franjo Ivanović after Croatia’s 0-7 defeat to England:
“Honestly, we don’t have an explanation. A catastrophic performance from our side. They were on another level and played very well.
We looked bad, we didn’t compete in the duels, we weren’t getting into duels at all. It was a difficult game. We suffered throughout the entire match and looked very poor.”
[Nova TV]
At least he knows part of the issue.
They weren’t able to take the ball off the English…AT ALL.
At some point, you just need to play physical and get in there.
I couldn’t believe they our guys were just running around cleanly chasing for 30 straight minutes. At some point, I would have just fouled one of their players.
We need a bit more toughness in this squad.
Agree
That’s exactly what Igor and Vlasic did for a few minutes when they came on – it was like demolition derby out there – but then they kind of stopped
Croatia got sissies man
🎙️ Slaven Bilić:
“We see this Nations League competition as a test, through which we would gain some knowledge and answers. We got some answers, not the ones we wanted, but we got them. They are very painful.”
[Nova TV]
How many goals in the first half were crosses from the right side going right past Perisic? I love the guy but he can not defend these fast players.
Only watched the highlights but vuskovic looked like he was getting absolutely cooked…guy is as slow as molasses….i dunno if I have seen a player as slow as him in a cro jersey…and that’s saying a lot.
Stanisic looked like he mad some bonehead decision.
Obviously we are better than this.
If I was trying to find a bright spot, I thought Kovacic was one of the better players on the field. But other than Kova, who seemed to have some jump and stood out, we didn’t appear to have anyone going well. Our Premier League pairing of Vuskovic and Gvardiol in the middle, for whatever reason, didn’t work well. Stani, normally a very reliable defender, looked out of form. Our defence was poor. The team, with few exceptions, was flat.
What do you do if you’re Bilic?
You are three days away from playing the very best team in the world. You’ve just been hammered 7-0 at home.
What is the right message from the coach to the players right now?
How do you stabilize this team for Tuesday and get back on track with a good performance against Spain? Players? Starters? Strategy? 5-4-1?
Message?
I’m sending 4 of u old geriatric home
I’m calling 4 from the U21
U21 will be motivated to show as will mean something for them
For Modric it’s just he’s a narcissist he wants to rack up caps
Bilić didn’t have to say anything.
These players will probably see some threatening slogans unfurled from Torcida if they don’t play stronger in Split.
Fire the whole team bring up the U 21 man
It’s a very good question; what do you do if you’re Bilic? Not just for the next game, but for the next international break?
Like many Croatian fans, I’m disappointed by today’s game. But I don’t have answers or strong opinions on what to do next. Who was left out of this break’s squad that I would bring in? Who can we start that will bring better results? It’s a tough one for sure
Matanović and Kova both need to start. They’ve both been great, even in today’s bad game. Matanović should always be out there.
Modrić on the bench with Peter Sučić playing deep with Kova next to him.
Bring Modrić off the bench as a super sub. Never start him.
Baturina needs another chance to start. Put him at CAM. I guess we can go Vlašić at RW. At least he’ll try. Either that or give Luka Sučić a shot.
Backline. I don’t know. I can’t stand how Gvardiol is playing. Maybe move him to LB…or just stick it out with the Gvardiol/Vušković pairing again. We literally have two 100m Euro guys here and we now have to debate starting them or not.
Jakić has always played steady for us. I’d include him at RB and slide Stanišić at LB (just so we can put Perišić at LW next to Baturina at CAM).
Matanović
Perišić, Baturina, Vlašić?
Kova, P.Sučić
Stanišić, Gvardiol, Vušković, Jakić
That’s all I got.
@Maminjo
The lineup you listed is solid, but I also thought today’s looked started before the match. I really like Jakic as well, but is he good enough to start? I haven’t watched him at all since moving to Greece
Agreed on Matanovic, Baturnia and moving Gvardiol to LB.
One of the things that makes Brisbane Lions such a good team is that they always bounce back. They got smashed a couple of times this year, but you always knew that would get their arse into gear and the next week, you’d get an a+ performance.
Now, Croatia is no Brisbane Lions, but i’d like to see a similar style of bounce-back. Remember 2018/19 Nations League Spain beat us 6-0 over there and then we beat them 3-2 back home.
@UTinA
Tell us what’s next for a change
Z,
I am not sure what is next.
As I have said and admitted on this site many times, I never played this game at a high level and I don’t understand it well enough to dissect the problems.
I am sure you probably know the game better than I.
I would generally agree with Slavonac’s advice right now. It makes good sense. He has posted about “remaining disciplined, holding lines, staying compact and playing the safe and reliable options. after all, a tie playing defensive is better than getting smashed . . . “
I expect us to bounce back.
I also expect us to finish third in our group which is critical at this point.
England midfielders all three are 23 years old and all >100M
How does 41 y/o Modric expect he’s going to keep up
That’s 2 games in a row vs England he’s completely destroyed
If u has any dignity he’ll retire today
I don’t care if he’s good at “keeping tempo” and “picking out a pass” – if he can’t run anymore it’s done
It’s selfish – him above the team
Kova fine for stop gap for the Euros
N.b. 1998 generation all retired by the time they were 30 or 31
Plan for WC 2032 and work backwards
And calling up Misic another geriatric over Vrbancic who’s better than him this year is just moronic
30+ y/o in midfield needs to be the exception not the baseline/rule
TY
Anon, you are perhaps being too critical of one player.
He is a top midfielder on a good Milan team in Serie A.
A few months ago at WC 2026, Modric and Kova took control in the midfield for key parts of the game against a very powerful Portuguese midfield.
Modric was our best player against the Czechs a few days ago.
Our greatest ever is not as magnificent as he was in his prime, sure, but he is still a great player, very worthy to take on a continuing role as a senior veteran leader of the team, rather than being considered a “geriatric.”
Yes, a boxer can grow old in the ring during one fight. It can happen quickly. I agree. It can happen to any older athlete in any sport. But that is not Modric, and he is not there right now.
And he is not the kind who will put himself ahead of the team. He will know when it is time. If that day comes, he will know. He is top quality, as a player, and as a person.
We can’t blame Modric for this loss.
I think your points about Majer are more constructive. You have noted that Majer called Bilic and pushed to be named to the squad because he really wants to play for the national team. He is also in good form this season. Majer might be one player, with some veteran experience for the NT including in WC 2022, who has not seen the field in these games. Perhaps it might have helped us to use him a little over these past two games.
But we need to find a different mix of players to start against Spain.
Who to start?
What should our starting line up be on Tuesday?
Right about Modric. If Modric starts to walk around like Ronaldo out there then it’s time to hang up the cleats.
Play U 21 team against Spain- these guys don’t want to play for Croatia, then play somebody who does
Can’t play the whole team
Only replace players based on injury and can’t say the whole team
Krama —-> still unfit return to club
Perisic —> soreness in legs after playing 270 minutes
Budimir —-> has the virus
Etc
Maybe 3-4 players max
I would agree at this point and I would have accepted this kind of a loss if that was the strategy to build a younger squad.
A friend of mine is Colombian, and he was watching the Spanish TV. They said something that was very true, were a talented team. They enjoy watching us play, we’re an underdog, but our best generation is behind us 1998-2018, those were special generations that come in Croatia maybe once every 20 years and who knows when the next generation will come. Is it the end of the world tonight for us? No, they said, but they did say that we can handle small time teams. Will be competitive. We can make tournaments, but we just do not have the talent or the skill or the endurance to go up against the powerhouse teams. and sadly that’s a true statement. I can accept the loss tonight. The English were better. I cannot accept how smug and arrogant and nasty this media was
We’ll see about that.
Teams like Spain, Germany, Brazil and the Netherlands have also lost by massive 5-goal margins to top teams and these commentators don’t say the same about them.
When Spain and Brazil were destroyed at World Cup 2014 by massive scorelines, nobody said that they’re done for 20 years.
Funny this is Germany is a regular first round knockout team now. Italy can’t even qualify. Netherlands missed two tournaments in a row in that period too (in 2016 and 2018).
We have the talent and skill to go up against powerhouse teams. We just need a coach to figure out how to make it work, the same way Tuchel did for England (despite people questioning him when he made controversial moves).
We’ll see about that.
Teams like Spain, Germany, Brazil and the Netherlands have also lost by massive 5-goal margins to top teams and these commentators don’t say the same about them.
When Spain and Brazil were beaten at World Cup 2014 by huge scorelines, nobody said that they’re done for 20 years.
Funny this is Germany is a regular first round knockout team now. Italy can’t even qualify. Netherlands missed two tournaments in a row in that period too (in 2016 and 2018).
We have the talent and skill to go up against powerhouse teams. We just need a coach to figure out how to make it work, the same way Tuchel did for England (despite people questioning his moves).
Right on well said we can and we will but we need our own Tuchel and not billic .
@ Gaz how I only wish that to be true
I have seen your comments for many years , and know you to be extremely intelligent and very knowledgeable about Soccer and respect your opinions and ideas. I sadly agree with the Columbia media take. I agree because we have proved we are inconsistent, disorganized and undisciplined Spain Germany Brazil and Netherlands are 1000 bigger than us . They have huge talent pool to replenish their ranks . They have more money than us and larger football programs than we do. They have the money well run organizations that can recruit and develop talent better than we can . Those are some hard facts that we need to accept . The 2008 generation had the potential to win two euro and three World Cups and they ended horribly because of bad management from savez outside interference bad coaches and some players that should not have been on the pitch . I don’t believe anything has changed . JMO
No silver lining here. It was a terrible match from start to finish.
The only other things I can say are:
Dalić must have understood something about this team that Bilić has not yet understood.
Kovačić is the new anchor of the midfield. He missed that shot, but he was otherwise excellent. He’s finally the player we all wanted him to be.
Jakić is Croatia’s most underrated player. We keep seeing him perform well for the repka. I don’t care what club he plays for or whether he even gets any playing time there. He plays well for Croatia every time he’s on the field it seems.
Vlašić should be the starting RW.
Vušković could win every award in history, but if he can’t run fast enough to defend for the repka, then I would rather see someone else out there who can at least keep up with their mark. It is hard to see these terrible defensive performances by the repka with him on the field as a coincidence.
Something needs to change, whether it’s the lineup, the formation, or the strategy. Maybe changing to a back 5 was the right call, but it was too late. What a terrible match!
Why are posting ?
U don’t understand grade 1 math, nevermind advanced PhD statistics
Correlation ≠ Causation
The only “coincidence” here is u are a MORON and post like a MORON (that’s Causation)
Oh, I didn’t realize math tests were required to post on this board. Also, why the anger at me? I have no say in what happens at the HNS, “nosepicking” or otherwise. My kindergarten math skills predicted that Franjo Ivanović would start this game because he runs a lot. Those are statistics that don’t take much analysis: stopwatch and kilometers. England killed Croatia with speed and distances run, two times in a row now. Since you love stats, I would love to see what stats you manage to get about that.
Definitely a rough match (understatement). I also agree Vlasic should be starting, he’s VERY strong when he plays for Torino and is genuinely pretty good when he plays for the NT as well. And yes, Dalic found a way to work with these players that Bilic hasn’t caught onto yet. It clearly wasn’t as simple as us fans thought it was despite the talent at his disposal.
No positives from this game, but hopefully there were some lessons learned from it from both the coaches and players.
Unfortunately Vuskovic is terribly slow…don’t think he is playable…the hype train is over on him he will be exposed…
Bilic needs to call up Jagusic,
Vrbancic and Hrgovic (he doesn’t need to rest for 10 days before DZ) for the next game
Let’s start with that
Just let three players go back to their clubs with “injuries”
100% will happen – stay tuned
Let’s start to fire everyone and bring up the U 21 man
I think we should create a new formation… 8-1-1….. we won’t lose 7-0 again…. come on Bilic….channel your inner Pep…. change football forever …..we can coin it the “Croatia sucks need 8 at the back” formation.
This needed to happen so the NT can make a decision and find itself. Dalic was running things for a long time in terms of a NT coach tenure.
I made a comment here some time ago about the NT going back into darkness for a while after the golden generation veterans retired. It’s probably that time right now.
There is some very good youth rising through the levels. But you can’t easily rebuild with a nation of less than three million and lesser diaspora than nations like Spain and England.
Quite a shock today. But sometimes it happens. I’ll still be wearing my red and white checkers with pride and while also awaiting the next rebirth of the NT.
Great comment, completely agree. We’re entering a rough period but we’ll come back stronger sooner or later
Josip you make a lot of sense in what you say, but you also need to remember that those talented guys, they can’t be playing in HRT leagues. They need to be in better leagues, and it also starts with coaching, management, and talent development that has been a huge hindrance for us. Dalic was a huge mistake. He should’ve been gone years ago.. the darkness that you will lose to is going to be around for a while
Liva was NOT the problem. The defense was in total disarray. I would HATE to bunker against Spain in Split but we will get eaten alive unless Bilic figures this out in three days.
I love it, embrace the slaughter folks. This the rude awakening was what we needed under Dalic, we are not good anymore the golden generation is finally dead.
Get rid of all the senior citizens holding handicap parking spots, install a full youth movement and play everyone under the sun for a full rebuild.
This game is the nail in coffin we needed. We can’t even play basic defence let alone offence. Ivan had our first shot all game in the 90th minute.
Even Scotland knows how to put balls in the box but no we have to be cute.
Luka, Mateo, Ivan, must retire immediately so we can at least start with the growing pains and move on.
For all of you fanboys loving Dalic, he held us on a string for too long. It wasn’t about Croatias future but his legacy.
I love him for what he did but he’s the reason why we’re in this state. We took to long to start the rebuild and now will have more pain then ever.
Faster than Anonymous picking his nose.
Stronger then this forum’s greatest MORON
Able to eat 2 tons of cevapi in a single bound,
Look it’s Klepetan,
It’s Rimic Automobili,
No, it’s SUPER SLAV.
http://www.gofundme.com/BringZlatkoDalicBacktoCroatia
Target 5M
Hopefully he’ll return if we top up his wages
Give what u can – please
At least we didn’t have to experience a 30 minute Krama cameo/rehab today
That’s a positive
Hopefully the geriatrics all announce they are retiring after the Spain game and it’s time for the next generation to take responsibility/over
You talk too much, accusing Modric of messing with that young girl. Show some class. I have actually liked your comments but you have gone too far this week. Take a vacation from this site and reconsider some of the silly stuff that you say.
This site used to have serious and well-intentioned football discussion. Now it is full of obscenity and disrespect for the players that we should all respect for what they have done for the Croatian people on the global stage. It is offensive to make fun of a world cup silver-medalist who has been a model of professionalism throughout his career in such a ridiculous way. We would all be better off without these absurd comments.
I agree. I remember this site being a lot different years ago when I first found it. I maybe thought it was just nostalgia.
Croatian fans have always been critical of the NT, but this site has turned so negative it’s hard to even check in anymore. Even if every result after this is as bad of a loss as today’s, we always have to be proud of what we’ve accomplished since our bronze medal is 1998. We may be entering a rough period, but surely there’s more great moments to come
Sramota!
Each player should go out back and pick their own šipkas to get beat with.
If Bilic does that I might respect him again.
Told u Liva shouldn’t go to Barca
First Yamal said he’s figured him out in training and where to shoot
Ditto today with Anthony Gordon he told Tuchel his weaknesses and how England can exploit
Well done Andy Bara
7-0
they also figured out Kovacic weakness after watrching him in Prem league…let him have open net and he will shoot it wide
Go Soldic!
Watch him somehow lose 7-0
1:40 ET
Sutalo let’s Eze walk right in and pass it off in the box
No effort – why even bother coming on
?
Sutalo let’s Eze run right by him and go 1 on 1 with Liva
No effort – no attempt to impede him or defend him
Two massive mistakes in 12 minutes – imagine if he played over 90 minutes it would be 12-0 right now
Would it have mattered if played the full 90?? Noone in defense played well. The team has worse problems than Šutalo right now.
If this was the NFL we’d have lost a close one.
Spain early -13.5 favourites on Tuesday.
This is why nobody wants to pay more than 2M for Liva – market is ALWAYS efficient – Barca won’t let him back in the building after this
7-0
100% Sutalo’s goal
He was hiding in midfield doing nothing and Rogers was his man
He left a massive gap between Jakic and Vuskovic
100% on Sutalo – always hiding on the field and leaving everyone else out to dry
I guess he does play midfield after all 😅
Like a #10 who doesn’t defend.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Shambolic
The post-match presser with Bilic will be magical no doubt
Your sarcastic remarks are a shame to all Croatians. You so often knocked down Zlatko for Pongracic and so many others. You are an arm-chair Quarterback with very little up in the head, hiding behind your computer. If I was head of this site, I would have fired you. We get what we deserve with Slaven. But being a loyal Croatian, I still hope for the best for our team.
I agree with Stjepan. It’s one thing to be cirtical, it’s another to constantly insult every Croatian player/coach week in and week out.
We had an amazing last few tournaments. This result was awful, but realistically we don’t have the talent to compete at the England/Spain level right now. Calling everyone close to the NT lazy, garbage, going as far as to insult their personal lives, etc. ; that’s not what we should be doing as fans.
You think if Pongračić was out there that things would be different?
We haven’t been good in a long time, with occasional spurts of good (like the second half against Portugal). But those performances are far and few.
We need a coach to fix this and get us to play consistently well.
If teams like Ghana and Congo can play England close (with a fraction of the talent we have) then why can’t we?
We needed to move on from Dalić and try something new (because he couldn’t figure it out after three years of the same issue).
Bilić is off to a shaky start. He may fail, and if he does, then we move on from him as well.
Resign Billic rebuilders go do urself this is the time to change things at the top
LMAO
Which moron let the Croatian kid in the stadium with a sign that says Bellingham is the GOAT
He was probably just calling him a magarac
Lol
No, he said goat. Get a life and work on your intelligence after the last year of reading you bash Coach Dalic. Quit hiding behind your computer and show some class.
lol. Sorry I meant koza. Same insult.
Ha. I meant koza. Same type of insult.
Torcida need to invade training this week and have a word.
They will do it during the actual game.
I expect to see flares and UEFA fines.
Is there even a whole lot to say here?
We can’t hang with the big teams anymore, at least not right now. The quality isn’t there. These past 2 games also showed how underappreciated Dalic was. 10 goals conceded in the past 2 matches (so far). Yikes.
Embarrassing, and surely the nail in the coffin for our golden years that began in 2018.
Croatia has always had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It looks like we may be reaching one of the low periods. Time to rebuild and prepare our younger guys
The more I watch this the more I feel bad why people constantly criticized Zlatko Dalic. I always defended the guy because he did the most with what we had while so many people criticized him for his decisions we are now seeing he was right all along. This all started several years back during the Kalinic days and then the Livaja incident…then the rumours about him being unfaithful, then the constant criticism of his sticking to senators …
The man deserves to be held in the highest regard and not crapped on by people that don’t understand this game. I’m losing hope! The National team used to bring us together until those that tried to destroy Dalic ended up destroying all of what we love.
Absolutely. He won us TWO world cup medals, and people were still calling for change. He’ll always be the best coach Croatia has ever had. Today proves it
It’s people like Maminjo that has the losing spirit. No class how he treated Coach Dalic after what he did. But he hides behind his computer and stirs up the ‘hating’ of a legendary coach. Good for Coach Dalic for taking the UAE job. Oh, I forgot that Vuskovic, P. Sucic, and Baturina are world class players.
You’re being emotional.
Calm down and drink a nice tall glass of soy milk.
These problems have been plaguing us for the past two tournaments where we finished in 20th place in both tournaments always easily losing top teams, ands struggling to get by teams ranked outside the top-50.
It was only a matter of time that we were going to be blown out like this and it happened.
@Maminjo You’d say we easily lost to Portugal last tournament? Easily lost to Portugal in 2016? I strongly disagree. We’ve consistently shown up strong to tournaments, even (arguably) in 2014 where we had a bad start because of referee bias.
Read what I wrote.
I said we played poorly that past TWO tournaments.
We’ve had very few good games in the past three years and we finished as the 20th ranked team in the last two tournaments.
Not sure why you’re bringing up tournaments from 10-12 years ago.
Even the past two tournaments, I don’t think we played poorly. We unfairly lost a hard-fought game against Portugal this WC, and got grouped in a tough group with Spain and Italy in 2024.
lol
6-0
And Bilic is now going to a back 5 bringing on Sutalo
Unreal
Does Livaković ever leave his line
Sometimes you just to have a decent keeper to build things from scratch again
Ivanović is a pale version of Rebic and that’s saying something
Anyone miss Dalic?
We were crushed by both Spain and England the last time we played them under Dalić as well.
We’ve been playing very lethargic for the past three years now.
Mamijo, be real. I’ve never seen us look this bad under Dalic.
We were this bad in the second half against England this past World Cup. Livaković bailed us out there.
We were also this bad against Spain at the past Euros.
We also played this poorly in our France loss at Nations League.
The difference is that Dalić is less of a risk taker than Bilić so our 3-0 losses under Dalić will become 6-0 losses under Bilić.
But they’ll still be losses.
We haven’t been good for years now. Scotland, Poland, Wales, Turkey, Albania, France, Italy, Spain, England, Portugal have all gotten the better of us in competitive matches.
We played maybe three good games in three years.
The point about risk-taking is actually a very good point. I also think player selection is part of this, but I will leave my comment about that above.
Croatia were no way this bad against Spain in the last Euro. It was 3-0 yes, but Croatia had equal chances and more possession. In this game, they were down 2-0 before they even held the ball for more than 10 seconds. This was light years worse than any game in the last 5 years.
Ok not this bad, but still got outplayed and outcoached.
We followed it up with the most lethargic displays against Albania and Italy (both very weak teams at the time) and we finished with our worst tournament finish ever.
Point is, we’ve been bad for a while now. So, the risk of a result like this happening is not sudden. It was always there. It just finally happened today.
LOL. Risk taking? Risk taking means taking offensive risks. Where were these offensive risks? If this is our offence playing run and gun, then let’s just bunker.
Why did they bring Bilic back? What the hell did he even achieve
6:0????
Absolute sramota.
“RIP HNS”
It’s finally over, after 30 years we have succumbed to be a 2nd level country and team, moving forward we are the Estonia, Hungary, Ecuador, Scotland’s of the world. It was a great run but now it’s over boys
It looks like we never even practiced. The defense is so disorganized.
Matanović again has been great on the ball since being subbed on.
This is so embarrassing. My kids, who are second generation, half-Croats, born in North America, are wearing their Croatian jerseys and are in tears. Bilic should resign immediately and these players should be egged.
Is this Croatia against England or Azerbaijan in Croatia uniforms against England?
San Marino
They are most likely going to score again currently 5 -0 Billic should go.
Good thing we signed him to four years instead of two. 😓
Dalic 2:30pm ET semi final vs Oman – you know he’s loving this
At this rate Bellingham and Kane are gonna have hat tricks and it’s gonna be our worst defeat ever.
I hate to say this but I am starting to agree with Vlad, I think a passing of the torch and a period of rebuild may be needed. We have to prepare for some bad tournaments ahead I think.
Unfortunately, I think you are absolutely correct. It’s sad , but it is true.
Remember the Lovren/Vida combo? And how much they were criticized. Yeah, I miss them too.
Why is Vuskovic passing Bellingham on the back ?
He should be sticking a finger up his add to draw a red card or something
Is this just another “throwaway match” Ante?
lol 🤡
Fire Bilic
Vuskovic is like a sack of potatoes!
Are the under 14 going to start leaving early ? At some point the teachers need to save their mental health from more trauma
We need to win back possession and put together a lineup who can make good clean passes.
This England team is pouncing on every little mistake, and every little mistimed or slightly inaccurate pass. We need a technically gifted lineup to keep England honest.
I think we need to sub out Ivanovic.
Ivanovic is a hard worker, and I like that he runs…but he can’t get by Cole (or anyone) when it’s one-on-one. His passes aren’t crisp either, and they always bounce off him too hard when he receives them.
Musa has been fine, but maybe sub in Matanovic. He’s a great presser too, and he did well against Czech. I would sub him in there.
I would like to see possibly Lovro Majer out there (due to his elite technical ability and passing) but it’s a very HIGH risk, HIGH reward substitute.
I can’t believe Kovacic missed that open goal, but he’s been good out there. He needs help.
I don’t want to see Bilic clearing the bench, and I don’t want to see Mario Pasalic and guys like that out there.
This could end up breaking our worst ever 6-0 loss record.
Lewis Hall the LB is the best left back in the entire premier league
Nobody is getting past Hall – even if u have Yamal out there
He struggled getting by Czech players as well.
I think he just may be suited as a counter attacking striker up top (not on the wing).
When famous baseball player Rusty Staub demanded a raise from the Pirates after leading the league in Home Runs – they refused…
“We can finish last with or without you” is what the Owner said after a last place finish…
Nobody should feel secure in their team role
not Staub but Ralph Kiner LOL – sentiment is same
It was Ralph Kiner.
Worst player on the pitch BY FAR Joško
It’s hard to pick one player. But yeah he is definitely up there.
At least Vlasic is shooting the ball at the net or trying.
48:23
Great Liva punch
See how important Vlasic physicality and mentality is
In one minutes he’s pushed 3 England players over and they crying already
Defenders in Croatia are rated by how they perform offensively – not by the actually play defense.
Start playing actual defenders.
Gvardiol and Vuskovic look so stiff.…and stop playing Perisic in the back for the love of God.
This is all leading to the epic failure farewell vs Spain for Modric…. He can’t save us no more we need new faces new drum beat… Bilić psychology written all over this.. we stuck in 2nd gear next step is some players won’t be called expect many new faces… can we hit 3rd gear next that’s the question… a lot of things wrong in this game seems like the Spain game has left a dramatic impression on them
Disaster, never seen us outplayed like this. Even worse than the 6 – 0 drubbing by Spain in Elche in the first edition of NL.
Bad defending by entire team, however CB combination of Gvardiol and Vuskovic is a disaster.
everyone has been horrible…
Its a walk in the park for the jamaicans plus Kane and Gordon
Lmao. That is the most embarrassing performance I’ve ever seen BY ANY TEAM EVER. BUT….its good. Hopefully someone comes out of the changing room with a broken nose and we can start remembering that success doesn’t come from names. I can’t be bothered to analyse anything ..just the attitude. Pathetic. They have traumatised a generation of kids
Spain is going to smoke us.
Bilic no more aura. Stick to podcasts.
Was a great run-
but hard work is required to stay/get to another level – Croatia is not contenders any longer, but can make it back if attitude adjustment
Still a good side (beat Czech) but nowhere near elite
Bilic has obviously lost his aura
In 2008 he was just retired Modric Corluka and the rest idolized him
Today nobody cares about him except geriatric Modric who can’t carry the ball forward with it being a turnover ever my time
Kovacic can’t even score on an open goal, incredible.
Where are all then morons who said away games don’t matter bc we’re going to do well at home ?!
Morons
We deserve this after trying to play cute away vs home
Bati also still unfit —> Vlasic
HT changes needed
Stani unfit —-> Jakic
Perisic too old/slow —-> Smolcic
Modric —-> anyone but Misic
Josko spent —-> Sutalo
Liva —> Kotarski
Save one final sub for later
No excuses. Being 4 down at half time is unacceptable, regardless if Spain and England are better teams
Ok that coach isn’t going to be the guy we need and we need to look outside Croatia ( fuck the Hns if they cant accept it)if we can’t find a good enough coach amongst our own people.
Told u
4-0
Saka completely free in front lol
Modric covering for unfit Stani
Vuskovic sliding tackle Bellingham
Worst half in history of Croatia football
Not even the scoreline it’s the effort and performance
Dalic is having the first and last laugh here at
BIlic must resign tonight. This is the worst half in our entire history.
Outscored 8-1 in 135 min yikes
Bilic do something ffs?!
This is humiliating
wow 4-0……..
Stanisic is horrible today.
Everyone has been horrible. I can’t find one bright spot.
This is an embarrassing performance in front of our children to be watching
My son has even gone to bed back here in Australia
Why?
It’s a great parenting lesson what happens when you don’t try, don’t put in the effort, don’t concentrate, and take ur eye off the ball in life – u get steamrolled
Excellent life lessons in this match
Kova miss
That’s the worse miss in the history of the NT
Poor Pero was wide open for a pass and shoot it in for a goal
Kova selfish
Kova miss
This might be the worst half in the history of the NT
U know it’s bad if Vuskovic is waving his arm on the 3rd goal
That’s the first negative body language in his career
Stanisic is clearly not fit – he shouldn’t be playing – that’s the issue
Liva waving his arms and kicking the post lol
What a miss Kova…ffs
The one time he could of just passed it into the goal
Horrible but ffs Livakovic glued to his line again
Well glad i’m not watching this
It’s 3-0 and whatever the fuck Bilic is doing is not working
Might better off with no CBs
My #1 concern about Bilić coaching this team is that the guy seems to be not much more than a Philosopher. He can talk and entertain us all by explaining his interesting point of view and vision but man he either has back luck or his players tune him out!
Agreed. He’s always been a better pundit than a coach.
Pathetic effort in front of the kids. Inspiring future generations?
Worst half ever.
LMAO
Misic and Jakic warming up
Let’s take off one geriatric for another !
This is the exact reason why Dalic didn’t trust Vuskovic and Gvardiol in the World Cup.
We make too many excuses for those two and then jump all over Sutalo even when it’s not his fault.
This is called “MISINFORMATION”! A bunch of people screaming “that would have been cut off if Vuskovic played”…well here you have it!
This game is not a Vuškovic/Gvardiol issue.
Yes, Gvardiol made a few gaffes so far (Vušković none really) but they’re being bombarded non stop for 30 minutes.
It has taken our midfield and forwards 30 minutes to take the ball off England.
Literally just 30 minutes of “keep away” and when we get the ball, we can’t even string two passes together.
2nd goal Vuskovic didn’t block the pass to Bellingham and 3rd goal he’s sleeping.
Come on Maminjo, he’s been terrible today
I posted that before the third goal.
But the first 30 minutes was it our CBs just being used for target practice. Something was going to give.
We have to be honest and open minded about our players and their performances buddy, Dalic saw what we are now seeing
Hrvatska’s passes were picked off 80% of the time.
No spinning this result, big trouble ahead
We don’t finish 23rd and 26th place respectively in our 2 last tournaments and expect a miracle..
This is not in any way surprising
This is another level.
Dalic had structure and shape.
This is pathetic
CBs unplayable. Definitely an area of concern
Absolutely ridiculous….. I always try to keep the faith , but this one is bad…. maybe we need to face facts. This is terrible!
lol
First goal Josko no pressure blind pass up the middle nowhere near any Croatian player
2nd goal Stanisic goes to pressure a man at the centre circle (lol) leaving Vuskovic 3 v 1 on the right side
Liva also useless glued to his line all game
Shambolic
U know it’s bad the under 14 are already booing – just a matter of time till they storm the field imo
Miss you Zlatko..
We can’t cope its not going to be a good Billic 2
Unfortunately for Bilić, this looks like Croatia-England 2008/2009 instead of 2006/2007.
This is hard to watch. Both CBs are lost
Our midfield and forwards are unable to take the ball off the English, and when we finally do get the ball, we lose it after one pass.
I don’t think anyone expected Gvardiol to be borderline unplayable in 2026.
Awful year for him in a Croatia shirt.
Gvardiol cant defend at all.
Really getting tired of Gvardiol lapses.
Sutalo fault everything is sutalo fault.
15% possession Šutalo fault
Good crowd!
As predicted Pickford back in
https://x.com/CroatiaFooty/status/2106396810231394430?s=20
Musa
Bati Pero Franjo
Kova Modric
Perisic Gvardiol Vusko Stanisic
Liva
TOLD U MORONS FRANJO WAS GREAT VS. CZECH (and that Luka Sucic couldn’t penetrate a first cap Czech LB (lol) and zero defensive work-rate)
Franjo has the MOST most important role of the team shutting down LW Anthony Gordon from Barca (England is now Gordon’s team – see his work-rate in both directions – just like Franjo)
Every single one of u MORONS don’t know what u watching when u watch Franjo (that’s the issue – hence why none of u should be posting – just Anonymous)
Also – told u MORONS – that Josko will move back to CB for this game and CB partner with Vusko with Stanisic coming back in (again – none of u MORONS saw this – ur crying Gvardiol is playing LB again and Sutalo coming in LMAO)
1000% prediction hit rate once again – over and over again
Honestly – 99% of u don’t have more than two brain cells – would call on Ante to institute a minimum brain cell test to remove 99% of the posters on here
We have an old LB who slow so we need a guy who works hard to help protect him yeah got it! Pretty simple stuff.
Anyone have a streaming link?
STOP POSTING ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES ON THIS WEBSITE
THE FBI CAN FREEZE, SEIZE, ANS SHUT DOWN THIS WEBSITE BECAUSE OF U MORONS WITH UR ILLEGAL LINKS OVER AND OVER AGIN
ALSO, IF U CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY FOR CHANNELS – YOU DEFINETELY SHOULDN’T BE POSTING ON THE INTERNET – GO HAMMER SOME MORE NAILS SO U CAN AFFORD TO PAY FOR CHANNELS
THANKS
Dude, you need to relax.
And please stop spamming this board.
Wow not the lineup i expected – with a front line or franjo and musa- but i like that Bilić is not scared to mix things up, and now that we have the strongest possible midfield and defense, these two really get to show if can cut it for the repka!
Dzeko was a complete FAILURE at U19 and U21 levels
He wasn’t even good enough to play for Bosnia between 2004 and 2006 lol
And only got his debut for the A-team at 21
2003–2004 Bosnia and Herzegovina U19 5 (0)
2006–2007 Bosnia and Herzegovina U21 5 (1)
2007–2026 Bosnia and Herzegovina 152 (73)
Important to keep in mind when judging young talent
@Maminjo
As predicted
The crowd is 95% adults (in line with Anonymous “more than half”)
Sure they’ll bus a few kids in – but there are actually no limits on adults – there are already in the stands waiting for the token kids to arrive to fill up the rest
https://www.jutarnji.hr/sportske/nogomet/rijeka-bez-atmosfere-hrvatska-engleska-split-priprema-spektakl-15752336
1000% prediction hit rate – every single time
Modric decide when, how and for long he plays – he did it at Real Madrid – don’t think he does it for the NT too where he has 1000x more leverage/goodwill
DAVIDE Ancelotti (37) spoke about the events at Real Madrid in a major interview with As. The son of the famous Carlo has been the coach of Lille since the beginning of the season, but in this interview he received the most questions about his time at Real Madrid. He spent a total of six years there in two terms, holding two different positions in his father’s coaching staff.
From 2013 to 2015, he was a fitness coach, and then from 2021 to 2025, he was an assistant coach. During these six years with Real, he won 11 trophies, including two Champions Leagues and two Spanish league titles. Recalling the turbulent El Clásico a year ago, when Real’s victory over Barcelona (2-1) was overshadowed by the outburst of Vinicius, who refused to leave the game and shouted at coach Xabi Alonso, Ancelotti junior said:
“Modrić did what Vinicius did”
“It’s not a scandal, nor proof that Vini is problematic. On the contrary, he is an example of everything positive. Real Madrid players are incredibly professional. We’ve never had a bad reaction from anyone.”
“They don’t want to leave the pitch? Okay, that’s normal. What Vini did, Kroos has done a thousand times. Modric did it too in his own way. Casemiro did it. But that doesn’t mean the players are in charge. In the Real Madrid dressing room, the coach is the boss.”
Ahmeti, Tomich and Frederiksen all start vs. Toma Basic’s Venezia
https://x.com/NKIstra1961/status/2106361936804040890?s=20
Dzeko had to wait until he retired to get thrown in the air
It’s nice Modric had the same treatment at 200 caps
x.com/BHLiveOfficial/status/2106129607338406295?s=20
I’m sure when Modric watches this (Dzeko) he’s never going to retire from the NT
https://x.com/KaniFroh/status/2106145248418345193?s=20
Get a life, clown.
Does anyone have a link to watch the game today from within the US??
Can’t you afford to pay for some channels ?
Dies anyone know a link to watch the match today?
Feel bad for Majer at this point – hopefully he gets 90 vs. Spain (where 4-5 players have already gone home including Nico Williams)
Croatian Football
@CroatiaFooty
🚨🇭🇷 Slaven Bilić has left Marin Pongračić, Lovro Majer, Ante Budimir and Dion Drena Beljo out of Croatia’s squad for today’s Nations League clash against England.
I would bench Livakovic he had a poor game against Spain, also he isn’t playing regularly in Spain. Time to make him sweat, give pandur the start and see what happens. Livakovic has it too good for too long collect fat cheques warming bench or playing in HNL and automatically starts for repka.
Stanisic
Sutalo
Vuskovic
Gvardiol
Kova
P.Sucic
Baturina
L sucic
Vlasic
Matanovic
The loss is not on livakovic he never had a chance
If Anonymous has his way, all those kids will fall victim to the Evil Pedo Luka as he signs all their jerseys.
Croatian Sports community demands a RED CARD ban for defamation of character for a minimum 2 weeks to 6months.
Faster than Anonymous picking his nose.
Stronger then this forum’s greatest MORON
Able to eat 2 tons of cevapi in a single bound,
Look it’s Klepetan,
It’s Rimic Automobili,
No, it’s SUPER SLAV.