Early 1st half goals by Majer and Kramarić sealed an easy win over Latvia Saturday night. The boys came out to play and scored both goals inside 20 minutes; setting the speed on “cruise control” for the rest of the match. The Croatian defense was not tested in this match and Marco Pašalić, on his international debut, nearly scored, clanking a shot off the inside of the post after coming on in the 80th minute. I still would have liked to see a bit more from the #9 position as Budimir did not get the necessary service for success. But with him playing as the lone striker, Kramarić was able to roam freely in his natural “supporting” role position.
With a victory over Armenia Tuesday in Zagreb OR (a Wales loss/draw), the Vatreni will book their ticket to Euro 2024 next summer in Germany.
A huge result went Croatia’s way before the Latvia match kicked off. Armenia drew Wales 1-1, which now means the Vatreni control their own destiny for automatic qualification to Euro 2024.
Croatia were without Kovačić, Petković and Sučić for the Latvia match but Marco Pašalić and Martin Baturina made their senior debuts for the Vatreni. Sučić should be available for Armenia. It was an absolutely perfect day for Croatian football:
- Croatia won
- Wales dropped points
- No injuries to the squad in front of the Armenia match (who have now been officially eliminated from Euro 2024 qualifying)
Gvardiol with an assist for Man City!!!!
The great anonymous match summary:
Croatia scored two very early goals and made it look very easy.
They treated the rest of the match as a training session to get everyone in the new lineup comfortable playing together and to try some new ideas (Brozović making long attacking runs, Budimir playing tiki-taka with Majer, Kramarić and Ivanusec alternating positions, the defenders playing around with the ball in the back, attempts to hit Budimir on the run with passes out of the back)
I have to give Dalic some serious credit here.
Can anyone provide a list of all the injured players that have had injuries or some concern this year?? Or atleast reference this one to see if I missed anything??
What are we looking at:
Perisic injured, Orsic is still injured I believe, Petkovic injured, Sucic with virus (plus the previous knee injury), Juranovic now injured, Kovacic injured, plus Livaja quit last tournament (plus I think he had an injury before or still has one). Plus now Pjaca is injured. Ivanusec and Kramaric were both injured but are thankfully back.
That’s a total of 10 players with concerns ( I threw Livaja in this list as well) this tournament and year. I think it’s worth mentioning if Dalic pulls off getting us in this tournament than that’s quite the feat given the deficit he is facing.
Talk about a string of bad luck, Dalic it seems has never had it easy as a coach.
Am I missing anyone from that list??
If you think about this a bit, I wonder if this is pretty much what he faced after World Cup 2018 when many of the players we had retired.
You have to give the guy his due.
In fact, you could easily this might have been an even more difficult year for him with the amount of players with issues now or even previously this tournament.
Dalic has called up Beljo for Tuesday’s match against Armenia, due to injuries to Juranovic and Pjaca. Sucic is apparently sick with a virus.
Turkey beat Germany 3 – 2 in Berlin in front of 72 K, mostly Turkish fans.
From what I could tell Turkey rested some of the better players for the match against Wales on Tuesday.
Pjaca is injured now??
Yes, according to Dalic in post-match interview.
There is always something wrong with Sučić.
These things can’t be controlled. Hopefully we will get a chance to see Sucic play.
Also Turkey has already qualified and will have no incentive to help Armenia (see history between these two nations re Armenian genocide). Croatia must win against the Armenians who will come to fight…they really aren’t a horrible team and will give resistance. I say 1-0 Hrvatska in a rugged closely fought affair.
also…too bad Marco Pasalic didn’t score on that wonderful play. That would have been an epic Vatreni debut.
Ya was a shame.
But nice run and quality attempt
He looks to be agile and has a good first step but also speed after that as well
I like the kid. I hope he gets minutes on Tuesday
If Croatia win on Tuesday, might better if Turkey get points and win the group. Projected pots right now: pot 1 – Germany, Portugal, France, England, Spain, Belgium, pot 2 – Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Turkey, Romania, Austria, pot 3 – Scotland, Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, pot 4 – Slovakia, Czechs, Switzerland + 3 playoff winners.
Good game, all things considered. I found over the past 20 plus years, that the worst , most frustrating games to watch are these games vs “weaker” opponents. We usually rise to the challenge of top 10 countries, and then fall flat against lesser competition. I think were all happy that our destiny is in our own hands now, and we should dominate Armenia next. Hopefully we can get an early lead again, and give some youngsters a chance to close-out the game.
Kova not playing and we win, just as I predicted. Addition by subtraction.
Yessssss great day.. did we play okay? game was 3 am where i live so i didnt get to see it but super happy with the results today all round.
If wales which i dont believe get w v rurkey we win we win rhe group
As much shit as croatia media and us give krama he is a big oart of the offense and has become kess selfish and more a team player r since euro 2021.
Get result Tuesday and work on finding a number 9 get Perković back maybe beljo frigan simic get chance in spring time.
Pasalic has good season with rijeka become new rebic from 2018. Ivanusec looks good to me and he is playing well in feynoord.
Side joke God Halilović has been okaying best football in career lately maybe late bloomer hahah.
All in all 2024 will be last dance for Dalic and most if the vets lets make it a good one
I have noticed that Kramaric is changing as a player for us. He now seems far more reliable, he makes fewer mistakes and more relaxed as one of our senior players that performs more consistently. A couple years ago he was far better with his club than with us and he was very inconsistent…he couldn’t play anywhere but as a false 9 while nowadays he performs wherever he is played. I guess he’s matured as a person and a player.
Yea, “Krama on the wing” used to be a disaster.
But, he has performed very well there over the past year.
I have to admit, as one of Kramaric’s biggest critiques in the past, that he has completely changed for me. From what I saw in the last world cup (against opponents like Brazil), and his continued progress, he has come a long way in his game for the National Squad.
When you see how much he has contributed just from being back one game he really is a staple player for the Croatian squad now you cannot argue against that.
I began to like Krama a lot more when he came off the field against Morocco at the World Cup crying.
People have always shit on him but he is currently our fifth top scorer in history and he will likely finish as second highest scorer in history behind Davor! We saw how poorly we played last month without him! I’m happy to hear that people are finally not shutting on him anymore!
I didn’t think much of Budimir today, but the common problem with he and the other strikers continues to be lack of service. That was less of a problem with Gvardiol at LB, but Stanisić resembled Barisić with his reluctance to press forward and resort to passing backward. I still think Stanisić has good potential as a defender, but we really miss that aspect of JJ’s game. If he isn’t back next match, then I’d like to see Marco Pašalić or perhaps Pjaca inserted sooner. We need to get balls into the box and pose questions.
We need to test these strikers with AT LEAST two of Juranovic, Sosa, or Marco Pasalic on the wing.
We have a lot of good central midfielders (like Ivanusec, Krama, Majer, etc.) who are almost too good to keep on the bench, so we play them on the wing…but then guys like Musa, Beljo and Budimir become less useful.
We never have more than one wide player out there.
If we’re up a few goals, I’d love to see how Jura and Marco Pasalic work on that right side together.
Maybe even try Sosa as a winger with Gvardiol behind him. Open things up for Modric/Broz/Krama in the middle and see if we can feed guys like Roko/Beljo/Musa.
Tuesday is a serious game, so we can leave the experiments for the end of the game (if we’re up several goals).
The pace that Armenia showed today vs Wales concerned me. Vatreni were outhustled by Türkiye and Wales, especially with the counterattacks and long balls.
Latvia was slow so Croatia was able to control the pace today. Will they be able to do the same on Tuesday?
Oh sure. We b aight. We b fine
My thinking is the lack of substitutions being made. He is very reliant on Modric and Brozovic (as well as Kovacic when he is available). I didn’t see this game on TV but even as I am watching the score I am thinking you are in the driver’s seat why wouldn’t you sub either Broz or Modric with Baturina to allow for some rest?? Especially in the 60th minute.
Maybe bring in some other players Marco Pasalic, Pjaca and give Majer and Ivanusec a chance to rest given that they were, from the look of it, very productive in the game. Majer with a goal and assist and Ivanusec with an assist. These players made need some rest when facing a more difficult Armenia.
I could be wrong but some of these players were even coming back from an injury Ivanusec and Krama as well.
It’s a bit unfortunate that Sucic got a virus did anyone hear if he will be fit for the game against Armenia??
I take back the substituting Ivanusec comment he did sub him but there are quite a few young and hungry players on that bench.
Armenia was just as aggressive against us when we played them in September.
They play very well. They just lack a bit of that quality to finish those chances they create up close.
Very good at taking shots outside the box, but they missed a couple of sitters this game. Plus, their players are very short, so they can’t really take advantage of all the crosses they put in front of goal.
Armenia’s Ukrainian coach Oleksandr Petrakov is VERY underrated.
He reminds me of Matjaz Kek, with the way he can talent a low talent team and run a nice offense.
I’d love to snag him from them if Dalic were to leave.
Solid performance by Vatreni, with two early goals, the match was as good as over against opponents like Latvia. Marco Pasalic looked good and a bit unlucky not to score on his debut. Good to see Baturina get his debut for the seniors as well.
Defence was solid today with Sutalo and Erlic having good games. Gvardiol was good defensively, however some of his passing was poor for a player of his calibre. Livakovic had nothing to do, however he had 2 or 3 bad clearances in the first half. Armenia on Tuesday will be a bit tougher, let’s hope that we do not stuff up at home like we did against Wales in Split and Turkey in Osijek.
Solid game overall today. After the first 20 minutes we fell back into our possession game which works when you are up 2. I just hate when we get complacent and stop attacking. Countless times we would stop and play the ball back and let defenders come back.
Budimir worked hard today and had very little service. Overall I thought he did quite well. Loved the introduction of both Marco Pasalic and Baturina.
Pasalic looked super quick and was unlucky not to score but loved his quick runs and attack! We’ve been missing that Perisic type to be able to take someone on 1v1.
Erlic Sutalo looked solid. Gvardiol at LB was ok but miles better than either Barisic or Sosa.
On to the next…glad that we now control our own destiny. Ajmo!!
That sitting back complacency was out of respect to Latvia. It was Latvian independance day and Croatian remembrance day. They didn’t need to blow them out of which they could have easily done.
Croatia auto qualifies if:
Croatia win vs Armenia
or
Wales tie/loss vs Turkey
Nice win…great day for us…control our own destiny.
Can still even win the group.
No futher injuries…can win it at home vs already eliminated Armenia…..
No second yellow to Broz and Gvardiol…..
On we go.
realized we can still win group right before I read your post.
Now that last second Wales goal in the first game pisses me off more
So I read your comments above Ante. Did Croatia play a 4-2-3-1 or the 4-3-3 like the one you listed above? I am just following along with the score and the link I have suggests a 4-2-3-1 is the formation they are playing.
Just curious if I got that wrong below in my comments??
Budimir had two headers that were off target that went out of bounds for goal kicks.
Made a great strip of the ball from a defender from behind and laid it off to Majer, but he lost control of the ball and dribbled it out of bounds.
I am shocked that Dalic played a 4-2-3-1 like Ante suggested. Very eerie did he read the website on that one?? Lol
Can anyone tell me how Ante Budimir is doing in this game I don’t have access to it. I have read one negative comment below so far just curious to get another perspective given he isn’t on the scoresheet yet.
I would assume that against a team like Latvia he would have scored atleast one goal or dropped an assist somewhere.
Budimir had one chance with a glancing header in the first half. Unlike Musa he did a lot of running and hassling the Latvian defenders. Solid performance in my opinion.
Budimir hasn’t had any service today but in my opinion…and as someone that’s usually critical of Budimir…I feel like he’s been far more active and lively today than he’s been in the past. He’s worked endlessly, chasing down the ball, some late challenges on defenders (which is ok to let them know there’s no free balls) and overall his work rate today was very good , especially compared to some of his other games where he’s jogging from place to place on the field. Can’t blame him for the poor service.
Marco Pasalic is an electrifying player…he came extremely close to scoring today and I wanna see more of him!
Shame he hit the post. Marco looked good.
We needed to take out Modric earlier and give our younger guys more time.
Definitely a shame he hit the post…it would have been fantastic if he scored.
I’ve been watching him with Rijeka this season and I’m curious to know if he’s been highly touted as a youngster or is this something unexpected and he’s just began to shine and found his way! This Pasalic kid reminds of a right sided (left footed) Orsic as far as his effectiveness goes. He creates dangerous situations and he can score…similar to Orsic but the BIG difference between the two is that Orsic came into being a really good player later in his career while this Pasalic kid is very young!
Well he’s a Borussia Dortmund youth product, so that’s something.
This is the age where Croat players tend to take that next step in their careers. He looks like he’s going to be a good winger for us.
First time poster. Hello to all! Idemo!
Welcome, don’t feed the trolls!
Does Dalic realize Modric has to play again in 3 days
If he runs this whole team 90 minutes – without resting any1
It will come back to bite us in the butt Tuesday
Not to take away from the effort so far, but Latvia is AWFUL.
Budimir is no more effective than Musa with poor service.
Great result in Armenia which I must admit I did not expect. Good start by our guys with two early goals. Not happy with Livakovic and his clearances which on a couple of occasions were sloppy and straight to opposing players in our half of the field. We should go for another goal in the second half and then rest some of our key players.
As the tempo dipped last 15-20 minutes of H1
We need to bring in fresh legs to start 2nd half
To keep tempo up
We’re up 2 goals – never a better time to showcase Pjaca (again), Pasalic Marco and Baturina
And give Pongracic 45 min
Very low risk situation to include him
Vida been talking to him on the bench all first half
He’s ready
Poror latvia team expected so far. Taking game seriously is the key. Kova is a whole modric at 38 is better than him. Krama ivanusec majer working hard.
Get goal early second half rest for Armenia and build for 2024 euro
When we kept the tempo high it was obvious how much more quality we have over Latvia. Once we slowed the tempo down Latvia has time to adjust and defend better.
The guys we didn’t have the last 2 games have either assisted or scored.
No way a shlub like Brekalo would have given a nice ball like the one Ivanušec did to Majer.
Very happy to see that
https://twitter.com/FootColic/status/1725924359733166540/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1725924359733166540¤tTweetUser=FootColic
Goal link. Hopefully it works.
There were some decent links posted last month
If anyone has please share
Danke
If you’re in the US, the match is on Fox Sports 2.
If this gvardi lb works well
I think in future with JJ back if we still play 4 at back
I think
Gvardi, erlic/stanisic/JJ could work
I feel like those two in the middle could give us dependable defence with of course some mobility but with the movement of gvardi and JJ on the flanks it could make us super dynamic
For sure it could be whoever with sutalo as well. Hoping he gets his touch back soon before euros
I hope I’m wrong but with the weather conditions, this smacks of a lucky late game goal, similar to the Russia game which got us to qualify for the World Cup.
I guess we are crap and just lucky again according to some after the wales match;)
Yes this is very fortunate and a new lease on life which will surely give a step to the boys today
I like the lineup
With ivanusec, krama and majer starting this gives us a much different look then last month
My boy budimir gonna pull a prso 2.0 and give us a great year of scoring In the latter stages of his career till a young buck like simic comes up
Luka gonna luka today
happy for erlic starting. hope marco gets subbed in. Lineup is listed as 4-3-3, dunno why dalic put krama as CM, probably smarter to play him behind budimir.
I too like erlic. He has strong and dependent written all over him
Like a upgraded schildenfeld;)
Why is Armenia eliminated as some are saying? If Croatia lose to Latvia, Armenia beats Croatia and Turkey beats Wales, Armenia gets 2nd place. Far fetched obviously, but mathematically possible.
Armenia eliminated if we win today.
Armenia destroyed Wales in that second half.
Tireless running, disciplined defense, great passing and constant pressure.
Shame they couldn’t pull off the win (as they lack that finishing in the box) as they were constantly cranking full blast shots on goal that sailed over the bar.
Armenia is officially eliminated, and (assuming we beat Latvia today) we actually have a chance to top the group if we beat Armenia on Tuesday.
Well it’s finished. Wales and Armenia tied at 1
Armenia is out
Wales need to win v Turkey and hope Croatia don’t get full points
I was referring to Armenia tying Wales….couldn’t have worked out better.
Best case scenario…1-1 draw. Ajmo momci!!!
Armenia vs Wales is a 50/50 game.
Kind of expected.
I like that Armenia is playing feisty like they did with us.
Armenia is playing better in this second half.
1 1 wales armenia
Just realized (commentators mentioned it)
Wales coach is so silly (stuborn)
He left Brennan Johnson on the bench
Johnson played 75 min last Spurs game (and scored a nice goal 3 min in)
He went w/ same starting as vs. Croatia
But Johnson was injured last time
Johnson is super fast and can be very direct (probably by far their best offensive player)
Talk about stubborn
Obviously not complaining – works in our favourite – but talk about Lady Luck on our side so far today
Chris Mepham yellow card (43 caps CB)
He will miss game vs Turkey !
Stars are aligning for Croatia
Serb goalie beautiful save on Harry Wilson (guy who scored twice vs. Croatia)
If he starts letting in goals – we’ll know the fix was in
Čančarević was called up to the Serbia national team for a friendly match against United States on 29 January 2017. He remained on the bench with the match ending 0–0.[2][3]
After 5 years of living in Armenia, he received Armenian citizenship. In June 2023 he was called up to join Armenia,[4] making his debut against Wales on 16 June 2023.[5]
Own goalie Armenia
So – of course – Serb goalie f us – with his silly positioning in the box on a throw-in
Of course
Armenia took the lead vs Wales! 1-0
1-0 Armenia AJMMOOOOOOOOO!
Exactly !!!
If someone would have said in may of 2018. I’ll give you a finals appearance in Russia and a semi final appearance in Qatar but you won’t qualify for euro 24 I would have been ecstatic!
As would have every one of you…we have been spoiled!Think about it..it’s actually WATCHING them WIN OR LOSE that gives us the most joy,and no team has played more minutes the last 2 world cups combined,it’s not even close when you take into account all the OT games.
But we all know they will qualify for EURO 24 🙏🏼
Gaza was not assigned to Israel even under the 1948 partition plan
It’s not legal for Israel to be there according to any law
and that is why even the United Nations calls it occupied territory
you need to know the fact that Gaza is an occupied territory
[[ when was it occupied? ]]
[[ what happened in 1948? ]]
as you’re aware, we don’t agree with this
but if you want … to be legal say
–> Israel was assigned 55% of the country
and the Palestinians were given 45%
[ even we don’t like that but it is what it is!! ]
And Israel immediately tried to grab more than 55%
In the process, they expelled over 200,000 Palestinians
to a strip of land next to Egypt called Gaza
so Gaza was under Egyptian control
Gazza was under Egyptian control and even in 1948 a quarter of a million Palestinians had to flee for their lives and they took refuge in Gazza
in 1967 Israel launched a second offensive to grab even more land
and in 1967 it acquired the entire Sinai Peninsula from Egypt
It literally came in and took it!!
and it acquired the West Bank, Nablus and all of these cities
It simply grabbed them and it attacked Jerusalem
and it acquired Jerusalem as well!!
Jerusalem the United Nations said should be a neutral territory
nobody should control it single-handedly!!
Jerusalem should be not controlled by Israel!!
but in ’67 Israel launched an offensive and they acquired!!
they gobbled up Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem!!
this is where the Story begins!!
Bruh both are Untermensch.
We don’t care
We only give a crap about Hrvatska!
what is this!?
the arrogant and ignorant
just like Subashit – arrogant
that because of him
we lose our precious chance
to win the World Cup!!
Who are in that line-up are going to be the wingers. None of those players are natural wingers. Why is Mario P in the line-up?….he’s far better coming off the bench. This line-up provides absolutely no width. Either Pjaca or Marco P should be starting as a winger. We’ll still win but come on Dalic.
Predicted score 2-1 for Hrvatska
ZDS
@Maminjo
I share the same concern regarding Italy. If we enter the playoffs and Italy is also there, in fact I think it”ll be curtains for us. Let’s hope they can hold off Ukraine in the last match.
If Italy qualifies directly, Ukraine will enter the playoffs, and based on how things are looking at the moment, I think they are possibly one of the teams (along with Finland and Iceland) that can be drawn and allocated to Path A. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Norway is a team from League B that I want us to avoid but atm it doesn’t look like they will advance to playoffs.
I feel fairly confident if we come up against teams like Estonia, Poland, Finland and Iceland. But Ukraine makes me feel uncomfortable… they have talented youngsters like Mudryk and Shakhtar hotshots, Sikan and Sudakov… also I dunno if they are brimming with patriotism and extra motivated to win because of the ongoing war.
Maminjo, what’s your take on Ukraine?
I think they’re a decent team and are better than Poland or Czech.
But I don’t think we’ll get them in the playoff (assuming we end up in the playoff).
We’ll end up playing Estonia first then we play the winner of Poland/Czech vs Finland. I think Ukraine and Norway fall behind Finland in the sequence of who takes the next spot (if Italy makes it).
if Dalic has dared to put Vida
in the starting position
until the end of the match
Super Latvia will spank Croatia
with a score of 3-0 ~
but without him there vs Latvia
we have more than 25% chance of winning ~
Hey how you guys feeling right now… as Dannyj said: “It’s not a Croatian qualifying campaign if it’s not messy”. So this is usually how it ends for us lol😂
I haven’t been following the news. What happened to Sucic? I really hope he’s not feeling something in his knee..😨
No, he just caught a virus
Phew… thanks Eric!
The predicted lineup is fine with the players we have, more curious as to what the formation will be and if dalic will finally field two wingers for the first time in 5 years
I’m holding out hope that Dalic actually plays players in their proper positions. Playing a 4-2-3-1 and having Krama playing behind Budimir, with Ivanusec on the left and rolling the dice a bit with Marco Pasalic on the right. Having Mario P as a joker off the bench and Majer as midfield sub.
What will actually happen? Mario Pasalic behind Budimir and Krama on the right.
This lineup should be fine to do the job.
What matters is how Dalic reacts if this lineup isn’t doing the job.
I don’t want to watch us attacking through the middle again, into a wall of eleven Latvian players crowding the box.
Curious to see if he plays Sosa, Pjaca or Marco Pasalic if we need more flank support. I believe Juranovic is injured too, which is a shame.
Marco Pasalic was a standby callup who was only called up due to injury and Sosa is in the doghouse, so I don’t know if Dalic would sub them in.
He probably does a 65th minute Pjaca sub if we’re stagnant for the first two-thirds of the game. Hopefully we’re already up 2+ goals before then.
If we’re indeed playing w/ Modric / Brozovic double-pivot (when’s the last time we’ve played w/ a double-pivot ??)
Would expect Gvardiol to have license to invert into midfield (vs. just flying up the wing) w/ defenders trying to break-out by getting him the ball
We can also take more “chances” up front w/ more attack focused players if both Modric / Brozovic will be the defensive cover (w/ Modric more license to go forward when he can)
See Dalic comments re: Baturina as e.g. couple days ago
“His verticality and one-on-one situations are his strengths. He is not here because of his age or to learn; he is one of the players. He has what we need and competes equally for appearances. Dinamo has not been playing the best lately, but he always does something. We lack that breakthrough, one-on-one play. That’s why we included him.”
Fans want to see Baturina start (if Sucic is not) – with Pjaca (he’s played well this year – he’s earned it) and Marco Pasalic on the wings (or Ivanusec) – Budimir up front
Kramaric just came back from a hamstring (bring him on a sub), ditto for Pasalic Mario
Also, might as give Pongracic a start (if he’ll have Erlic/Satulo, Gvardiol and Stanisic alongside him)