Croatia are still winless against the French as the World Cup champions win 2-1 at Maksimir in Nations League Wednesday night. After an abysmal first half, the Vatreni rallied to tie the game up and peppered the French goal with half a dozen quality chances.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Croatia host France from Maksimir at 2:45PM (ET) Wednesday night in the 4th round of the UEFA Nations League. France defeated the Vatreni 4-2 in Paris last month and the World Cup runners-up have yet to beat France…ever.
Marcelo Brozović will be unavailable due to a yellow card suspension in front of a limited squad in Zagreb.
I think the experiments are over. Dalic should play what he thinks is the best team from now until the euros. Only sit modric if he needs a rest
The comments from Croats posing as foreigners are entertaining
But then again, what do I know?
Us Dutchmen have been relying on colonial slaves from Suriname to get our results.
Personally, I have Kluivert, Davids and Seedorf as probably my favorite “Dutch” players of all time.
You Croats always have excuses for your losses but forget you had a perjurer in your team at the world cup.
Would you Croats even have a decent team without corruption? That’s unknown.
Again, I think that given 3 games in 8 days Dalic had to mix things up a bit. Jedvaj barely played which was a good thing. Giving Pasalic time at RW was as a result of him wanting to find him playing time. He couldn’t play him
In Vlasic’s position.
The Dalic interview after these games was interesting. He talks about Uremovic playing well, Kova being better and wanting to see Pongracic. Mentioned both Vida and Petko being out of form.
Really look forward to Pongracic bringing his Bundeliga form to the repka.
Just kidding.
Croatia will take out France in these Euros.
France can’t hide behind the referees forever.
We were born to be France’s bitch in football.
But i’ll admit that we were lucky that Croatia was essentially playing half of their B team (due to injuries and suspensions) with the coach experimenting with the other half of the lineup.
Probably would have been a 3-0 win for Croatia if their coach would take these Nations League games more seriously, like Didier Deschamps does.
Even when we play shit we still beat Croatia, that’s the signs of a top team.
When Argentina, Italy, Spain and Germany play like shit Croatia beats them, but when France play like shit we still beat Croatia.
Also, to add…
Benching Lovren and Vida is not like benching Modric, Mandzukic or Rakitic.
Lovren and Vida were good for us at the World Cup, but they are not world class footballers who are difficult to replace.
You don’t want to prematurely bench a star-caliber player, because they could be the ex-factor who could singlehandedly win you a tournament match.
For example, Mandzukic was poor during our World Cup qualifying run, but then stepped it up huge at the tournament itself and won games for us.
I never considered Lovren and Vida that valuable where we would completely regret prematurely sending them to the bench in a tournament.
I think our younger guys could replicate what they bring, and even if Lovren/Vida were to get back to 2018 level, it would not be a massive gap.
I haven’t heard anything about Caleta-Car being a locker room issue.
Actually, I think Lovren bailing on the National Team at Euro2016 because he didn’t get the start ahead of Corluka is an even bigger flag that could resurface if he’s not handed a starting spot at these next Euros.
But, I’d rather keep all the off-the-field rumors where they belong, and judge performance on the field.
Lovren always had major performance issues with us. He had a great year in 2018 and it coincided with the World Cup. But we can’t ignore the ‘Kiks Lovren’ factor that plagued him throughout his career. He’s also declined since the World Cup, and his recent performances shows that.
I’m a little more surprised at Vida, since his bread and butter was that he was incredibly steady as a defender (despite being poor offensively). I, personally, have more faith in Vida than Lovren in not making a major mistake at a tournament, but he’s been looking shaky at times recently as well.
They’re both at that age where they can decline rather quickly, and I don’t want to get caught watching that decline happen at a major tournament.
We can’t make the same mistakes as previous coaches who stick with players due to performances from several years back, only to be reactive and initiate change only AFTER the damage has been done (i.e. Pletikosa at the WC2014).
@Maminjo
Look at you breaking things down like the Croatian Skip Bayless. (I say that with respect)
The defense is an issue. I agree with you, Lovren-Vida chemistry is something that will be missing if they don’t play.
Someone here said that Ćaleta-Car is a problem in the the locker room. I do believe in chemistry. Look at the WC, Vrsaljko, Lovren, and Vida were extremely close off the pitch. I know Lovren and Vida are extremely frustrating, when they are good they look great. At the same time, there mistakes makes you want to punch someone.
Idk what to do about the CB’s
@Doom
Yea, I recall someone posted some stat here about Uremovic’s ball winning ability in the air (which was good).
CB is his natural position, so I assume he would be more comfortable there.
Hopefully we don’t play either one of Vida or Lovren in this upcoming friendly, and Uremovic impresses us.
I keep forgetting that Uremovic is only 23 and is still part of the youth movement along with Caleta-Car, Bradaric and Pongracic.
@Vuk and Maminjo: I say yes. Uremovic hustled a lot in all three of these games and was, along with Caleta-Car, the most solid of our defenders. He also showed remarkable ball control and the ability to use his left foot when necessary. He seemed pretty good in the air too.
Center backs face more direct pressure than wing backs, but that’s exactly why CB need to be players who hustle like mad and react well on the ball. Lovren and Vida are both great athletes, but their reflexes are not the most intelligent, which costs us goals.
Nk Marsonia
You’re missing a player. Looks like the CAM position.
Maybe try out Lovro Majer.
The kid is lighting it up for Dinamo and our U21s.
@Vuk
Uremovic has looked more solid defensively than either one of Vida or Lovren these past few games.
However, he hasn’t been playing at CB which could be more challenging.
I would like to see a Caleta-Car/Uremovic pairing for the Turkey friendly though to see how it works.
However, I highly doubt that Dalic would bench both Vida and Lovren for the Euros, so it might be pointless exercise.
The only way Vida and Lovren (both) get benched prior to the Euros would be if Pongracic comes back at full form and continues his hot streak as a strong goal scoring and goal creating CB.
That mono issue really screwed our potential.
When to transition from trusted veterans to more talented youth is a problem coaches face across all sports. I’m worried too about Dalic not being able to do this in a timely manner before the Euros. The sauce needs to cook longer for it work.
The good sign with his predetermined two games each approach is that he didn’t just keep the Vida/Lovren pairing in both games. If his plan was to keep this pairing long-term, I would imagine he would have done Vida/Lovren in the Swiss and French game and Caleta-Car and someone else in the Sweden game. He probably picks Lovren/Caleta-Car in November.
What’s the thoughts on Caleta-Car/Uremovic as the CB pairing should Vrsalko come back and Pongracic not be healthy?
Turkey friendly next month
Grbic Juranovic Pongracic Caleta Car Bradaric Basic Rog- Orsic Budimir Pjaca
What’s needed is another homo sex
Pool party for the back line
@Anonymous
Yea, I think everyone’s concern is that Dalic does not see that we have a lot of young players (especially defensive oriented ones) who are currently better than the back four lineup we are currently using.
The fear is that players like Vida, Lovren, Barisic, Badelj, Kovacic will continue to be favored over the better younger players due to the fact that they have been on the team longer and have ‘earned’ their stripes (despite most of them performing poorly).
Since we have only two competitive games left, there is a risk that these better younger replacements won’t actually get the chance to replace these poorly-performing vets prior to the Euros.
The good news is that Dalic did say in the post-game conference that Caleta-Car, Vida and Lovren were all supposed to play two games each (so it seems like it was a predetermined decision, and not one that implies that Vida/Lovren are our true starters).
He did also say that he’s still putting together a competitive team and did express concern that we are conceding goals at an alarming rate.
That’s very important because I think the Vida/Lovren partnership is arguably our biggest issue.
Just replacing one of them with Caleta-Car will make a huge difference.
We’ll see what he does in the November games. If he plays Bradaric at LB, then it’s a really good sign that we can replace the majority of this back four with Bradaric, Caleta-Car and Vrsaljko (when he returns). That would be a huge boost to our defensive ability (and adds to our offensive flow as they are all capable of sending in crosses and longball passing).
We just outplayed the last World Cup winner and last euro finalist and we act like it’s the end of the world. Yes we lost but after a poor 20 minutes we took over the game and where the much better team. Unfortunately we have a back line that is not at the level that it should be right now but the good news is that there are good players on there way up that can replace them. Modrić was still the best player on the field his genius can not be underestimated. Finally the French hand ball was rightfully not called as a penalty and Masial’s dive in the box was also rightfully not called, there was a trip in the box that should have been given for a PK for Croatia but that’s not why we lost.
I watched portions of the match and we certainly played much better than our first match against France. But my word our back four are brutal. First half it could have been 3-0. Mbappe missed a wide open net and should’ve been a penalty on Martial. Yes there was a penalty on Mendy handball and unlike the one on Lovren called last game, It wasn’t given. Enough excuses! We are terrible in our own box, clearance on rebounds is horrendous and not enough quality finishes. 21 goals allowed in eight games at nations league and only ten goals for. Just brutal. Sack Dalic and bring in an international coach. We keep on repeating the same mistakes.
Good to hear that Dalic mentioned Toma Basic.
He probably wasn’t please with what he saw from Kovacic and Badelj these past several games, and realized how much trouble we’d be in if one of Modric/Brozovic went down for injury or suspension.
Toma would be a backup to Brozovic and Modric anyway, so I would hope that Dalic wouldn’t be attempting any stupid experiments with him.
Play the strongest lineup in these past couple of UNL rounds, and give Toma 15-20 minutes as a substitute for Brozovic at the end of the game to see what he can do with our strong lineup (that’s it).
We need chemistry with our main unit (specifically between Perisic and Krama, and the needed changes to our back four) and confirmation that they have what it takes for the Euros.
We played fine.
We just didn’t have the quality out there.
Badelj (unfortunately) is such a big dropoff from Brozovic (who would have been very useful this game).
Lovren and Vida are both very mistake-prone. Caleta-Car on the bench for either of these two, is a disgrace.
Barisic and Uremovic (just like Vida and Lovren) cannot be relied on for anything on the offensive end. Having them attempt to send it crosses was a waste of time.
Bradaric and Vrsaljko would fix this fullback issue.
Pasalic on the wing was a waste of time.
Rebic was injured, but we also had Orsic, Brekalo and Bradaric available on the bench.
Krama was also injured and was used sparingly. He probably would have scored that last chance he had if he was 100%.
We were missing Brozovic, Vrsaljko, Rebic, and Kramaric (who was not at 100 percent) due to injury or suspension.
We chose to keep Caleta-Car and Bradaric on the bench (both should be starting)…and we chose not to use our better backups in Brekalo or Orsic to fill that wing need.
We essentially played at less than 50% capacity (in terms of talent) with the players we rolled out onto the field.
Some of that was due to injury and suspension, and the rest was due to poor coaching decision.
If we played this same game with these six changes…then we’d have won the game.
I really hope Dalic recognizes this, and makes the right changes for the November games.
ffs “nig nose”, seriously, you guys are garbage
i guess its my fault for reading the comment section
Now we have lost 3 games in a row to France we should of at least won one at home.
Dalmatia you are a disgrace to all dalmatinci out there
When is the last time you saw someone score from the top of the box with a little flick of the outside of his boot?
This is a testament to Vlasic’s leg strength and core work that his dad instilled in him…carrying sacks of potatoes up mountain sides in snow …with no boots of course 😉
I wanted Badelj to start yesterday due to no Brozovic and go figure Badelj was invisible and had no control in midfield. Kovacic who has been struggling played great….go figure.
@ BZ
Modrić has that Soul of the game in him that is matched with his love of Croatia.
That perjury trial makes you immune to the media.
Not to mention the Madrid “bust” BS.
It seems Modrić wants to coach as well after his playing days are up.
From what I saw yesterday I can see him playing for Croatia through the World Cup 2022.
Dalic is improving with making adjustments but still needs to bring in even more young legs in key positions.
Zidane will rotate Modrić as he has to play his full compliment of midfielders.
Players like Kovačić have to play their part as their legs allow for Modrić to flourish.
@ Mixed Grill
Both Vlašić and Kovačić are 10 and 8 for us.
I like the Vlašić aesthetic, like Rebić, physical and explosive.
Like his goal DIRECT in the back of the net before you blink.
Vlašić cannot be pushed off the ball by anyone.
I would take 4 more like that across the back line or at least the full backs.
Post game Dalic said november they are looking fir new players and he menti9ned one name Toma Basic but he plays in position we pare packed Dalic said im like just get rid of Badelj whats the problem again i would rather lose with young player than lose with old players.
Livakovic is a guber
Fuckin loser
Dalic (if He is good enough) Formation with Full – Potential
……………………..Kramaric…………………….
……….Perisic……..Vlasic…….Brekalo………
……………..L Modric……Brozovic……………..
Bradaric…..Lovren…..Caleta Car…..Vrsaljko
……………………..Livakovic………………………
vs LAknat with Magnificient and strategic formation!
give me the rest of the players — >
……………..…..Petkovic.…….…….Budimir………..……..….
…………Orsic……………..…Pasalic…….………..Rebic..………
….……..…….Rog…………….……………Badelj…….…….….
…….……….Sutalo……….Pogracic…….Uremovic…..….……
…….………….…………….S Sluga………………………………
@all-Good news: we dominated from 20 minutes on. Got off sooo many crosses.
Bad news: Were those not the worst set of crosses you have ever seen in a single game? Even Perisic was sending in some abnormally pathetic attempts. Vrsaljko was sorely missed on this front today, get well Sime.
Berets off to France on that beautiful 2nd goal.
@Maminjo-Luka literally had to win silver medal before they backed off for good. Scumbags.
@Laknat-Good to see the Croatian formation sensation back in action, but that is like your 9th formation in the last few days. Some withVlasic some without, but I can’t complain as I am just thankful you finally benched the god of Halilovic.
……………..…….Budimir.…….…….Petkovic……..……….……
…..…..Bradaric……………..Vlasic…………..…..Brekalo..……..
…………..…..Modric…………….………….Brozovic……….…….
…………….CaletaCar……Pogracic……..Uremovic…..….……
…….……………………….Livakovic……………………………
I’m gonna try this formation for the November game )|
with Perisic / Rebic in for Brekalo, Orsic in for Budimir, Pasalic in for Vlasic, Kovacic in for Brozovic !
All this loss will do will just bring on modrics retirement
Dalic is playing with fire with his foolish experiments with Pasalic on the wing and ordinary wing backs and sticking with vida and Lovren
https://youtu.be/zmZVFMnqRFI
Lol, that’s a good one.
https://youtu.be/YqpO4BCWoF0
Real Croats love this song, but it’s not for the atheistic communist/partizan Croats, because they’re the bezbožnici, they have not the spirit of our Croatian forefathers but rather a globalist atheist spirit.
Vlasic is king
Vida is a stupid moron get rid of him
Vlasic keeps producing for us but I must say he looks like a bit of a rugby player out there. If only we could have a bit of Vlasic in Kovacic and a bit of Kovacic in Vlasic.
https://youtu.be/iPdTarjShaE
How about the NDH’s Boxing coach Jimmy Lygett?
And the NDH was supposedly racist, or so the atheistic communists, schismatic Serbs and the Jews/pharisees taught the Croats, and the Croats believed them lol!
https://youtu.be/vPIx6Qmwgik
Another Croatian hero, marxist Franjo Sranjo.
Lol!
Maminjo, you seem like a real Yugo motherfucker.
@BZ
The media wants to go back to their whole “Bojkot HNS” thing.
They were dragging Modrić’s name in the mud with that whole perjury thing, right up until the World Cup started.
They can’t do it anymore since he’s a National hero.
My comment above.
Red socks look fine.
We’d just look like a bunch of Hercegovci with white socks out there.
Soul, Mixed, Gbvh- we can only hope Modric doesn’t continue letting the “r” word (retirement) get further into his subconcious. The dumbass media keep asking him when he is going to retire, at some point he is going to think, “maybe I should retire.”
Modric still the best player on both sides of the ball today. He should not consider retiring until he is 70% what he is today. Life is short, play until you can’t play anymore.
@Dalic- If you are so high on Bradaric, how does he not start at LB with the first team once this cycle? I am not sold on the kid, but that is because I haven’t even seen him play his proper position, with a quality squad.
@Rafael-I like the red socks. Probably because I wear red and white socks in my games, just to flash some Croatian pride (my jerseys are blue and grey so it doesn’t look as good.)
At least England lost to Denmark i guess
Foreign coach would be good, but let’s not forget some foreign players is what we should be aiming for. I’m sick of watching only Croats in the team, we need a club team attitude to win something for the depressed Croatian people in Croatia, because that’s their only team. Whereas the diaspora have 2 teams, 3 if you’re a half Croat and not a full blooded Croat.
Coach change is now our choice- I don’t see any sense of defensive play- best coach and if he is not Croatian- so what!!
It’s time for our boys to get the best director to run the show-
Dalić is a nice guy – good Croatian but he won’t get us a Euro championship or a final – our D is a mess- we played awful for 25 minutes- we should have been down 2 or 3 – the score result was not indicative of the play – time to get a coach!!
Red socks for the communist drolje is the way to go in my opinion.
What does everyone think of the red socks? Last two games are the 1st time we wore red socks with the home red and white.
Kovacic played very well today. If he was forced to go forward more and even dribble more he would thrive.
We got November to see where all these dudes stand.
Question mark crew:
Lovren
Vida
Barišić
Badelj
Petković
Budimir
Croatia is tied with Iceland for the most goals allowed in the whole tournament.
@ Maminjo
Good point about not many games left but I think Dalic knows both Vida and Lovren have had their time and it’s time to move on. Without Rebic he played Bradaric as a winger, otherwise I think we would have seen him start at LB exclusively. Pongracic would definitely had a start or two but mono? Really? Who gets mono these days? Lol
I think we will be fine asking as we aren’t injured. Pleasantly surprised by Kova today. He actually played well and I’m praying he’s turning a corner although I’m not getting my hopes up. A few times he made a few great runs and gets 10 yds outside the box and stops…almost like there an invisible wall. He stopped and didn’t attack. He needs to be Krama like and be more selfish.
Oddly enough our central defenders which have been mediocre at best the last 10 years look like they will be our strength in the next 10.
Dalic’s tinkering has been partly because we are missing players and lack the depth ie Pasalic at wing. Brekalo had played a lot this last week and needed to give him a break. No Rebic meant he had to slot in someone that doesn’t play that position…same has been going with our RB situation.
Pasalic does nothing for me…he can only play Vlasic’s CAM role and nothing more…he’s not playing there for the next 10 years with Vlasic around.
Bog i Hrvati.
Modrić looks better than ever at 35!!
Vlašić has arrived.
Kovačić should go to Međugorje and pray to the holy mother to be able to score goals. That said he still provides something more than Badelj?
Perišić still has it.
Back line?? All spots are up for grabs.
Rebić and Brozovic were missed.
Dalic had a good week.
Good game by Croatia out played France again but lost because when you play top teams you can’t afford to fall asleep for even a second. Unfortunately we did Vida on the first goal and then again on the second and let’s be honest France where lucky on a few rebounds they went their way. Croatia was much the better team after the first 25 min where they looked poor. Dalic can’t play players who are not playing for their clubs (vida)and expect them too be sharp.
It could be worse, Croatians could be putting all their time, money and energy towards training third worlders to put our own kind on the bench and then pretending those fake croatians are real Croatians.
Talk to karacic why he dosnt wanna play for us 2018 choose australija but dint make it HNS never gave answer.
Try Juranovic playing in poland cant be worse than playing a cb at rb.
What happ3ned to Bartolec called in 2 times an thats all or he probly dosnt play for club.
Young right backs for future luka hujber tin hrvoj
https://telesport.telegram.hr/kolumne/laboratorij/imamo-li-desnog-beka/
@Mixed Grill, agreed on Modrić.
Not just skill/vision/smarts, but ass-busting hustle. What he did on that goal was sublime.
@Medo
I understand what you mean. But I think France looks at Croatia ( I hope I am 100% wrong ) the way we look at Italy. Italy can be best at the moment. But us against them, I’m overconfident.
Vida gave Grietzman a nice pass for the goal. Bring back Strinic and Schildenfeld or something.
I remember when Croatia was the World Cup how some of you were blah blah blah we are world power now what utter bullshit the World Cup now looks like a fluke we have been horrible in this nations league absolutely horrible at all on Dalic
Who said he wasn’t taking it seriously. I have no interest in winning it but at least I thought we would have a few good matches maybe even a couple hard for drawers but no
It could be a lot a lot worse, the Cro national team could be black and the lying rat media calling one of the players “the Croatian sensation” – THAT’s the real nightmare.
Looking at the positive side of this,if we cross over and meet them again at the Euros They might be cocky and complacent vs us,and our boys damn well better be hungry and pissed losing constantly to them.
The tide needs to turn eventually for us?
Does anyone think that Rebic is pissed off in the position he’s in ?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yet another classy comment worthy of all of our time. And of course, it’ll never be erased because it’s not useless gibberish at all and doesn’t make this site look bad at all. This site only bans “racist heretics”. What possesses a person to say what “Hercegovac na ZG” says?
most of you should be ashamed you came out of your mothers cunt. Joj..
Some of you guys are mentally retarded, whenever someone points out your hypocrisy, proves your hypocrisy, you call that person a serb. It’s exactly the same thing as a liberal calling anyone who disagrees with them a “racist”. A unproven label the weapon of guilty people trying to change the subject.
@”Marko”, who are you talking to and WHAT DID HE SAY exactly that induced you to make violent threats against him over the internet?
My take away: at 35 Modric outplays and outclasses everyone around him. We are lucky to have seen and to continue to see him play. I fear that when he retires we won’t see his like again.
@Maminjo
I see what you mean.
How you liking the jerseys? I like them they had white socks on. I don’t like the red at all. Too much.
Borna barisic looked poor. Not impressed at all. Bring on the 20 year old
These unnecessary UNL losses will cost us seeding at the World Cup.
World Cup Runners Up will end up being a Pot 3 team because of this.
@Stipe
I’m just saying that the players on the field were better players on their side.
We tried to experiment. They didn’t.
We stuck it out with older role-playing veterans. They didn’t.
We chose role players over rising young talent. They didn’t.
When you play a top-3 football team like France (who are actually trying to win the game)…ONE lineup mistake can cost you the game.
We made several.
The good news is that we kept it close. But the bad news is that we will never get to test out our ideal lineup prior to a tournament (or may not even get the right lineup when the tournament does come).
@Anonymous (less great, without the doom): You’re right that staying in Group A is really important. It gets us ready for the bigger stage. The only way to get on France’s level of ease is to get in the habit of playing such teams. Prior to 2018, we never had the chance except at tournaments. The Vlasic/Brekalo generation will be accustomed to it. That’s why I say that next time we play them, we beat them.
@Stipe: Serbia goes toe to toe with France because they’re also a bunch of cheaters. Same tactics, minus the talent. But I never want to see Croatia playing like that. We play classy ball (minus Lovren and Vida), and that’s why everyone who watches us respects us.
If he plays a conservative lineup next euro will be a waste via lovren psrtnership is done imo. Left back needs to be given to Bradaric. Right back with out vrsaljko we are lost uremovic cant cross the ball isnt a back.
Badlej thanks but hes not national team material anymore.
Kovacic played well when he came on.
Brekalo looks good Vlasic is a starter
Need to gel and it will be ok after the under 21 euros next summer some of those players will gradute for a wc 2022 run.
Could have won but Dalic choose wrong starting 11
@Maminjo
Cmon man. I don’t know bro. It seems like we can do everything they can, but they make it look easier.
They brought Pogba in the 82nd. They came with a strong line up. But they didn’t care. They beat us already in a final. It’s like England beating us at Wembley, who cares lol, we won when it mattered.
Nogomet is a cruel bitch lol
The loss is unfortunate, but at least we can stay in group A. Its good to always play the best. Sure, we will lose more, but we will also learn what to do better. What would you rather do, play third rate scrubs in meaningless friendlies where we can circle jerk how good we are? Or play games that will let us refine our game, so there are no surprises when we play the elite in tournaments?
@ Stipe – they had no care In the world ur totally right and I seen disprespext while they lined up for the anthem mpabbe jokin and laughing that nig nog nose ugly bastard.
@maminjo – your 100% right – I agree and mentioned similar earlier but U summed it/broke it down very well as usual! Give credit where it’s due – always enjoy most to all ur posts as long as it ain’t no troll cetnik or frog / Afro all star
@anonymous – go back to your land locked cetnik ugly Serb country – that’s truth like we’re spitting now based on unfortunate and unlucky results and if your a frog (doubt it, cetnik) then go ask Afro for more players as it takes a continent and country to beat another country (cro) with the population of small cities to win against us. If your a cetnik which seems u are – your the hater wanna take over dictate douche trouble makers who are just jealous you’ll never have the soccer skills we have! Clinton bombed u fucks and everyone knows u are scum! U gotta problem with that – let’s share addresses and I’ll show ya what cro cop to the head feels like dude !
Za Dom Spremni
@Stipe
We lost this game because of tactics and lineup.
Nothing else.
No curses or mental mindset.
We simply played 6 role players out of our 10 starting players, despite having several talents on the bench.
No team can beat France by relying on only 3-4 players to do something.
@”Iggy”, I forgot to mention, you’re as classy as ever too. And you’re the guy always pointing out other classless acts. Right on bro.
@Marko
Yea, our backline was already our weakness back in WC2018.
We just got lucky that Lovren put it all together that season and had a great tournament, with Vida having a great one himself.
Vrsaljko was always good and Strinic played better than his usual self.
But we can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice with this backline.
Lovren and Vida are regressing, and Lovren is going back to pre-2018 Kiks Lovren.
We need a stabilizing factor like Caleta-Car back there, and hopefully, Pongracic gets a chance to usurp one of them for a CB spot.
@Marko I didn’t see him do anything disrespectful and I can’t stand him. But he is who is his. He’s great. But did you see how Mbappe and Greizzmann walked out of the tunnel before the anthems?? We look like we’re going to war, they got to cover their mouths because God knows what they are saying. They were probably making fun of Maksimir, but they are treating it as a glorified friendly.
That’s my point. They are walking into the game as if their playing fuckin Malta.
We played good today. But France is on another level. And on top of that, we have players who play on the same teams they do. And I fuckin hate them as a country nation and whatever the fuck. They are better all around.
Serbia plays France better than we do. I know you can’t compare teams like that. But wtf, why is that ? Mentally France just knows they got us. Fuckin bastards
@”Iggy”, always contributing with your invaluable opinions. Time well spent for all of us. You’re comments will never be erased because they’re never gibberish.
@LAknat: The 3-5-2 is a good call with Uremovic in the mix now.
Many of these last past posts on the frogs are broken down great and hopefully Dalic sees this and is aware as some of you guys – the skill is there and hopefully tactical optimism translates
Stipe said: “fuckin hate France as a country.”
Marko said: “I hope it doesn’t take 100 years to break this curse as they have our number in coon/jungle/cetnik ball and hand ball also.”
Pavo said: “I fucking hate the French. There such shit lucky fuckers. I hate them so much.”
Not to mention the incessant anti Serb talk.
None of this is “hate” of course but God forbid anyone mention the race that Croatians belong to have a right to exist in the future – THAT’S “hate”, right?
Don’t worry good Catholic boys, God can’t see your hypocrisy.
have i mentioned im getting tired of losing to these french cunts?
……………..…….Budimir…….…….Petkovic……….…………
…..….Bradaric……………..Pasalic……………..Brekalo……….………………Modric……………….……..Badelj………….…….
…………….Caleta Car……..Vida……..Uremovic…..….………
…….……………………….Livakovic……………………………
Dalic is actually stupid as fuck }}
that French + Referee could get stomped with a B format …
just put it in the exact right position, dare to switch LW and LB with just simple LW )_and put 3 defense at the end of the fortress //
we will see whether you put Bradaric with no the likes of Barisic or even Meljnak … or get Perisic or Vlasic with the sense of flexibility >
……………..Vlasic/Perisic…….…….Petkovic……….…………
…..….Bradaric……………..Pasalic……………..Brekalo………
…………..……Modric…………………..…Badelj…..…….…….
…………….Caleta Car……..Vida……..Uremovic…..….………
…….……………………….Livakovic……………………………
Mali Ante
I hope that’s true, and that we do see Caleta-Car and Pongracic starting in the future.
But when will we see that?
We have two UNL games left. We also need these new guys to develop chemistry with standard players.
Not sure how many friendlies there are between now and nex summer, but if we’re just planning on showing up at the Euros with a completely new and improved (and untested) backline, then that’s a risk too.
He should have been starting both Caleta-Car and Bradaric back there since the beginning of this UNL tournament last month.
Wasted a lot of good games, just to confirm that Pasalic can’t play on the wing or as a CDM.
You can never ever or very very rarely play the same back line/ majority of players from past major tourney (Spain did it from 08-12) though with multiple reasons and justifications as to why ( i won’t disect as most of us know) but we need the fresh legs and gotta start with our D which is bleeding goals. Hope Vrsaljko can be fit for next years euros but we still have batter fish to fry in other positions – I always believers out quality but putting it together as a starting 11 with tactics right is a different story
The next time we play France, we beat them. Lovren and Vida both have to go. Even Mitrovic is more solid than they are at this point. Kramaric and Brekalo have to start, and we need to have a set way of playing. Anyone remember when we played a 4-1-4-1? I can see that working again like this:
Uremovic, Gvardiol, Caleta-Car, Bradaric/Barisic
Brozovic
Brekalo, Modric, Vlasic, Perisic
Kramaric
First sub off the bench is Rebic, and everyone else (Badelj, Pasalic, Kovacic, Petkovic, Budimir, Rog) are backups or strategic impact subs. By now, Dalic has gotten to see every player work against top competition, so it’s time to solidify this thing.
@BZ
“Brekalo definitely better option at wing than Pasalic, and clearly our 3rd best wing”
Good enough for me.
Pasalic out of position on the wing…and an over reliance on guys like Uremovic, Barisic and (shockingly) even Lovren to send in crosses was a disaster decision.
Brekalo isn’t perfect, but he set up the goal with his amazing chemistry he has with Vlasic (going back to their U21 years together).
He was the obvious choice to start on the wing, especially if you are opting to bench Bradaric.
I’ll say this as well. I think Dalic played Vida and Lovren as he thought they’d be a little more inspired given the WC loss.
I honestly think we’ve seen the last of this partnership. I doubt Dalic is that stupid to ignore Caleta Car’s play. And he wanted to give Pongracic a shot to play and he would have.
I dont think he will keep the partnership of Lovren and Vida. I think he’s gonna go with Caleta Car and one of Lovren/Vida (most likely Lovren)
@stipe – I agree and seen mpabbe that velociraptor looking ugly motherfucker and he disrespected our anthem I thought. I’d miocic / cro cop his head right off
@ svima
Look at the bright side, we were missing Rebic, Brozovic, Pongracic and Vrsaljko. Krama was hurt and not himself.
At full strength and introducing a new central defender pairing in Caleta Car and Pongracic – we will be ok. All of our fringe players got a little experience which helps. If Vrsaljko can come back we will be solid in the back. Uremovic played decent considering he was forced to contribute offensively which isn’t playing to his strength.
Aside from the first 20 minutes we controlled the game. The goals will come. Brekalo and Vlasic are a dangerous combo.
As long as Luka is around we will be dangerous and able to beat anyone. When Luka is gone then I’ll be concerned as Kova lacks the killer instinct that Luka has.
LOL.
I gotta get my head out of my guza, because I don’t believe in sports curses?
ha ha
Maybe we should just have a Turska kava and predict the Euro winners based off the coffee residue on the bottom of our cups.
@Maminjo and Mixed Grill- Mixed Grill is 100% right. Modric made that goal happen, and Vlasic finishes deftly again.. In fact, Brekalo should gave been there for that Barisic cross. Brekalo was also not there for Perisic’s beautiful cross earlier either.
Brekalo’s late passes were atrocious, and his teammates let him know it.
Furthermore, I don’t think he beat one defender to get a cross off either, something Perisic and Rebic do ALL DAY. In fact, I am mot sure he beat one defender to get a cross off in these past 3 games. Not good that the defenders know they can simply overplay his right side and he ends up giving the ball up.
Brekalo definitely better option at wing than Pasalic, and clearly our 3rd best wing.
I am happy we played better. Great sign. If our best winger played today (Rebic) we probably would have won.
@maminjo- u have great posts and enjoy ur threads as there always informative but brate u gotta get ur head out of guzica and admit we got some curse goin on against France as our skill ain’t the problem whether our D looks like a druga liga team- sometimes it’s out of our own control and this as well as last 2 – 4-2 results implied. We didn’t deserve the score line of those 2 results nor the result perhaps but we got a lil curse goin on against those frogs – I wish I was wrong and again hope I see the day we beat them on a major stage! Ribbit ribbit frog coons
It’s ridiculous how spoiled we are. At least we played and showed heart. Everyone loves to shit on Lovren, he played extremely well in the World Cup for us. Yea it’s 2 1/2 years ago, besides Euro qualifying none of these other matches matter.
France is better all around. That’s it. I fuckin hate France as a country. But that’s it.
We look at naša repka and break down everything. You think fans of other countries are thinking “shit, were playing Croatia next?” The intelligent ones, yes.
Greece won Euro 2004 in Portugal. I can’t name 3 players on that team. All I know is that they mastered set pieces, if I was Greek I’ll living off that forever. But Im not looking at Greece as a powerhouse or a threat. We can’t play against Portugal and I’m still not scared of them. France, I’m scared of.
You guys see Mbappe walk on to the pitch into the national Anthems? He didn’t have a care in the world. Yes their
Players respect our players, but their fans definitely don’t.
This is Dalic’s predetermined lineup for the Euros.
Livakovic
Vrsaljko, Lovren, Vida, Barisic
Modric, Brozovic
Rebic Vlasic Perisic
Kramaric
This lineup doesn’t maximize Krama’s skills, and leaves a big hole in our CB pairing of Vida/Lovren. Barisic is also a big downgrade from Bradaric.
It should do okay at the Euros, but will be hard to get to the quarters (even with a healthy Vrsaljko). Probably a Round of 16 loss if we don’t address the issues in our back four.
I’ll say it again, this is the strongest Croatian team ever.
Nice to see we have gained some good new players; Car Caleta, Bradaric, Uremovic, and Budimir.
Better to remain humbled now and dominate at the Euros!
If everyone stays healthy and Modric does not drop in form, we will be among the best next summer. Significantly stronger than we were in Russia.
It was sad that in first 20 mins or so were looking for Lovren as a scorer on crosses lol- mandZo missed that much ! whether or not dejan’s grabbed a few for us in his Repka career doesn’t matter. We gradually improved as game went on but slow off the blocks immediately cost us and coulda cost us more if kjupers wasn’t drunk…uremovic was not impressive to me at all sending in hopes and dreams crosses (although he’s young so I’ll give him benefit of doubt) vida screwed up bigtime and Lovren wasn’t much better
Not sure why my post got deleted? Greasemann is a pos and we should have broke his leg after he did his mocking dance on the goal.
Overall though, proud of the boys for the fight back. Switched off on the game winner though.
And it was a CLEAR handball on Mendy in the first half that should have been a penalty.
F “France”.
This was no curse.
We had Brekalo, Kramaric, Bradaric, Caleta-Car on the bench.
Dalic chose not to use them until it was way too late.
He’s sticking to his World Cup qualifying lineup (it seems) with the odd experiment here and there to cover for injuries or suspensions.
Lovren was worse than Vida today.
Even when there was 5 seconds left in the game and he had the ball, he was just standing there, waiting for someone to come to him for a short pass.
LOL. Just long ball it into the France box, there are only seconds left. He couldn’t even do that.
Could also be called the curse of thuram in his only 2 international goals scored in the semi 98 but some bad tactics by ciro last half hour or so (minimal) more importantly bad luck which has plagued us against them I don’t think had as much weight as that euro game even though it was hands down more important. Fuxkin frogs oh man I hope I see the day we beat them on a major stage
What we learned in 3 games
Vlasic is starting 11 set
Vida barisic badelj lost a 11 spot. Lovren is 50 50 need a right back badly
Good effort but not good enough
Two of the corner kicks France got were among the worst calls I’ve ever seen.
Lovren stopped running and let his man through. Period! Unacceptable to behind the run like that as a CB. He tried to play the offside and got burned. Until Dalic realizes that Pongracic, Carr and Gvardiol should be our future back line this will continue to be a joke and disaster waiting. Vida and Lovren out!
@ “crnkovic”, why do you care when you hate Croatians’ race?
Once again the curse of Ivica Mornar like the curse of the Bambino (ruth) lives on! Pisses me right off! Always were working against not only afro all stars but refs – I hope it doesn’t take 100 years to break this curse as they have our number in coon/jungle/cetnik ball and hand ball also. Kovacic and kramaric missed golden opportunities a druga liga player woulda scored. Upsetting but what can u do and move on. Unfortunately it’s gotta be in the players heads now as we can’t beat em even though I disagree as many games vs. them were up against the wall and not by talent but by shittt reffing and our own undoing. Let’s look to the future and hope we can and will improve.
Za Dom spremni
Ya we need to keep reassessing the back 4
But honestly Vlasic nose for goal is something special
That was cheeky yet so nicely placed
Vrsaljko caleta Broz Rebic available it changes our look substantially
Can’t finish higher than third place now, lol.
Oh well, hopefully Dalic gets grilled by the media for this.
This was his fault.
No stability in the back with Vida/Lovren….and this after we had seen quite a bit of solid play from Caleta-Car these past few games.
No support on the wings, yet Brekalo and Bradaric are benched in favor of an out-of-position Pasalic and Barisic.
Over reliance on role players like Uremovic and Barisic to do something offensively, when we had a lot of talent on the bench.
Funny thing is the one time he benches Kovacic, actually lead to Kovacic playing better.
I fucking hate the French. There such shit lucky fuckers. I hate them so much. They don’t even play good soccer. I wish Lovren would smash there fucking heads.
We were the better team and lost AGAIN.
France may have won, but they proved themselves an embarrassment to football. I hope once we get rid of Vida and Loven, we will be THE classiest team in the world. Liked seeing Livakovic pick up Hernandez. Keeping it real.
we seem to manage games really badly. when to press, when to drop off. disaster. its like we are stupid
Our back four man, geez
Uremovic accidentally walks the ball out of bounds and gives up a corner, lol
Lovren is a mess.
Bradaric with a beautiful cross right to Brekalo, who sends it back to Kovacic who put it on goal.
This is what we could have had the entire first half, and part of the second half, if we just started these younger talents.
Dalic keeps handicapping us in the UNL.
They do this each time to us
France is an elite team.
We can’t roll out a bunch of role players and expect to win the game.
Vlasic, Modric, Petkovic, and Perisic were our only talents on the field in that first half (and it showed).
Vida, Lovren, Uremovic, Barisic, Badelj, and (and out of position) Pasalic are just role players.
Can’t have 6 out of 10 players on the field as role players, while having players like Bradaric, Brekalo, Caleta-Car on the bench.
We needed to close the talent gap.
im so sick of losing to these shitheads
We spend the whole game fighting two opponents just so that France is fit to capitalize when they finally get a chance.
Gotta end that Vida/Lovren partnership.
for fucks sake
wow.
Lovren and Vida asleep, and a long ball goal for France.
That Japanese ref from 2014 is no longer allowed to ref us, and this guy shouldn’t be either.
Jebote.
LOL.
Kiks Lovren of course trying to win the game for France.
What a miss on that clearance attempt. Lucky not to be down 2-1 after that.
We need Caleta-Car out there.
This refereeing is literally psychological torture.
I think orsic deserves his chance. he is awesome
Sigh…
Not enough talent in that back four.
We are doing well, but every time we have to send it back to our backline, it kills the flow.
I would sub in Caleta-Car and Bradaric.
We need more talent on the field to ride this momentum.
@Mixed Grill
Now, now, let’s not forget Barisic…who overhit his cross so much that it sailed across the field and almost went out of bounds…which Modric saved, and found Brekalo (who found Vlasic).
Barisic deserves just as much credit as the rest of them.
ok now please dont concede in the next 2 mins lol
Modric made that goal happen he is just on another level
Dare I say Kova has been noticeable? Lol.
Hmmm, Brekalo involved in that one again?
Who’d a thunk it?
But, let’s continue to bench him ‘cuz he’s gotta earn his stripes or whatever lol.
Vlasic is quickly becoming one of the most important players for us. Great improvisation for that goal.
Not surprised that it was Vlasic who scored.
Gotta continue to stick with our talented youth.
Never seen a team get away with so many handballs, let alone such obvious ones.
Let’s see if Budimir can do for us what he did against Switzerland. Hopefully Kovacic rises to the occasion too…
Is this ref for real? So many atrocious calls.
Kjupers that Dutch ref and his assistants seem to be drunk like the mike Tyson interview the other day as they had many calls wrong and some benefited us and some didn’t so it’s almost even. Let’s hope we righty the ship 2nd half !!!
Reading these posts some of you need a head check – we shoulda and coulda been down 3-0 by the 20th minute. Last 15-20 mins we played better but no way were getting hand ball calls go our way ever against France or any big team. That being said there’s pessimists, optimists and realists in the world and many on here have just blinded optimists (which I don’t mind as I could fall into that category at times also) but we’re miles away from competing with top nations like at WC18. Kept 1 clean sheet out of past 10 games simply ain’t good enough. I always have high hopes at major tourneys but WC18 our D didn’t let in ONE goal from run of play (chereseyov rocket not included as that was special) until France final when they got some lucky bounce deflections on 2nd half goals. Regardless our D never got carved open like thanksgiving turkey as we have been exposed lately. I don’t wanna hear nations league, it’s a joke, blah blah blah- fact is right now we can’t play with the big boys and it’s upsetting as false placed and heightened optimism doesn’t get you too far ! I won’t name names as Seinfeld says lol but it doesn’t look goood for us. Relying strictly on the counter almost worked but we need new tactics as it seems against France we have the curse of MORNAR from euro 04 when we shoulda won that game – Prso ended vieira career when he almost took barthez head off and Henry 2nd goal for France was handball worse then any one today or even terrible call against perisic in final. The curse of mornar we need to break !
UBoj,
Yea, I think Vida, Lovren, Uremovic and Barisic are solid enough to occasionally start…but not all at the same time.
Bradaric, Caleta-Car, and Vrsaljko should be guaranteed starters.
We should try out Pongracic to see if he’s ideal for that last spot.
The four we are playing now should be insurance for injuries.
Iggy Thanks !!!
this is the first stream i got to work:
http://blacktiesports.net/soccer4/
This ref also gave a straight red to Mandzukic against Iceland in the 2014 WC playoff. He is an absolute disgrace of a ref. Glad I’m not watching. Couldn’t stand seeing that pig Greizwoman score, and that idiot ref.
@”crnkovic”, why do you care when you hate the race Croatians belong to? Croatia is not a club team who can buy and sell players, Croatia is a nation. Answer the question.
Maminjo,
100 percent spot on…I’ve been saying for a couple months now, for us to compete with the big boys, the back four has got to be:
Bradaric – Car – Pongracic – Vrsaljko
We are essentially playing the four I hope to be the backups…at euro, I expect us to start:
Barisic – Car – Lovren – Uremovic (don’t trust Sime to be healthy)
That back four just isn’t good enough…even if Croatia progress, it’s almost certain they face France or Portugal in the round of 16 – neither of which they have (or are capable of currently) beaten…sucks…
Uremovic is playing very well. Barisic is doing pretty nicely too. But Vida needs to be subbed out. Too many mistakes already…
@BZ – Yeah. I agree that the team is playing well and that Petkovic is part of that. It just seems like he is a step behind the French defenders. Regardless, he did win us two free kicks at the top of the box… Only one of them was called. That last foul on him was a CLEAR yellow card. This ref is full of shit.
Pasalic got blocked pretty well by the keeper, although I’d bet Kramaric would have finished that one. Honestly, were it not for Vida’s stupidity in the box and the UEFA bias, we would be winning.
Gotta sub in Caleta- Car.
Need to break up that Lovren/Vida partnership.
Both are horrible offensively. Lovren’s longballs go nowhere. Vida takes too long to make a pass, giving France so much time to set up.
Just gotta move away from that CB duo.
Good role players, but we’re not going anywhere in a tournament if we keep pushing these two, especially with two other role player types (Barisic and Uremovic) in the back four as well.
We need to limit it to two role players maximum.
Hoping for us to have Caleta-Car and Bradaric as permanent starters, along with Vrsaljko and hopefully Pongracic gets a chance to see if he can complete a skilled back-four lineup.
need a link
Yeah 2 obvious French handballs the ref let go, one for a PK.
@tgad- Petkovic is playing well. After our rocky start we are finally playing good soccer.
Had Pasalic not missed that sitter, we’d have our deserved tie.
Well his back was turned, totally unintentional
Our back four provides us with NOTHING offensively.
They try, but man, I miss Caleta-Car’s long balls and Bradaric’s nice runs.
That cross attempt by Lovren was absolutely embarassing.
If there were VAR, this game would be absolutely wild right now.
any stream?
Petkovic is too slow. He could have cleaned up the garbage, but he couldn’t get to the ball.
I take back what I said about Vida. He’s not any more reliable than Lovren.
Sack Dalic right now it’s getting embarrassing now
Jesus! We could’ve been 2nil down on the first 15 mins!
@”crnkovic”, why are you still here when you hate the race Croatians belong to?
2nd time in the unl, where Lovren jumped out of the way of a goal. You jump and take that shot in the kidneys. Bench his ass.
As much as I’m not a fan of this lineup with Pasalic out of place and no Bradaric or Brekalo, they’ve played 3 games in 8 days…all teams are rotating players to keep them fresh.
I guess this lineup is the closest thing to our most successful post MNdzukic lineup. Would have liked to see Brekalo.
Bjorn Kuipers is the ref today, we have no chance…
He was VAR ref for World Cup final…
Gave the cheap penalty to Spain against us at euro 16…
Wales 1-1 draw when Bale scored off of a foul..
Among countless others…dude is the grim reaper for Hrvatska.
Is there a reason why nobody wants to pay $2.50 for a month of SAAN TV to watch the games?
My thing, after 4 unl games and 1 friendly,Dilly Dally Dalic didn’t even experiment with a slight variation of the lineup that got us to the dance.
For example, he could have easily plugged in Brekalo for Rebic in the Petko-Rebic-Perisic-Vlasic-Modric-Brozo core. Sooo we learned nothing about variations of our key formations.
Guys i’m trying to get the game on UEFA TV but it seems to only have highlights? how do i find the game?
same with Krama. thats why pasalic is potentially very important to us
pasalic is great at breaking beyond the striker. hes OK on the ball but his real strength is with his movement into the box. with Petkovic its important someone runs past him, because he gets drawn to the ball
pasalic on the wing is terrible. thats why i think vlasic plays wide today. unless we play the diamond again
Vlasic is capable on the wing. he is also very strong, he tackles and works back really well. so it could be that Dalic sees vlasic as a more solid option than brekalo for todays game
@crnkovic
Why are we so critical of Brekalo in ‘needing to find consistency’ yet we completely ignore the poor play of several other regulars?
Lovren hasn’t been great. Kovacic has been out of place. Pasalic has one good game against the Swiss, and is bad out of position.
If you want consistency from Brekalo…well, he’s scoring or assisting on goals every time he plays LOL.
I agree that Brekalo isn’t perfectly fundamental, but you can’t honestly think Pasalic at the wing is a better option. Pasalic is an even worse defender than Brekalo.
Oh I didn’t realize the sastav was updated.
Lovren/Vida partnership instead of Caleta-Car in there?
BARF.
Barisic instead of French League starboy Bradaric?
BARF.
Pasalic on the wing instead of Brekalo or Bradaric?
BARF.
These are my callouts as Dalic mistakes.
Watch Pasalic send in several crosses and assist on three goals…with Lovren making a couple of goal line saves, and Vida scoring a header, LOL.
i still think brekalo needs to find a bit more consistency in his game before we can consider him a starter. i like him, he’s super talented but he has work to do. he makes mistakes in posession we cant afford against top teams. gives the ball away cheap
i think the line up is ok. I like petkovic, i think pasalic deserves another chance after his performance against the swiss. i think barisic has been prematurely written off after a couple of poor games. uremovic will be tested against mbappe. the line-up is good. depends on performance of the individuals. i still trust Dalic
Pasalic at CAM is better than Pasalic on the wing…but you’re taking away from the wing position by forcing Vlasic to play there (as he’s better as a central midfielder).
Vlasic can play both CAM and wing…but he’s not really a true winger who runs up the flank and sends in crosses.
He was good in that diamond LM position last game, but he still wasn’t the one running up the flank. I didn’t see him send in any crosses.
I think Bradaric or Brekalo are obvious choices to start.
Brekalo is on a scoring streak (and scored on France last game).
Bradaric has shown he can play both LB and LW without issue…and he’s a French League player.
It’s kind of a no-brainer to play one (or both) Bradaric and Brekalo…but I guess Dalic really likes Pasalic and absolutely must start him, I dunno.
Crnkovic, that’s the problem.
Dalic is starting to make Niko Kovac like decisions in his lineups.
Everyone, please make your statements about lineups and players now. Everyone is an expert AFTER the game. Everyone knows what could have and should have been done after.
yes but vlasic is better than pasalic on the wing and thats who is playing
Vlasic is better than Pasalic in the AM position. While Vlasic can play on the wings, he’s not very effective there. Brekalo and Bradaric would be much better on the wing.
4 – 1 good guys.
Statement game!
if pasalic plays then vlasic will go to the wing, vlasic is good cutting in from the wings
@truth
Petkovic seems to be a type of striker that you cannot compare his club output to his country’s.
The gap in quality of teammates is huge.
He seems like he feeds off the quality level of the National Team and his skillset meshes well with our National Team.
The guy has like 6 goals in 10 competitive NT games against good competition, and he didn’t even start in some of them. Can’t ignore that.
@Horvat
Yea, Pasalic on the wing is a bad move.
Pasalic has only ever been a central midfielder. He didn’t do anything there against France the last time he played there.
Strange that we would have both Bradaric and Brekalo on the bench.
I assume Dalic likes having these talented substitutes up his sleeve, but it sucks having great players like Bradaric only getting to play the last 25 minutes of the game (when he could have an impact for the full 90 minutes).
@truth
Can you provide a link? I think he’s still a free agent.
Either way, he’s too good for Serie C. He can hang with a lower level La Liga team. He definitely should go to Spain.
Where is Pasalic going to play? On the wing?
There was a time when we had to play players out of their best positions. For example, Eduardo, Mandzukic, Rakitic, Brozovic, on the wings. They always did NOTHING in these positions.
We no longer have this problem. Please start playing players in their best positions.
on a side note, halilovic signs with third league in italy.. Series C
what always amazes me about this story, is that when halilovic played for both sporting gijon and las palmas, he actually showed some ability at top flight football…could his game have actually deteriorated that much? out of shape? drugs? no motivation ?
without marcelo bozo – vic , croatia will likely have a lot of issues
he’s emerged as arguably the most important players, particularly in these meaningless games where no one cares to run
petkovic is a complete enigma…for someone who doens’t watch hnl like me and no longer has analysts modeling it for prospects, i watched 15 minutes of petkovic in the euro qualifying cycle and said to myself who is this !?
incredible control, touch, passes….a little bit of finishing mixed in
but the guys track record says, he is not a goal scorer…and not a top notch player… it seems like he’s showing that at dinamo this season and tough to expect too much different from him today
One thing that bugs me about Dalic is too many experiments.. but i know why he does it because since 2018 croatia is an open read book procitani smo kniga so hes trying to mix it up. You onow what by 2022 next yeats world cup our rebuild looks ok compared to post 98 rebuild which lasted long.
Pasalic is not national team quality.
Even when he does play, he can only be used as a central midfielder.
Pasalic starting over wingers like Brekalo and Bradaric is a HUGE mistake.
*Kramarić
Remember that we get to use five subs now. I can easily see Brekalo, Dramatic, and Rog coming off the bench. Maybe also Vida and Bradaric, although I think those two should be starting.
…………………….Budimir…….…….Petkovic……….…………..
…..….Bradaric……………..Pasalic……………..Brekalo……….
…………..……Modric……………….……Badelj…..……….…….
…………….Caleta Car……..Vida……..Uremovic…..….………
…….……………………….Livakovic……………………………
Dalic still don[t like to try something different but make sense!
like -> Making Rebic for Man – Marking Mbapee in WC Final >
also subs that dude hero GK Subasic *) at least test him at night before the Final match )( in training section>
stupid as a coward (Dalic will never make anything’s good)
at least switch formation to ideal 3 – 5 – 2 … | | come on “: *(
Oluja
We’ve got Perisic, Modric and Uremovic that will have to contain him.
Wish we had Vrsaljko there, but at least it’s a good test to see how good Uremovic really is defensively (he was solid in these past two games).
Ričard
Yea I see that some news portals are reporting a last-minute change.
– Starting Ćaleta-Car is a good move
– Putting in Badelj for Kovacic in that pivot role is also a solid change
– I do NOT like swapping out Bradarić for Pašalić though
I thought Dalić was done with the experimentation, but I guess not.
Pašalić should only play CAM or nothing.
We will have no crosses coming in at all on the left side with Barišić and Pašalić there. At least swap out Barišić for Bradarić.
Everyone knows that the real left side for this game should be Bradarić at LB and Brekalo at LW.
Worried about Mbappe running wild down the wings….
We don’t have enough talent in the starting eleven, and have too much talent on the bench.
Uremovic, Lovren, Vida and Barisic are solid role players…but we need to inject our backline with enough talent with players like Caleta-Car, Bradaric and Vrsaljko (when he gets back).
We can’t afford to have half of our starters be role player types.
I hope Badelj replaces Kovacicaa.
Livaković – Uremović, Lovren. Ćaleta-Car, Barišić – Badelj, Modrić – Perišić, Vlašić, Pašalić – Petković. According to insider on sportske and jutarnji lisy
The lineup as per Index.hr…
Livakovic, Uremovic, Lovren, Vida, Barisic, Kovacic, Modric, Perisic, Vlasic, Bradaric, Petkovic
Is Dalic seriously planning on benching Caleta-Car for this game?
He’s been our best CB and he plays in France.
Kramaric is not starting either (I assume because of injury).
Brekalo won’t start, and they are going with Bradaric on the wing again and Barisic at LB. Barisic is better than Melnjak, but we really should be playing Bradaric at LB.
Of course Kovacic is getting the start. I don’t think that is a surprise, lol.
I see a few mistakes on this starting lineup, but hopefully we can win despite these mistakes.
Why must you always post a picture of that
Weasel with the L sign. I don’t think it’s funny.
Oluja, word is people have been trying to take him out at Barca, but he’s been invisible since arriving. lol.
^gbvh
Croatia a sizeable underdog.
Pinnacle Sports odds:
Croatia +310
Draw: +272
France: -104
I am pleasantly surprised France is playing their B team.
Can’t wait for Dalic’s latest head scratchers. Every Dalic lineup is like an October surprise, much like the Biden crime family’s emails getting released.
Someone please take out Greizzman. That diving pos needs to be taken out. I don’t even care if it costs us the game. His dive leading to the first goal…and then gayye “dance” after the ridiculous penalty deserves a bone crushing or at least ACL teating tackle.
Free stream at UEFA.TV – you just need to register your email
Brekalo melnjak caleta car brozovic(cards). Wont start this game because they played 2 games last week so dalic will put them on bench only uremovic will.play 3 games beamcause we dont have a rb. Kramaric joker from bench
livakovic uremovic lovren vida barisic kovacic modric perisic vlasic bradaric petkovic 11 vs france
From what im reading france will put a mixed team nit real 11
It would be interesting to see how we go without Brozovic and Rebic
We might be pleasantly surprised