Croatia Starting XI: Kalinić – Melnjak, Škorić, Jedvaj, Bartolec – Kovačić, Badelj – Perišić, Pašalić, Oršić – Rebić
What I fear most in meaningless friendlies almost happened again; this time to Nikola Vlašić. Vlašić needed to be helped off the field Tuesday night in Pula but did walk off the pitch under his own power. It looked as if a Georgian player got Vlašić on the chin with the CSKA players thinking of a fractured leg at best. However, it appears to be nothing serious going into Wednesday morning. Imagine if Croatia lost Vlašić for the summer over a ‘nothing’ friendly against Georgia. That would have been a disaster.
And speaking of disasters, Lovre Kalinić just can’t catch a break. He finally got the start for Croatia and let in another ridiculously soft goal. He has the goods physically but his confidence and demeanor simply isn’t there.
Georgia would score an own goal for Croatia in awkward fashion and Ivan Perišić would score a header right in front of the goal to earn Croatia a win in their last match of 2019.
Next: Euro 2020 draw on November 30th.
You know what I hate more than a friendly?
A friendly at the end of the year once your team has already qualified for a major tournament. There’s not much you can learn from it with another meaningful match five months away. Sure, you may see some new young blood in Croatian checkers Tuesday night in Pula as the Vatreni take on Georgia, but so what?
All of our players are in the middle of their club seasons and won’t be giving 100% against a Georgia side who finished well behind Switzerland, Denmark, and Ireland in Euro 2020 qualifying in an absolute “nothing” game. The negatives have always outweighed the positives in misplaced friendlies – just ask Marko Pjaca, who blew out his ACL in 2017 playing a friendly against Estonia. He still hasn’t returned to his old form and it may never happen.
And how in the hell is the HNS scheduling friendlies against a team like Georgia?
Croatia went to the World Cup Final and we’re still scheduling friendlies against teams like Georgia?! I just don’t get it.
Don’t expect to see seasoned veterans on the pitch against Georgia for too long. Luka Modrić will not play in this match and Ivan Perisic will captain the team.
Official lineup will be released as kickoff approaches.
And they are even happier because in the round of 16, first place in B and first place in C both play 3rd place teams in other groups.
And no team gets a home advantage in the round of 16 game, which is good. I am hoping Croatia gets group F. Check this out, if Croatia gets second in group F and England gets first in group D, it’s England vs. Croatia in Dublin in the round of 16.
Would everyone be up for that?
Nevermind, Mostar is right, Ukraine and Russia can’t be in the same group, so group B is Belgium, Russia and Denmark for sure and group C has Ukraine and Netherlands. So the Dutch and Belgians are very happy today.
Belgium can be in group B or C. And Ukraine can be in B or C. So Croatia can’t play either of these teams. Because of that, no matter what, they will play a host #1 seed. So yes, the draw and how they finished did matter. It would have been much better if they had beaten Azerbaijan and Wales and gotten a #1 seed. Then they wouldn’t have played a road game in all likelihood. But I do like that France will have to play Italy, England, Spain or Germany on the road. And hopefully Portugal is in their group too. UEFA is probably kicking themselves for setting up the draw this was and having their beloved France having a tough road. I’m sure they’ll get Turkey or the Czechs in pot 3 and the Path D playoff winner in pot 4. Gotta make sure France get through the first round.
Ok I get they are rigged
But I’ve asked before and no one seemed to know
How do tickets get allotted?
I’ve put my name in but how does it work
Say cro plays Germany in Germany
Like would half tickets be allocated for cro?
Or is it all just random
Cause u know Croats from cro and diaspora will be all over Europe in full force next summer
Even more so
We have picked up a shit ton of neutral fans im sure over the last couple years
oh wow didnt realise the groups are already populating.
Sucks we can’t get ukraine.
So u know on the home ground BS advantage, does that continue after the group stage? Do teams who CAN play at home just play all their games at home or some shit? like just how rigged is this shit?
I just hope we avoid Italy’s group at ALL COSTS because that’s the group with host cities Rome and Baku. Absolutely horrible travel
Group B is almost full and the draw hasn’t even begun yet. Due to a million reasons, Group B already has Belgium, Russia(hosts) and Denmark (hosts)
We can’t be drawn into that group
The next group has two teams in it already
Group C has Netherland (hosts) and pot 1 Ukraine
We can’t be drawn into this group either because Netherlands is a pot 2 team and we are in pot 2
We will be in either Italys, Englands, Spains, or Germanys group. I hope we are drawn into Germany’s group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020
The goalkeeper situation is not a big deal for me even if Livakovic gets injured. I would definitely like to see Josip Posavec over the other 2 at least. We also have Ivo Grbic who isn’t bad, just concedes often because he’s on a bad Lokomotiva team. Then there’s Adrian Semper who plays for the U21s now, but I’ve always rated him highly ever since he started for that U17 World Cup that had a few of our current highly rated prospects on it (Brekalo, Moro, Ivanusec, Gjira, and to a less extent Kalaica and Davor Lovren). Karlo Letica was good and was our 3rd choice keeper but lost his starting spot at Club Brugge and is now on loan in the Serie A to be a back up keeper similarly to who Semper was the back up last season on loan. Maybe it will end up the same way and Letica will be the starter next season? Who knows. Dinko Horkas is decent, but untested at first team level. Same goes for Karlo Ziger, Dominik Kotarski, and Renato Josipovic. Basically we need a lot of players to really turn out bad in order to not have at least an average keeper for a while.
I think a 23 man squad that I would like to see for the Euros based on current situations and kind of what I hope certain players’ situations are by that time would be something like this:
GK: Livakovic, Posavec, Kalinic/Sluga/Grbic/Semper/Horkas (basically just take your pick, it’s the 3rd choice GK)
DEF: Lovren, Vida, Vrsaljko, Barisic, Jedvaj, Caleta-Car, Bradaric/Sosa, Benkovic/Peric/Mitrovic/Pongracic/Uremovic
MID: Modric, Rakitic, Brozovic, Kovacic, Vlasic, Moro/Ivanusec/Badelj/Rog/Pasalic/Sunjic
FWD: Kramaric, Perisic, Petkovic, Rebic, Brekalo, Orsic
So yeah, basically every position would have the last spot up for grabs based on who plays or fits the best. But I think this team is a good mix of youth and experience. I’m hoping that lots of players are tested in March or whenever the next friendlies are and that the preliminary squad gets to train together for a couple weeks at least so that if any young players miss out, at least they get a feel for the players they will play with.
Ya I saw Vlasic was upset like he thought something was bad
Let’s hope nothing more then a bad bruise
Igor Stimac on the verge of getting fired in India. Ante Cacic was a tactical genius compared to him lol.
Maminjo, that would be sick!!!!! I would love that!
Belgium, Croatia, Portugal, Serbia
Who would be up for that? I would.
Vlasic update:
Nakon utakmice Vlašić je objasnio što se zapravo dogodilo.
“Momak je uklizao, nije bilo namjerno, lupio me u potkoljenicu, mislio sam da je nešto ozbiljno ali ipak mislim da nije, napravit ću još rendgen”, rekao je mladi hrvatski nogometaš i zatim kazao kako misli da je preloma nema. “Mislim da nije prelom, vidite da hodam, nadam se da nije preozbiljno”, rekao je Vlašić pred kamerom Nove TV.
…in short, he got nailed in the shins by this player, he thought it was serious, but it ‘seems’ like it’s not (based on how it feels now).
He’s still gotta go get X-rays to confirm, but he doesn’t think there is a break (as he is walking fine).
@Dannyj
I don’t care about the difficulty of our Pot 4 seed.
If they are difficult for us, they will be difficult for the other teams in our group as well. Matchup-wise, we’re usually very good against Wales, so I’m not worried.
I would prefer to avoid teams like Denmark who play a horrible brand of football to watch. Also, I would prefer we play teams who would open up. Not sure if a team like Finland would do that. Also, I guess I would rather avoid teams with home field advantage (they totally botched this, lol).
We generally do very well against European competition anyway, so I’m looking forward to this.
The only thing that would worry me are injuries. If we were to lose Vlasic and if Vrsaljko were to not recover fully…then, I would be very upset.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/portland-timbers/story/3993458/sources-portland-timbers-sign-dario-zuparic-from-hnk-rijeka
Cool for MLS.
Looking forward to the next Caps/Timbers game!
Ukraine
Croatia
Czechs
Finland
Best case scenario for me.
Top two in each group and then four of the best six third place teams go to the round of 16.
And yes, Wales will be the toughest number 4 seed, no matter who the four playoff winners are.
Would love to see England, France, Portugal and Wales as one group. Would be a good chance one of those top three go home early.
Wouldn’t want to get Wales as a number 4 seed
It doesn’t really matter where we are grouped
All those group three teams are capable of upsets
Is it top three teams going through the group like last time I believe ?
Can’t wait to see new uniforms
They better keep the dark
Looks so good in black..
Wasn’t that posavec kid supposed to be decent?
Vuki or cro u-14 will prob know the best option for backup going forward
But u would think Kalinic is done till he really steps up his game
Any word on Vlasic? Long time till euros but I’m already freaking out for injuries
Really hoping Benkovic gets playing time and becomes a legit fill in cb
With him and Jedvaj those would be ok backups
Barisic and Vrsaljko On the ends but who really backs em up
Barisic is def a step up from pivaric and Strinic overall
And I think will improve
Cool cool, thanks Mile!
Iggy, seeds are pretty well set with the Germany and Wales results today. If Poland does win today, Croatia has the worst first place record of all 10 group winners, but who cares. Croatia’s group had all pretty decent teams, while some other groups had two crappy teams.
#1s – Italy, England, Belgium Spain, Germany and Ukraine.
#2s – France, Switzerland, Poland, Croatia, Netherlands, Russia
#3s – Portugal, Turkey, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Czech Republic
The remaining #4 seeds will be Wales, Finland and the playoff winners.
who was saying if Poland fails to win vs Slovenia it affects somethign with the seedings in the last thread? Cos it’s 1-1 in that game atm
Missed the game.
Who looked good out there?
Not surprised to hear that the Dalić big three (Melnjak, Škorić, Bartolec) looked like crap.
Disgusting waste of a callup, these three are.
Ćaleta-Car making mistakes concerns me.
I was hoping for this guy to be starting for us soon, but he seems to make gaffes on the regular. We’ll need him for the next tournament. Hopefully he improves.
Kalinić being crap isn’t an issue. Livaković is a lot younger, so he’s better to invest in anyway, and we do have okay backups in the HNL if something were to happen. It’s not like Livaković is our Modrić anyway. He’s an above average keeper, but nothing special.
However, Kalinić and Sluga have been bad this past year. They probably should not be our #2 and #3 keepers (there are better ones in HNL), but backup keeper are rarely used anyway.
I thought Georgia was okay competition for the B squad. They still have an outside chance of making it to the Euros.
We got our chance to see fringe players show what they got. Melnjak, Kalinic, and Bartolec looked the weakest links. While Rog and Juranovic looked like they have an outside chance of making the summer roster. Perisic and Rebic finally got minutes in a competitive-ish match.
Caleta-Car worries me at times, poor decision making offensively and defensively. Really hope we can get a look at Pongracic, Katic, Uremovic, or Benkovic at some point before the summer. Hopefully, Vrsaljko is ready by then as well.
Shame about Vlasic and Juranovic, feel like the rain played a factor too.
With these constant friendlies against teams like Georgia and Estonia, a part of me thinks that HNS want our players to get injured.
Was thinking I wish Rebic could go back to Frankfurt too!
Actually I’d rather see Milan get their shit together and start stringing together some results. With Rebic in the lineup.
I thought Rog looked ok
He is like the Badelj utility midfielder replacement type
Juranovic ya he looked solid
Caleta car with the big wiff to clear it at the end. We can maybe give him benefit of the doubt with the rain
Sluga def looks more confident at this point then Kalinic
Rebic made some good runs. Over dribbled. Missed some good opportunities to pass it off
He is just trying to force stuff a bit too much
Kovac gonna take him in and make him get his groove again!
Can Rebic go back to Frankfurt during transfer window again?
Love the Ljubuški banner!
Vlasic is a tank. Probably no more than a knock.
Juranovic looks good!
Rebic does not. He is not in good form. Heavy touches, off balance and looking frustrated all the time. He looks like he needs a psychologist.
Vlasic got hurt, but it didn’t look that bad to me. I think it is probably a good thing it was from a collision and not just from running. Looked to me like a short term injury. I hope I’m right.
What happened? Who got hurt? How bad?
And cue an injury to our upcoming star once again
Fuck these friendlies
All I’m saying is, Juranovic has provided more (at least offensively) in 10 minutes than Bartolec has in the whole first half and probably all of his other caps. Interesting to see whether he can continue to perform well.
Started watching after the goal
We now carry most of the play
Ya what do we do about a back up if Livakovic goes down
I barely trust him at This point
Let’s hope Kalinic can get his confidence back
He has shown before he has skill
Needs a psychologist
I know people will blame Kalinic for that goal; rightfully so
But that was because of poor offensive play by Melnjak. After we lost the ball in their defensive 3rd, Melnjak pressed their player as if he was a CF. He then failed to get back into position leaving our left side exposed which lead to the goal. Really poor decision making and position on behalf of Melnjak.
Yeah, please don’t call up Skoric, Melnjak, or Lovre Kalinic again. Lovre Kalinic’s confidence is just gone. He needs to go somewhere where he’s playing every week and playing well before he gets called up again. Melnjak attacked and almost created a goal and then basically jogged back when a guy got the ball in his defensive area. Skoric is just plain average and we have so many better players.
Thaaaats why Livakovic is #1…
Guess we’ll never see Kalinic in a meaningful game ever again. That was pathetic.
na
Nema ne cemu
Hvala Pog!
If you have TSN;
https://www.tsn.ca/live
Clear the big ad by clicking on the X in the top right corner.
https://www.lmisports.net/live-croatia-vs-georgia-reddit-soccer-streams-preview-19-11-2019/amp/
Imisports.net
Stream?
Iggy is scared
If anyone in Canada cares, TSN has switched their coverage today and is now showing the Wales/Hungary game at 2:45ET on TSN 4 and 5. It’s basically a playoff game, winner take all match to qualify.
Dannyj, I saw you ask about Palaversa on the last post. He started off well but got injured. I believe he is still out because he hasn’t played since and was starting every game until the injury.
And no Dino Halilović is not good. Hasn’t done anything for any of the clubs he’s played for as far as I know.
As for this friendly, I do wish they were about to call up like 10 extra players for this game so they could just play whoever. This is the only type of game I’d like to see Halilović anywhere near the national team until he shapes up and starts producing. I wish that we would play a few days before the U21s and do the opposite of what we did with Brekalo (sent him back down to the U21s for a game). They even lost the game. Finishing looked dreadful based on the highlights. What else is new. If I was the HNS I would just say screw this U21s qualifying campaign. They’ve already lost twice in the first 4 games. Just call up the top ones to the main team. There’s still enough talent down there to even win all the games if they play well.
I didn’t realize the God has a brother … any good?
Dino Halilović
^ LOL .. who else can we shaft with this game haha.. any spot for Krpan to make a comeback?
Luka’s back in Spain already.
Give me an attacking trident of Nikola Kalinic, Marko Livaja, and Sammir with Pranjic and Strinic at fullbacks. Lovren at holding mid and of course the god of Halilovic somewhere out there.
Am I missing anyone else?
UEFA forced Croatia to play a friendly. Who cares its end of the qualifying campaign have the new guys have a go
Do we have any yellows carrying in to euro cup?
If the U21s weren’t playing
I’d say just stick that team out and see what they made of
Let’s just hope for an injury free game
Any decent streams?
Sounds like you’re thrilled about this game, Ante !
😉