-Petar Sučić equalized in the 2nd half, but once again, Croatia concede within 5 minutes of scoring this campaign — weak VAR penalty call
-What is up with Gvardiol? Another defensive blunder that led to England’s opener. He is unfortunately a shell of his 2022 self
-This was a much more respectable result compared to that 7-0 catastrophe in Rijeka, especially with Perišić suspended
-All is still to play for Sunday in Osijek. All Croatia need is a draw or better to secure a Euro 2028 qualifying Pot 1 seed
Our beloved Vatreni face off against England at Wembley Thursday night in their final Nations League road match of the campaign. The Starting XI is expected to look a bit unorthodox as Perišić cannot play due to a red card suspension and Modrić expected to sit to keep him fresh for the more important Czechia game in Osijek Sunday.
A draw would be considered a HUGE success for Croatia tonight. We are looking to grab a point this week or better to lock in 3rd spot in group stage, which would give Croatia a seeded Pot 1 draw for Euro 2028 qualifying.
Let’s face it, we don’t have anything close to the quality compared to England or Spain. It’s been by far one of the worst years for us. We had such a strong World Cup and now on a four game losing streak. Four of which are against the two best teams in Europe or top in the world. Two of which were close games and could’ve been a draw or win. Gvadriol’s failure to connect and clear the ball was a rookie mistake and he should know better. The Kane penalty…go figure. We give up stupid penalties and it bites us in the ass again. It seems every game we play England they get favoured and receive them. Czech will want to get a win too and haven’t played too bad. We have the worst goal difference in league A. Turkey isn’t even down that bad. We just can’t find rhythm it seems. Not as if these games have value but it’s a test to see what we have in store for qualifiers next year. The positives are we improved against two fast and young teams after the first two games. 2-1 losses to England and Spain isn’t as bad as you think. Who else is going to beat them? We do need to start getting back in the win column soon. I still don’t understand what’s with this playing stari mentality with Bilic. You have eager players with no experience desperate to start. Meanwhile we sub in Budimir lol. Spain and England were through their rebuilding phase from 2014-2018. Croatia was peaking and beating all the top teams. Now it’s reversed. I’m convinced we will have a bright future with Matanovic, Gvardiol, Stanisic, Vuksovic, Sucic, Sucic, Baturina, Hrgovic, Beljo. Give it some time but get these dinosaurs out and off the pitch. Mandzukic and Corluka and others stepped away. Bilic should grow some and start taking only young players on the squad. International coach is a consideration if this continues next year.
I thought Matanovic played great. He never stopped running ala Manzo. He was a beast holding up the ball. He won nearly all contested balls. He was a constant disruption to England’s attack. I think Ante Budimir is a great teammate but his time with the NT may have run it’s course. Same could be said for Mario P. Beljo should back-up Igor. Curious to see what he can do with significant minutes. Baturina was just amazing. Great with the ball at his feet, like Kova. Bati has a chance to become a special player. Kova was great again. P. Sucic was very good. We have to find a way to get Majer meaningful minutes in the midfield. Gvardiol’s best use is at CB. He is too awkward at LB. Stanisic should be a fixture at that position.Vukusic was good. Jakic should be the RB or #8, take your pick. Smolcic is just too slow. That’s why he grabbed Bellingham. All attacks on the right side died at his feet. No creativity. He strikes me as a back-up CB. I guess Misic was there for stability but I think we need to get more out of that position. Vlasic is no winger. He’s a tough kid with a great work ethic but he cannot create his own chances. Looking forward to Perisic’s return, however old he is. Same with Modric playing at least 65 minutes.
Overall we played a good game which could have gone either way. A lot of positives from the last two games, albeit losses. If we play like we did today, I think we will do very well against the Czechs. We played with a lot of effort. Our record doesn’t look pretty but I think we are heading in a good direction with a crop of young talent on the way.
I was at the game. There were lots of positives. Like loads. Matanovic and Baturina had breakthrough games. Baturina was the best player on the pitch by far. Matanovic was an immense target man. Luka V made couple of errors but other than that looked like a world class leader. The shape and structure, the strategy to compete with England were spot on. Bilić has also clearly told the players that they need to take greater individual responsibility on the ball and they did that and we could easily have beaten them or drawn the game. Msssive positives.
The negatives: 2/3 of the players simply aren’t good enough. Simply useless. They shouldn’t be called again. I’m not going to name names. Confidence is still low overall. It’s a tough period for us but there is no magic coach who can fix it. We just need a bit more time and for a couple more good players to reach their potential and we will be back.
BTW Peter sucic was gassed that’s why he came off. He works so hard.
Please. Name names.
Baturina and Stanišić were great today.
Bilic is terrible, I said it and I’ll wait it again Bilić always breaks the records 4 loss in a row. We are not going forward just in neutra terrible hire.
Mario pasalic sub, Marco pasalic sub vlasic 90 mins WTF I honestly wouldn’t care if soticek played 30 mins and we lost by 4 goals. I know vlasic isn’t t the answer I know Marco and Mario pasalic are shity subs. Like this team is not moving forward.
How is Stojković not on bench esp with no Luka sucic.
I’m thinking the same as you. as much as I feel we owe Mario Pasalic a lot for his solid performances off the bench and his timely goals, I think someone else is ready and Stojkovic is a very good choice. Marco Pasalic should not be called up until he is a regular starter…he’s gotta get back to Europe.
Yes. I don’t hate Mario Pašalić. I think he can still be useful in certain scenarios, but not the way Bilić has been using him (which is just a fresh set of legs in place of our best creators or defenders).
Marco Pašalić (due to his club status) should be a bubble callup and used in case of injury. Not as a key sub against England.
Budimir should never be ahead of Beljo in any game.
Vlašić is a backup and shouldn’t start unless we absolutely need him to (due to injury) and in case he ever does start, he needs to be taken out after 60 min (and not play the entire game).
We have a lot of BLOAT on this squad, (and it would have been more if Kramarić didn’t reject Bilić’s callup).
Bilić was supposed to lead this transition, but it seems like EVERY SINGLE player over the age of 30 is ahead of every single one of our young players.
After 5 games, our record is 1-4 and we still know very little about our younger players.
We only learned that Beljo can be called upon to play when needed.
we are coming off some terrible results and this is a crucial period…to make matters even tougher, we aren’t getting any bounces or luck going our way.
In the first 15-20 minutes I was happy to see we looked organized and composed even under pressure. I think Bilic has taken a step forward demonstrating his team can play his system…now we need better choices in the lineup. I’m not a fan of playing Vlasic on the outside, he’s not fast or skilled enough to take on defenders so I would have preferred someone like Majer in that role.
Gvardiol has a serious mental block and only time and good performances will change this streak of terrible decisions and blunders/marking he’s making.
@Maminjo you mentioned that Misic was making sideways and backward passes. I think you have to understand his position to understand his decisions. the game was very close and he did not have any clear passing lanes available so he kept it safe and we maintained possession. He is the type that will take a chance to thread a needle but in a game where we do not dominate possession I think he has to help maintain possession and play things safe. Imagine the stress that comes along with being a new fringe player AND attempting low percentage passes and we lose possession. He had at least 1 interception and on a fragile team like ours at the moment, I think he was better than anyone else other than Modric.
this team has to start to learn how to get results again. we used to take points even when we weren’t the better team and now we have to find our way back to playing for the result.
Baturina is a sexy player…damn he’s hard to take off the ball!
regarding this ” I think he was better than anyone else other than Modric.”
I meant to say Misic was the best choice we had at that role except for Modric.
I would still rather put Sučić deeper and move Mišić to the bench. Need more talent on the field.
Bit unlucky in the end to lose. Vlasic and Budimir had reasonable chances to equalize.
We gifted them two goals, first one Gvardiol and Vlasic unable to clear the ball and with the second Smolcic foolishly grabbing the opponent in the box from a corner.
Soft penalty yes, but a penalty nevertheless and similar incidents against strong teams will always result in a spot kick when VAR intervenes.
Baturina played really well but so did most of our players.
Need a draw against Czechia on Sunday to come third in the group.
Overall, we played a good game and better than last month. Someone get Modric a wheelchair and have someone push him around while he makes passes because we got better when he came on. He knows how to dictate a match with his tempo.
Baturina and P.Sucic had a great game, still wonder why Sucic was subbed out?
We could have tied/won if we took our chances but it did seem at times England was playing a few gears down.
For the penalty, it was harsh but you don’t put your hands or pull back their shirt. Especially, after score or someone in terms of England status.
Going forward, we keep Bilic for the Euros, it does seem there is some improvement.
For our players, they need to find better clubs and where they can get minutes. For exmaple, Kovacic sitting on Man City’s bench for most of the season.
Also, at times it did seem that we didn’t play as a team but relied more on individual performances
I don’t understand why Bilić subs out our best player at the 70 min mark.
He did this every game.
He did it with Kova against Spain twice and now he does it to Sučić today.
correct me if I am wrong but this game doesn’t matter much we were going to finish 3rd or 4th irregardless of the result?
The game did matter because it’s important to get third place for Euro qualifying, and third place is only going to happen by finishing ahead of Czechia on points (because of our terrible goal differential)
Baturina is the energizer bunny.
Jakic over Smolcic everyday of the week.
Looking for Gvardiol, and Vuskovic., anyone see them.
Budimir has a great nose, just not for the goal.
Petar great goal, now please sit down.
I didn’t get to watch, what formation did we play? The formation pic Ante posted has Smolcic CB and Misic infront of Kovacic and Sucic?
We played 3-4-2-1.
Smolčić played the RWB with Stanišić behind him at RCB, and Vlašić played LWB with Gvardiol behind him at LCB.
Vlašić doesn’t have the speed or skill to play that role. He put in the effort, but was partially responsible for the goal against us, and he didn’t have much chemistry with the far more skilled Baturina (who was playing in front of him).
Come on, England on an intensity scale played a 4 out of 10. Those pundits saying we played well, yes, because England was so bored of battering us that they just glided. Bilic is actually worse than Dalic and that is shocking.
Ivan my son, “No inhibition, play defense like no one is watching”. Yes, Father. That was a nice game for 45 seconds.
TBH, im not real sure what to make of our team atm. The 7-0 was so dispiriting but the last couple of games being 2-1 losses to eng and spa, i guess there’s no shame in those. Just want a win in the next game and move on and put this year behind us, i think. Our worst year apparently stats-wise.
Biggest loss year in our history by a league margin.
Dalić and Bilić working overtime to eliminate our status as a seeded team in qualifying.
If we are upset by Czech in our next game, we become a Pot 2 team for the Euro2028 draw in December.
4 losses in a row. First time ever.
5 wins and 8 losses in 2026.
(-13 goal differential)
Getting crushed by everyone.
A Slovene nightmare.
Croatia outplayed England but got punished by a cheap dive in the box during the mandatory Croatia refereeing period and then got no call when Gvardiol was pulled down with the ball on his head on the other side. For all the doom-sayers, Croatia could have just beaten England at Wembley tonight had a few bounces gone a little bit lower. Without Perišić and with Modrić coming off the bench late. Ajmo!
Coulda Woulda Shoulda.
How are teams like Greece and Italy topping their groups?
We just lost four games in a row, and there should be no excuses.
Our subs were bad. We left our worst player on the pitch all game, and subbed out our goalscorer the first chance we could.
Budimir missed two headers that Beljo would have buried. Vlašić had an open bottom corner shot and he missed the net completely (a chance that the subbed out Sučić would have buried). Mario Pašalić was largely invisible, and we took out Sučić for him.
We lost the game and subbed a bunch of 30-35 year olds into the game, when we could have subbed in some youth.
We didn’t even test out our youth today and learned nothing, but still walk away with a loss.
I see your point, but Sučić was starting to get very frustrated by the referee, and that wasn’t going to help matters. Mario actually played well with quick transitions and was one reason Budimir had so many chances. Budimir had a terrible performance. He looks rusty for some reason.
Croatia is missing a striker who can dribble (Matanović and Budimir both blew a few counter-attacks with poor touches or inability to weave), which Greece and Italy both have. Ivanović is injured, but he’s that kind of striker. You’re going to hate me for mentioning Kramarić, but Kramarić has always been able to create chances with his touch and his dribbling. Also out with injury. If I were the coach, I would have called up in-form Borna Sosa or Marko Pjaca instead of out of form Marco Pašalić. It would have been nice to see Hrgović at LWB instead of Vlašić, but this trip probably didn’t give the new players time to integrate with the team.
I don’t think the future is bleak. Vušković played very well, as he did against Spain. Kovačić, Baturina, and Petar Sučić ran the show. Matanović was terrifying but needs a second striker there on counterattacks. Gvardiol needs to focus. He keeps costing Croatia goals.
I don’t think the future is bleak either, but we just wasted 5 games that we could have used to try out news players and formations that we could use at Euro2028.
If we were going to lose these games anyway, then at least we could have known what players like Šotiček or Stojković could do for us.
I don’t like that we are still doing what Dalić did, and that was to take 12-18 months to try out a new player (instead, just recycling the same group of 30 year-olds across multiple roles and positions).
Like, why the f@€k are we forcing Vlašić to play as a left winger for 90 minutes?!?! When we have the best and our most in-form winger in Šotiček sitting on the bench. Can’t even sub him in for 10 minutes?
We now have to experiment during Euro2028 qualifiers…but then Bilić will probably get cold feet to experiment in such important games, so the same group of 30+ crowd will (again) be pushed ahead (and we’ll roll with yet another geriatric squad in two years).
I’ll be honest, we played really well with the chosen players and formation. Is it defensive? Yes, but we can’t bang with England on individual brilliance alone; this formation really kept us tight and in the game. OFC PK loss is always with England, but nonetheless I’m not upset; Bilic is doing better, honestly looking forward to not playing a rank 1 or 2 team like wtf was this group.
Can’t catch a break after today. We outplayed England. 3 points after 5 matches. The last two games were losses but way closer. Where do we go from here? Just a win Sunday would be nice to end the year. Our team isn’t meshing well. Baturina is by far our best player now.
Billic isn’t going to get us anywhere hes just all BS
Yea I didn’t like this game from him.
Italy can beat France, and Czech can give Spain a run for their money, but we can’t seen to do anything.
Just accept that every single game against a bigger team simply must be a loss.
Did you see who played for Spain? All their best players sat out. These games look like friendlies. Don’t hold much weight with me. Pretty sad you have to gift England yet another penalty but we’ve seen this movie many times. Just waiting for the Euro qualifiers at this point.
Not true at all, we played very well with what we have, man. We don’t have Neymar, Mbappe, or Kane; we need to play vs. top nations like this, defend, and look for chances. If you expect a coach in 5 matches to make us incredible, you need to kick rocks
And who does Italy have?
They just beat France to top their group.
Who does Greece have to beat Germany in Germany and draw the Dutch too? Greece are in the Nations League quarters as well.
Why do we need a superstar at every position to gain a result, when other teams can do without?
Gvardiol with a poor clearance, almost leading to an England goal that was luckily called offside
Gvardiol is in poor form, makes too many mistakes often leading to goals.
Dalic should have never started him at the WC because he was not fit coming back from a broken leg. Realising his own mistake, Dalic made the right decision to bench Gvardiol for the rest of the World Cup.
The problem is if we drop him we don’t have to many options at left or for that matter at right fullback.
Again.
Vlašić doesn’t have the skills to finish a goal like that.
..and we subbed out our goal scorer in Sučić and kept Vlašić in for the whole game.
Awful miss so painfully close too
Baturina is insane.
Nobody can take the ball off him. He’s unreal.
Too bad he’s playing with Vlašić on that left side.
Hes for sure our best attacking player hes magical at times
Yup, that’s coaching. We bunker immediately after the tie. What if we just kept going for it ? It’s unreal how many times that happens. It’s not a fluke, it’s part of the disjointed coaching we provide to HNS players. It’s embarrassing.
To be fair to Bilić, the ref is just calling every winning tackle as a foul against us.
I don’t think we’re trying to bunker.
Agreed Dammed if we touch em dammed if we dont
Smolčić needs to f’n understand that whenever we score on a big team, there’s will be AT LEAST a 20-minute period right after the goal where the referee will look for any reason to VAR us.
Unfortunately, we have to play perfect contactless football whenever scoring on these types of teams.
Bilić needs to train these guys to understand this.
…and now the ref continues to call every 50:50 play as a foul on us.
20-minute grace period then we’ll be allowed to play again.
Exactly. The game was called relatively evenly until our goal
If that’s a penalty, then every single corner kick should be called a PK.
Yes
Eng always play act when they want a goal i literally am crashing out everytime i watch them vs Cro
There was no reason for our defender to pull the player down …..What a soft penalty to give away.
100% it was poor positioning and needed to catch up brutal
We can’t seem to score a goal without immediately conceding or giving away a penalty lately, sigh.
Our players still haven’t understood that we are the most negatively “VAR’d against” team in the World.
We need to be especially careful when scoring against top teams, as refs try to kill our momentum immediately afterward, and there’s no better way to do so than a PK.
Yeh i noticed this too whenever we score i literally count 3 min timer cus we will concede
https://streamin.me/v/e5d97f97
Sucic scores
and now we get immediately VAR’d the other way.
Not a terrible first half, but not great either.
No dangerous chances created by us, but at the same time it’s not like England is running over us either. That could all change in the second half though.
Vlašić has been our worst player. He’s trying hard, but he just doesn’t have the technical ability to jive with Baturina and Sučić. Defensively got burned a few times and was involved in the goal with Gvardiol and Vlašić both being at fault.
Gvardiol bungled that clearance, so the error is on him. He’s also having some trouble on that left side, as well.
Mišić is good defensively, but provides nothing on offense. He just makes the safe pass backward or sideways. I saw Sučić yell at him on a few occassions.
If I am looking to make a change, I would sub out Vlašić for sure, and maybe Mišić too to get some additional creativity in there.
Gvardiol will be tough to sub out unless we want to go with Stanišić at LCB.
The rest of the team has been decent.
Baturina and Sučić are visibly skilled and capable, and Matanović is pressing very well (almost intercepted a backpass).
Smolčić has played extremely well, and Vušković, Stanišić, and Kova have all been their regular solid selves.
Gvadriol hasn’t been the same since his injury. It was evident in the World Cup and more so today. He needed to clear that ball.
Vlasic amd matanovic I would sub ASAP
Playing with two men down at the moment with those guys.
Soticek and Beljo sub at half
No way. Matanović stays on for me.
Not great so far. Baturina is playing very well. Mišić actually doesn’t look too bad
Make this game an open tryout , bring in a bunch of guys you want to see and go from there. That group didn’t give us anything special , they just played it so safe. If the goal was to lose 2-0 , we’re on our way
I am open to ideas to create more offense, maybe Luka Sucic if we are relying on long distance shots as our only form of offensive. Sill in the game at least.
Luka Sucic is sick and he is not even on the subs bench.
Not sure how long do we keep on playing Gvardiol ? he is a huge liability in our defence and costs us a goal in just about every match that we play against serious/strong opponents.
Until he again plays regularly at CB for his club and figures out how not to punch himself in the dick whenever the ball comes near him in the box, he needs to stay at LB.
why are misic and smolcic starting? It’s debatable either should even be on the team, let alone start. Give the young guys some run
Baturina is the only one playing and playing positive. Everyone else is slow and passive. They choose the easy and safe pass way too often.
Baturina has to be key for us. I have a feeling that no Perisic is going to impact us greatly here.
https://soccerstreams100.im/sports/football/england-croatia/80041/
If anyone wants to watch. Here is Link
Kovacic a shoot on frame! Nice, but if he is our only offensive threat, we are in problem.
https://streamin.me/v/9d0a9f92
First goal for England. Goes through Gvardiol legs
It looked like it went through Vlasic legs, then off of Gvardiol’s rear end, then through Liva’s hands. A real comedy of errors.
Also, no one stepped up on Kane, who made a terrific pass into the box. After all the damage he caused in front of our penalty area last match against them, you would think we’d have someone one all over him.
Aside from that, we weren’t embarrassing.
Vkašić needs to be benched.
He just kills our flow and can’t defend either.
Oof that was so clumsy from Gvardi to give them the first goal. Just so sloppy all round.
Enough of Gvardiol – something is seriously wrong with him.
I don’t think he fully healed from his injury. It was a mistake to come back so soon and play so soon after the type of surgery he had.
Is it 1-0 England? I am not able to watch guys what’s the lowdown??
Yea. 1-0.
But we’re not playing poorly.
Vlašić is probably out worst player so far, but he’s trying. He’s just not good enough.
Gvardiol is still probably not 100 percent from his injury.
Mišić is decent defensively, but isn’t at all involved offensively. Playing it a bit safe, but he’s probably not good enough to start for us anyway.
The rest are playing okay.
Ball goes off Gvardiol’s nutsack and to the English scorer
Great! They already scored on is.
He’s been a shell of himself since his injury.
I’m going to take a cuts that the image above is incorrect haha
*guess (not cuts)
I have no faith in Bilic..
Hoping its not too ugly but really just looking forward to the home game on Sunday.
Don’t normally approach matches actually scared were going to get flogged but unfortunately that is a valid fear atm 😭
The bad dreams stop today? Hoping for a new winning team chemistry to arrive.