Disappointing. Toothless. Unimaginative.
Croatia played without purpose as the Morocco “bunker” tactic would not break through 90 minutes.
No attack. No movement. No runs up the wings from Sosa or Juranović. Croatia played the entire match like they were up two goals inside the first five minutes. Kramarić did nothing offensively. Kova barely saw the ball. Sosa and Juranović never made any overlap runs up the field. I’m happy to see Perišić and Modrić send some off-target rockets on goal, but at the end of the day, poor opening effort from the reigning World Cup finalists.
Not the end of the world but they will need to pick it up against Canada on Sunday.
Oh man, another Englishman talking shit against Croatia. Don’t these chirpers ever learn?
Daj Bože da njim napumpamu 7 komada!!!
💪🇭🇷💪
Bog i Hrvati
No pressure upfront at all.. Livaja comes on fresh don’t think he broke a sweat in those last 15 min. Disgrace.. KRAMA played all game not much he could do during his time on as midfield was stagnant…. Also think Lovren for most part played solid today but it seems like we always send the ball back to the goalie too much when he is on and once that happens any upward momentum is thwarted… it was a tight match I understand the pressure but you have to counter that by creating space and with that kind of play it won’t happen…. I feel like many here Sosa did not feel free enough on the left(was this the plan maybe) but it didn’t work out so well.. Brozovic was ok today nothing special as Kova too…. I think if we had played Stanisic in a back 3 we would had given the green light to Sosa and Juranovic to step up where the play needed to be to unclog that midfield by utilizing our flanks.. At least that’s how many saw it too…. Budimir should have been the sole striker here to apply pressure(hope he is ok) Pasalic was good for most part and don’t mind him in that role(Majer though is my first choice)
Most of us knew that Morocco was the type of team you have to keep pressure on.. not let them play as they are dangerous in counters set pieces and I still don’t see why Budimir was not the first choice for this match especially!
I think this is the team that would have done it.. hey even making this change at half time I believe would have been good enough to give us the result we needed.. a win! We have the subs and the depth at the back to make changes.. we need to utilize this and keep our wings fresh!
—————————-Budimir—————————
—-—Perisic———————————Majer———
——————-Modric—-Kovacic———————
—Sosa—————————————-Juranovic
——-——Gvardiol—-Erlic–Stanisic—————
——————-—-—Livakovic—————————
Canada played fearless and attacked really well vs Belgium. They deserved better and outplayed Belgium for long stretches. Trouble with this style is that they also expose themselves on the counter and their D isn’t all that great. Davies penalty was really bad and was an easy save for Courtois. Our next game against them should make for an interesting one.
Canada will not have that “first WC appearance” bump next game.
Belgium is in for a test with Morocco. They can play in this heat no problem. Belgium plays old and tired.
Time for Croatian football and the group.
Let’s go boys!
It’s the Croatian way; we Fark around for half the game and then realise we’re supposed to actually try and win it. Then the final whistle blows and we all look at each other.
They do say teams grow into the tournament as it goes along, so let’s hope that’s the case for Hrvatska
If i’ve learned anything about Croatian football is they always need what I call a ‘good loss’ to wake the eff up like recently Austria nations league before going on a tear. Thank-fully this tie will provide that.
Belgium is playing uninspired, and making Canada look better than they are. I think Croatia can now turn on the jets and seal up two wins confidently.
But before I get ahead of myself, As a Cro Canadian, i’m really only concerned for Croatia, but now happy to cheer for Canada to tie this game up!
Let’s go CANADA (VATRENI)!!!
What do we expect no number 9 is the biggest problem i laughed today when ever we sent a cross in nobody was their hahah.
Also Dalic fucked up today and alot of bad tactics and people prasing lovren what did he do when ball was a t his feet nothing pointless long balls.
Again i dont see us passing this group at moment. Only way is if Dalic puts right players in
Yeah that was embarrasing. Budimir is a Donkey, but he at least knows to fly into the box. Krama has no fire and Livaja has no pace.
That’s it, now we’re in the knockout rounds.
Gotta win every game
One game at a time.
No fear💪
Hrvatska🇭🇷
Ajmo!!!
Bog i Hrvati
Belgium if they beat canada will want to win the group beacuse tou dont want to play spain and brazil on that side of bracket.
Its our own fault Dalic was a picka today went conservative and xost us 2 points
Canada is no joke now if we do go through its one and done spain will knock us out like euro 2020
Should have been a second penalty on the trip in the box.
Canada seems to have pace but plays an open game.
Brekalo was needed today. We missed a spunky little guy out there.
Wouldn’t a Belgium win and beating Morocco make most sense
Then they would be qualified more or less for last match?
But I suppose if this ends up in a draw today was sort of a wash and we go forth with two games
If we come second we lose to Spain in round of 16 exactly like Euro last year.
I agree with everyone as we’re watching the Canada/Belgium match.
We’re looking at a 1-0 loss on Sunday and early preparation for the Nations League.
Canada isn’t playing well, Belgium is just UNREAL levels of terrible right now
Lovren didn’t make any mistakes today
But he sure didn’t add anything to move the ball forward
Lol some of you guys who thought Canada would be a walk in the park(looking at you Maminjo)….I watched all there qualifying games and knew they would cause teams problems. They currently look better then Belgium. Hopefully Cro can beat these guys, will be tough though.
Ante
Maminjo knows shit. Big talker nonstop.
Croatia better figure it out quickly or we are going home early. Even if we get past this round will get crushed. Kramaric and Vlasic are butual. Why are they on the field.
Is that you Borjan? 😉
I think Canada surprised everybody. This tournament is full of surprises…but Canada still needs to score, and they need to do it across all three games.
We’ll see what they can do against us and Morroco, but there’s a big gap between “playing well” and actually pulling off the win.
sometimes i wish i wasn’t so right. so far a lot of predictions coming true
1) early results indicate canada is a problem…as i had warned
2) i also predicted morocco is very tough as we saw
3) qatar remains an uncomfortable place to play for western teams like croatia. the fans are biased against you and the middle east is a strange place that can get westerners out of rhythm
a tie out of belgium and canada still the best result for croatia
But NOOOOOOOOOO ante said Canada is weak cause of concacaf….
If Canada starts off like this against Croatia it’ll be 3-0 before the half
I do think Dalic got a flashback to opening game of Euros vs England. That was a dagger- and, at 0-0 getting late…avoiding that was first priority.
Did Sosa even touch the ball in the opposing half?
He did have the pass to Vlasic at the end of the first half (our best chance in the first half — and maybe our only shot on goal that half). Otherwise, he was fairly inconsequential.
Sounds like a Canadian home game with a great fan turnout for them. Our fans were noticeably quiet…not many seemed to make the trip.
Canada have pace and sre not playing afraid. We will be in tough next game.
Why did we play League of nations for nothing imo. All that was practiced then didnt happen today the cbs didnt pass ball wel no attack so scared played like virgins getting ready to bang a pornstar. Lose
At the very least, can’t we use some analytics:
1. Leave the Red and Whites for marketing show pieces, but always play in Plavos solely based on past history, don’t question the data, just go with it. Someone said we are going red and white throughout the group stage. Does not portend well. Look @ 2018, we wore Red/White against France.
2. Marko Livaja has a better chance of scoring than anyone else we have on top, except for Petar Musa, who based on analytics, should have been on the team.
Lovren played well defensively. However aside from on target long passes, he could not help move the ball forward which allows the other team to focus on Sosa/Gvardiol. I respect Lovren and but I think Sutalo or Erlic should start.
I would’ve liked to see a high press against Morocco. My guess is that Dalic was A. Afraid of fatigue in the heat, especially with the older players; and B. Wanting to avoid a counter attack goal which would have been a disaster.
Today they got their feet wet against a solid defensive team. Let’s thump Canada and have momentum going into the game against Belgium.
What are the chances Dalic makes the switch
It’s do or die now
I would hope he ignores seniority crap
Spain showed why I would much rather finish first if somehow possible to play Germany or Japan
We can definitely play against Spain but they are obviously in fine form
Is there a record for most passes from midfield to defense if there is we broke it. Bunker teams always give us trouble. 2 ways to beat the bunker 1- play it out to the wings and send it crosses. Did not do that today. 2- When our forwards received the ball from our midfielders they need to stop being scared and giving the ball back to the midfield. Majer must start for Kova next game Luka and Mateo can’t be on the field next to each other
Best result for Hrvatska 🇭🇷 ???
Should we be hoping for a tie🇧🇪 🇨🇦 match???
Or belgium 🇧🇪 win since we still gotta play them
If we’re just focused on making it to the next round (rather than concerning ourselves with trying to top the Group), I think it would be best if Belgium beats Canada. Then, if Belgium goes on to beat Morocco, they’ll have less incentive to go all-out in their game against us.
If we’re focused on trying to top the Group (and perhaps avoid Spain in the Round of 16), then a draw between Belgium and Canada is probably the best result.
with all goals, we hope for the tie in canada belgium. Really, there isn’t a huge difference in probability of result. But if canada belgium tie we have like a 52% chance of making the next round and 30% chance of finishing first
if belgium beats canada, have a 50% chance of making the knockout and only 20% chance of finishing first
so a tie is marginally better, but not huge
RELAX everyone. Their goalkeeper played extremely well. It’ll be ight. We good
Joj those fucken home Jersey table cloth looking things are disgusting.
Good thing FIFA is expanding the next WC to 48 teams, and of the extra 16, only 3 are from Europe. CONCACAF will get anywhere from 2-4 more teams. And why not? Costa Rica, the #4 team from CONCACAF is getting waxed, with zero shots at net. And they will will be the qualifying favourite, since the top 3 are hosts in 2026. There will be soooo many bad games in 2026.
so the good news is when we run the simulator
croatia still has a 50% chance to go through
whether belgium and canada win, lose or tie… it really doesn’t matter much for the odds of going through…although its slightly more favorable for there to be a tie
Today reminded me of that Mexico WC match when we were afraid to go forward and feared a counter attack. Except Morococonuts didnt score 3 goals. Truly a gutless performance today.
It’s all in the rear view now but it looks like this is a tournament of speed – go fast run down a loose ball and bang it in- fastest forward up front and for me that’s Orsic- it’s almost like soccer is now hockey- chase down press go hard for 30 minutes and sub out those guys for fresh legs that can do the same- Japan just ran Germany into submission. it wasn’t skillful but to get out of the elimination round who cares!!!
the North-Americanization of futbol. Boze pomozi!
MASTER PIECE ARTICLE
https://telesport.telegram.hr/price/sto-je-dokazao-lovren/
Not enough urgency. Happy to play keep away.
Johnny Optimist says, hey, it could be worse. Germany/Argentina lose.
Dani Olmo, formerly from the HNL league just scored a beauty. Does not spain know you can’t play those types of low grade players. If we had played Livaja in the first half, the score would have been 1-0. The guy is in form.
Teams are taking our pressure approach which obviously proved successful in Russia
We don’t have those guys
Maybe rebic and musa were them
Simic down the road
Livaja while definitely not as fast is tough in the box and was putting pressure
He’s not afraid at least. We need this attitude
I continue to point out how underappreciated the difficulty of playing in qatar is for a western side
as discussed. climate and secondly, against african/middle eastern teams it is like an away game.
croatia had a bit of deer in headlights look today like they were surprised at how tough everything was… the crowd, morocco etc
and they retrenched and played mainly not to make a mistake and not to lose…whatever…mission accomplished… better than a loss
most on this site don’t understand what a strange place the middle east is. I’ve traveled to the middle east countless times on business, and it is a weird place. If you’ve come from a western country, you generally feel uncomfortable even in the nicest of hotels and accommodations. It is just a cultural shock. Undoubtedly, players will feel out of rhythm there.
lets once again look at results. argentina upset, germany upset, croatia and denmark lackluster performances against middling teams from africa, netherlands with a tough game against senegal
the results are proving things out
lol
Dalic coached in Saudi Arabia 4 how many yrs again ?
Mandzukic played for Al-Duhail in Qatar
Modric / Real Madrid how many CL games Turkey / 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in UAE, etc ?
Vida etc have played 4 Turkish clubs
Well, I got to give credit to Morocco for being compact and organized. I feel we were playing in difficult circumstances, we were playing in an Arab nation against an Arab country, the whole stadium was for Morocco. This was essentially an AWAY game.
Some of our players were timid such as Sosa, but I think this is the first game and we are just getting into the groove of things.
We will get a better measure of our ability when we play non-Arab nations such as Canada and Belgium.
The main thing is we did not lose, and avoided the fiasco of Germany and Argentina. In opening World Cup games where we lost–we did not progress out of the group in that Tournament.
I do think Dalic could have brought on Livaja earlier to deal with the physicality of the Moroccans. Pasalic not an RW, but I liked how he attacked the box.
I think we were overall better, we had the better chances.
We need to be much better to beat Canada….they are young and fast and have skill.
Our backline will be tested for sure..
I am concerned about our forwards obviously, no speed or creativity..Dalic needs to figure something out, but doesn’t look like Kramaric and Vlasic belong.
Pickles had the best chance. He wasn’t bad but had a penchant for drifting out a bit too wide in the box or being in the wrong position. Modric sent more than a few great balls with no one to latch onto them.
I don’t know why people blamed Dalic. The players had no passion and were missing passes. I’d rather have Lovren up front than Kramaric – it would be more entertaining with probably the same amount of goals.
If you rather have lovren up front then kramaric then you’re blaming dalic donkey,, dalic is an idiot he left 2 great in form strikers at home, colak has more goals in 14 matches this year then Budimir, kramaric and vlasic combined,, wake up
Relax, Colak is scoring those goals in a league probably worse than HNL in overall quality.
Scottish league is fast paced and physical like premier league, he scores,,he has more goals in 14 matches then kramaric,budimir and vlasic combined…and u wouldn’t bring him? Cmon
Well said
Kramaric is not to blame for the loss as 90% of the team played poorly. That was my point, donkey. Is Dalic responsible for Sosa/Juranovic/Kovacic/Kramaric/Perisic/Vlasic playing poorly?
The good news is Japan beat Germany and since our group is crossed with that we want some surprises there so hopefully upsets in that group continue.
We played well, Morrocco is a solid team that plays very disciplined.
With this team I think the best we can hope for is 1-0 wins.
Not pretty but can be very effective. Need a few bounces to go our way🙏
Ajmo!!!
Bog i Hrvati
Seeing Japan bum rush Germany got me thinking how sad our striker position was with Kramaric today.
Young hungry legs up top is what is needed.
Musa – Ljubičić
If Rebić is banished at least call up some presence up top.
Livaja was better than Kramaric who was trash. Dude struggles for minutes at Hoffenheim. Plus he does not mesh well with Perišić or Modrić.
May be time for Perišić up top with Oršić at LW and Majer at RW.
Vlašić as the #10 and Kovačić and Modrić flanking him.
Brozovic and Kovačić can split the #6 minutes.
We need Modrić at the #8 and we need the #10 ready to be a second striker.
Budimir or Petković need some minutes.
Just to provide a presence.
Seeing Germany go down will have a lot of countries feeling pretty good.
I can only think Canada is feeling like they can beat Belgium or us for that matter.
If we don’t pick things up we are in trouble. Canada beat Japan a few weeks back and apparently were dominant and while resting some of their regular starters.
Absolutely. Canada will not be accused of begin slow.
Absolutely. Canada will not be accused of being slow.
What a crazy world cup. Japan just beat Germany 2 – 1. WOW
Good. It overshadows our poor performance.
These tactics were more like our qualifying matches and less like the Nations League where I thought we turned a corner. I think we had several players have subpar games though.
Sosa – Looked nervous, lost the ball a bit, didn’t threaten at all.
Kovacic – Was poor. Completely redundant performance. When he makes a turn and advances the ball is when I see things open up and he didn’t provide any of that.
Kramaric – Was he picking out his Neymar jersey? Because i didn’t see him on the pitch. We have no tip to the spear. He doesn’t suit our style at this point.
Tactics and substitutions. – Pasalic isn’t a RWer. How many times do we need to go over this. Having said that, I wasn’t opposed to bringing him on as he is one of the few players that is aggressive in the box. And by aggressive, I mean he actually goes into the box when we advance the ball.
From the about 65th minute onward we were very static without much movement. Dalic was going for the win with bringing in more offense, but they lacked impact without the movement.
Totally agree, Morocco played very well defensively but we did nothing to shake that. Dalic has to make changes up top otherwise every team will kill us like this. Zdravo od chicago
I guess Dalic wanted a draw and hooed for some fluke goal for 1 0.
What happens happens we are better than this or i am a fool.
Cant play like this no wingers and not believing in younger fresh players is a problem for me and why force krama i dont understand it. If you play for draw atleast put budimir and petko livaja in not krama.
Krama kovacic need to go to bench for me. Neznam eto or we are not good enough
I’ve been saying it for years. Brozovic is not good. Yes, he runs, but that’s it. Bad passer. Very bad on the ball/dribbling. Not a goal scoring threat.
BS
What’s new is old again especially when you Slander epic broz…you don’t know 💩
Nah. he’s overrated. Always has been. He has a good performance once every 5 games.. if even that.
Dalic is a huge pussy, he told JJ and Sosa not to overlap. Also cracked under the pressure and started Lovren and Kramaric smh. Vlasic is still terrible at RW. Morocco is an average at best team, they time wasted and bunkered in the 2nd half.
once again, I think you can’t really blame sosa, kramaric, juranovic, or perisic. it is no coincidence they were all invisible
these positions are the end result of build up play and the engine room of the midfield paired with the central defenders just had no solutions
anyone else notice modric gives up a lot of penalties right outside our box. he gave up two today that created dangerous free kicks for morocco.
in wc 2018, he committed the foul against england in the same spot to give them the free kick
Pickasta taktika is all i can say.
We can say all we wont end of day this is not 2018
No striker no right winger
Weak kovacic not match fit imo
I thought lovern was a problem.
Imo Dalic is to Blame if he gets us out of group we will crash out like euro 2021 because he will get out coached imo.
Could have called Musa even Ljubicic as bench players and subs we dont have a number nine.
Bad game looked scared and a draw was like a good result cant wait to watch canada belgium imagine canada win or draw then it gets complicated
What’s wrong with Lovren? Had a good game. Good passing out the back. Excellent headers out. Did not make a mistake. Yes had a close to handball but VAR was too scared of him.
I miss*
This is where I players like Mandzukic….sure he didn’t score beautiful goals most of the time, but the aggression was helpful. Who cares if it’s a crappy ball that he taps in or scrambling inside the box, so long as it gets past the line…..
“Sosa and Juranović never made any overlap runs up the field.”
Hard to make an overlapping run when you’re already well into the opponents half. Especially Juranović. Countless times Lovren had the ball while Juranović was nowhere to be seen as an outlet on the right (which would put him in a position to make an overlapping run with Vlasić), forcing Lovren to play ping-pong with Gvardiol.
Wow
Dalic goes safe with Kramaric.
No speed, power or presence up top.
Morocco back line was nervous to start a little pressing on them could have shifted things.
I would start Budimir just for his presence.
I will refrain from what was missed in this match as compared to 2018.
Can’t believe we are still asking Modrić to carry us at 37!
I thought he would bring on more players in the second half and earlier.
Livakovic played well today.
Hope that gives him confidence.
Very difficult game. Morocco was very dangerous on the counter attack. We had to play it very smart. Croatia showing a bit of maturity this WC run by understanding this is marathon not a sprint. Hope this shows true for us.
Perhaps a more direct long ball approach with Petkovic on top would have favored us a little more. But that’s hind sight now.
Pros: modric, broz and kovacic got to break the ice together and really see that they need to be the ones pulling the strings for this team.
Cons: Croatia playing too defensive, with Juranovic and Sosa playing the ball back way too much. I’d like to see the Stuttgart Sosa.
As far as our attackers, can’t really blame them too much. They didn’t get the service they need to be effective. Didn’t help that Marocco was man marking every single player on the field.
The Moroccans were compact and tight at the back give them credit.
They concede very little and will hopefully take points from Canada and even Belgium going forward?
I’m concerned with Canada’s counter attack.. their speed along the flanks is what should concern us most.
We will only get better and I see Luka bossing Canada’s mundane midfield and perisic regaining his usual world cup magic.
The Canadian Serb goalie will do his best to get under our skin that’s a given.
Should be a far more entertaining game obviously it can’t get far more lackluster than this clunker.
My thoughts on the match:
Livaja is better as a lone striker than Kramarić, and he should start.
Lovren is not nearly as bad as people on this site like to imagine. He played like 2018 Lovren.
Sosa was not sensational, though the combination with Perisić was good.
Livaković was excellent when called upon.
The match was boring after Mazraoui’s injury because Morocco basically bunkered after that. Croatia always struggles to score against the bunker. Morocco is a good team and played very well today, especially on defense. No shame in a 0-0 draw, but obviously, we have to beat Canada and Belgium.
Apparently, the strategy was to kill time with meaningless 5 yard passes.
We already knew we have no strikers, but the midfield REALLY let us down. What happened to Perišić in the 2nd half? 😳
Pašalic was actually worse than Vlašić.
I got home from work at 1:30am and woke up at 5:00am to watch this snoozefest. I’m surprised I was able to stay awake. Shit game plan by Dalić. I really think we would have been better using a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 as many of our players already play that for their home clubs. If they play this way against the other teams in our group we will be out early.
This is where Olic, Mandzukic and Corluka hurt us. We lost this game in the back room.
Surely Halihodzic was available???
That’s why we need to play 4231. More threat. Anyway, we are fine. Solid start. Watch morocco beat Belgium
Wrong Tactics / Formation by Dalic. Both wings were invisible. We played not to allow goals rather then to score goals. Hopefully thats the last of Vlasic.
Knock Barisic all you want. At least he makes runs up the left side.
Gvardiol had a good game as did Lovren. Juranovic was also invisible.
Maybe both Sosa and Juranovic didnt have the green light. Brozovic looked rusty.
I think this was a game for Petkovic or Budimir, someone more physical in the center.
Morocco played a well organized game while Cro’s LB & RB played too high up making themselves unavailable for passes from the CB’s forcing Modrić to drop back when they need him higher up because our “strikers” are slow as f*ck.
The main thing is that we did not lose and are still in it. The worst match so far at WC, it looked like a draw from the start. For me Gvardiol and Lovren did well and were among our better players. We just did not show enough going forward.
Next match against Canada is a must win. Dalic will need to make some changes up front, maybe start with Petkovic or Budimir.
Incredibly disappointing, basically whole team invisible. Who would have thought Lovren best player on field
Our midfield also contributed to this debacle. They were not able to maintain possession. Modric, for one, made so many mistakes. He really had an off day.
Unfortunately, we have to come to terms with not making it out of the group now. Having to win the last two games will be really tough.
Anyway, as long as the boys give their best, I cannot complain.
Zivela Hrvatska!
I thought the ref was too lenient and that it helped Morrocco as the result. Disappointing game, but at least we have no injuries and no yellow card to their 1 yellow ( if it ever came into play as a tiebreaker).
Lovren
1 of the best 90 minutes he has ever played
Steady – good awareness – good anticipation / break-up play early – good presence – came up to block a couple shots top of box – positive body language through-out – vocal / organizing the kids at the back (e.g. Gvardiol)
He didn’t have to do too much.
We defended in numbers.
He wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t anything he really did. He mainly played it safe out there.
His offensive inability is very obvious though.
We were limited to bringing the ball upfield through Gvardiol only.
It only went back to Lovren when multiple Morocco forwards pressed Gvardiol and Juranović, where we were forced to send it sideways to Lovren (who couldn’t do anything with it).
It’s not the reason why we drew today, but it’s something that will slow down our offense in the next two games.
I did not see Gvardiol bring the ball upfield ? what nonsense, it was impossible because they were defending most of the match with 10 players behind the ball. The midfield was overcrowded and having your central defenders taking the ball up field in a match like this would have been sheer stupidity and exposing yourself to counter attacks.
I’m not particularly fond of Lovren either but the hate on this forum towards him is astonishing even when he puts in a solid performance.
Lovren had one of our two shots on target…
Maybe my wording was wrong, but Gvardiol’s passes were good and he was comfortable with the ball under pressure. He couldn’t make runs forward because their forwards targeted him and crowded the middle, but the few opportunities he did have you could see that his passes and dribbling in tight spaces was secure.
There were at least two Moroccans running at our backline whenever we needed to get our offense set up, and the ball was largely at Gvardiol’s feet, trying to get it to one of our flank players…but very obviously avoiding trying to pass it back to Lovren (unless he really really had to).
Many times there was a Moroccan on Sosa already, and another one heading toward Gvardiol too. They largely didn’t stick a guy on Lovren.
Gvardiol had to send it sideways and backward sometimes for Lovren, who (even though he had more space than Gvardiol in front of him) he wasn’t going to do anything special with it in terms of moving foward with it, or passing it forward to someone. Modric had to either come back for a short overly-safe pass from Lovren, or Lovren would just turn away and either pass it backward toward Livakovic or safely backwards toward Gvardiol again.
It’s nice to see Lovren play within his limites, but if we had a more skilled CB there, they would have used the added space (created by Gvardiol and Sosa drawing those two Moroccans toward them) to make a pass forward. But Lovren doesn’t have this skill, so it was largely just a ‘hold the ball and give it back to Gvardiol or Luka’ to try again.
or how about passing to Juranovic if he made himself an option for Lovren? Our LB & RB need more pace running on the flanks to open up the midfield.
Kramaric has a special ability..
Actually a super power worthy of a super hero. He has an invisibility feature were you don’t even know he’s playing in the game????? What a waste!!!!!!
He did absolutely nothing. A complete joke. Nothing has changed since his euro 2020 play. Hopefully they will give someone else a chance and we can move forward with someone who can
Morocco pressured us all game, and we didn’t return the favor.
It felt like many of our guys were afraid of contact and were too quick to pass off the ball (many times long balling it to nobody).
Morocco were very physical, but we let them get away with it because we were kicking away the ball to avoid facing their pressure.
Who cares?
Let them come at you, and let them foul you.
That bald dude (who finally got a yellow) was just grabbing every player. Turn your back to him, shield the ball, and make your pass.
Instead, we see him coming then quickly try to get rid of the ball before he comes. We couldn’t string together any short passes to each other as a result.
At the same time, we gave Morocco all the time in the World to set up their offense.
No pressure.
Whenever we won the ball back, we let them get their defense set up too. No quick counters from us, but they constantly countered in large numbers.
Morocco can’t create, so I don’t expect them to score many goals.
Hopefully they draw our other two opponents, otherwise we just gave away valuable points.
Excellent points
Bump:
Just send Kramaric home now – he was sleeping when Kovacic intercepted it early on w/ pass to him in space – every time he gets ball – he stops and holds up – even at the half-way line, lolol
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99% of Kramaric goals are vs. 3rd / 4th tier teams.
Only a handful have come against top sides (that aren’t penalties).
That’s the issue w/ him – he doesn’t score vs. top sides
He was celebrating today like he scored against Brazil, lol
https://hns-cff.hr/players/14791/andrej-kramaric/utakmice/
Goals vs. Malta (2), Azerbaijan (2), Gibraltar, Moldova, Northern Ireland, etc, lololol
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so that was a real snoozer to wait 4 years for . a couple things real clear
1) Had talked about climatic advantage. But really, perhaps we underappreciated home field advantage. World cup games are usually filled with 60% of neutral fans from the home side. You can guess which team these “neutral” fans from the middle east will cheer for. It was like an away game
2) As discussed, Morocco is good. They lacked some offensive fire power, but they haven’t conceded a goal in 5 games and you could see why.
3) Tough to judge the offensive players like kramaric, perisic, sosa, juranovic… These guys were clearly invisible. But can we really claim they all played a bad game ? No. There was clearly a flow of the game failure where the ball simply did not get out wide and allow these players to get on it. Croatia lacked some aggression and bite. was it nerves or was it a stingy morocco defense or simply strategy not to blow the game.
4) LIvakovic and lovren fine. Although I still don’t trust lovren. You can claim sutalo would’ve helped the defense to offense transition but I don’t really think so.
Got to be more clinical if the opponent plays this way. PoSitive is that we gave up nothing on defense…but man, couldn’t Croatia have tried maybe some long balls from Livakovic to mix it up? Passing back and forth on midfield got us nowhere
Goal keeping and goal scoring are questionable for this squad. Precision with the ball leaves a little to be desired. I’m expecting two draws and a loss if our opponents can copy Morocco’s strategy.
Positives were Liva looked okay and Lovren also did okay, made a few good interventions. Actually defense was not too bad all round.
Dalic prolly shouldve made more changes earlier but none of them seemed to make much difference anyway so i guess it’s neither here nor there. We certainly didn’t see speed like we did with Mbappe vs Aus this morning lmao.
Well this is vintage Hrvatska though. Playing down to our level of competition and making it a struggle
Absolutely ,Elvis. Let’s hope we can build better play and really turn it on against Belgium- that game is looking bigger by the second.
Woke up early for this shit. We were scared. Morocco wanted the ball more. We didn’t adapt.
Well, that was pretty shitty. Few half chances but no guilt edge ones or anything, just didnt deal with their stacking of the middle of the park well at all. Oh well, at least we didnt lose. I guess we’ll see how Belgium and Canada go and hopefully we can still squeak through the group although this obviously doesnt help that cause.
Well that was ugly. Packing the midfield was a good strategy by Morocco. They played us tough today.
Our lack of having a true striker hurt us, we couldn’t find that final ball. We also looked really slow today. Sosa was disappointing too and he offered nothing. Sloppy game all around. Watching our D pass the ball to each other for 1/4 of the game was awful. Although Lovren played well enough, having a CB that can pass could have helped.
At least we get a point and are still in the hunt to move on.
Embarrassing.
That is a disgusting performance. To think Croatia scared of Morroco. Sat back and passed the ball across the backline affraid to attack. Morroco will get smashed by Belgium and if Canada beat them we’re going home early!!
Before the tournament, I saw this as 2002 all over again. I think it may actually be more like 2006. A loss and two ties against vastly inferior teams.
WE HAVE ŠUTALO !!!!!!!
Why are we playing Lovren!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?
It causes the mid to drop so far back leading to less chances in offensive zone …..
So a tie
I guess it’s not terrible
Morocco will cause problems for others too
Have to get the three points vs Canada
What do we want happening now in the Canada/Belgium match??
Well, that was disappointing
Frickem Lovren 😠 😡
Is Perišić on the pitch?
Most boring game of the World Cup so far
Kramaric still on the field and Vlasic off. Dalic is brain-dead.
I agree. Vlasic should be off but so should Kramaric be subbed off. He is doing nothing right now.
I see Morocco’s pressure dropping right off in the second half and Croatia taking total control of this game. It seems my 4-0 prediction before the game was a bit optimistic so I’m going to make a slight change to that and go 3 nil Croatia!
I’d take off Vlasic at the half and bring on Mayer immediately. I’d also seriously consider Budimir when Sosa starts getting into the game.
Spot on, good call, lol
Until the end of the half, we had no presence in the box. Decent with getting the ball up, and had that one chance Modric was deep on the left early and had his outside of the boot flick to the center across the goal, but no one was there. I couldn’t even find Kramaric.
Need to put some bodies in the box and make things happen.
Yes, lack of speed for sure is apparent
Nice bit of burst in the end.
We expected the Africans can run
Vlasic looked dangerous in the middle towards the end
Needed the pace of a musa…
I would swap krama out but with who. Luka with that one juicy ball no one was on it
Gvardiol looks strong that’s for sure
Three useless players on the pitch Kramaric, Kovacic and Sosa. Absolute crap!
Kramaric and Lovren out fucken
Lovren is actually playing well dude. I wouldn’t sub him off at all.
Kramaric, Vlasic needed to go. Even with the little time Livaja had he had better positioning than Krama.
Lovrens build up is seriously restricting us
Mid fields had to come so far back to scoop the ball
Morocco packs the midfield and neutralizes ours. Lots of long ball passes but we need more speed upfront to make that work.
We need Kova and Modric to dribble through more and break them down.
Morocco has also gave away the ball so many times but we’ve failed to capitalize.
Krama has been invisible. I think we bring on Livaja. Kova can also be subbed by Majer if he doesn’t pick it up…he’s also been invisible.
Yeah basically we have no time and space and get crowded out and swarmed when we go down the middle and when we go out wide someone sends a cross to nobody in the centre. Very underwhelming attack.
Well, that was a lackluster display until basically the last 2 minutes of the half when we suddenly decided to apply some actual pressure to them for once. So a bad half until then really.
Anyone have links?
This is what I was afraid of. The speed of Marrocco. I am impressed with Lovren so far, so I will give the guy credit. But our attack is quite terrible and Kramaric does not offer much, Dalic needs to substitute there. I am not sure about Juranovic, Vlasic, and Kramaric right now. I would be making substitutions at the half.
Get Sosa out…guy is horrible
He just looks nervous. He’ll be okay.
We must get Perišić in the game!
Fuck the right, we have to keep attacking on the left.
Not sure why we chose to attack on the sunny side of pitch it’s annoying
As i said before, we all knew lovren was going to start
You shouldn’t be surprised
He has actually been playing well as much as I criticised him before.
Anybody have a good stream?
Hopefully Lovren can recapture his 2018 form and play well enough.
It’s really too bad Erlic isn’t starting in his place. He’s a way better defender, passer and all around player.
Vlasic was kind of a given due to his form. We need him to play much better even though he’ll be drifting to the middle. His pressing up front is an asset. As Maminjo said, Luka will be picking up a lot of defensive responsibilities because of this.
Ajmoooo!!
Lovren is actually a good choice for the matchup against En-Nesiry. I have watched quite a few Sevilla matches over the past seasons, and En-Nesiry is decidedly second rate technically. He lost his starting spot because he doesn’t really control the ball. HOWEVER, En-Nesiry is an aerial player who Sevilla’s manager puts in for those Hail Mary plays when they are chasing a goal. LOVREN’s one major asset is that he is strong in the air. Morocco will probably swinging crosses in from the right side all game, with the intention of finding En-Nesiry’s head. Lovren will make sure they don’t find their target.
So Carli Corluka gets benched 2018 doesnt bitch is a team player a much biggwr player than lovren will ever be
This shmuck has a pussy ass tamper tandem and evo ga ma mrs
He better turn into cannavaro 2006 or Dalic lost the plot with this call devils advocate
Hey guys, A Canadian artist & Hrvat. Been watching internationals on and off since 1998 here are my thoughts though I don’t know soccer like I know hockey.
The club had a big problem in recent years playing below potential and giving away easy goals. Simple mistakes to fix but it seemed like an ego problem (Rebic!?). Maybe because the quality is so high, some teams they think are too easy, and the Euro against Spain for example they defeated themselves.
Current form has me thinking Dalic weeded out the problem.
Love our team and depth more than 2018 aside from Mandzukic, & Subacic every position is equal or stronger (Lovren aside).
Lovro, Livaja, Stanisic & Sucic coming off the bench are all potential X factors, and they will push the starters to be at their best, unlike 2018 where the bench was thin. I like Sucic over Vlasic for quality but understand Vlasic is not a liability and perhaps a steady choice to start. One player that is a mystery to me is Petkovic. He’s a tower, has displays elite quality, drifts in and out of focus. I once thought him to be an elite future prospect. What is the deal? Enjoying the lifestyle too much? He could have been great by now!
Modric in top form still winning Champions titles and ranking in the top 10 ballandor is what gets all excited about this group. Let’s fucking go boys.
We will find out soon whether rebic was just a scapegoat or not
Lovern is part of the veterans committee. Luka has a say in team affairs and for whatever fuckin reason he is comfortable with Lovern playing. It is what it is?
I really hope Lovren doesn’t become this tournament’s version of “Euro2020 Rebić”
What is the Rebic story? Loved his grit, in 2018, hated his arrogance.
Poor Modrić is essentially going to be playing defensive RB for us.
Vlašić had better run back and help Modrić defend that right side for us.
Dalić left a nice gaping hole there for Morocco to take advantage of with Juranović and Lovren playing at the same time.
Modrić should have that side covered during Juranović’s runs…and he’ll be there next to Lovren to bring the ball up…but he’ll probably be exhausted in the second half.
It’s a shame because I didn’t want Modrić to have to play so deep like he had to do at the Euros.
However, Morocco will have one right back playing on the left side. It’s hard for a righ-sided player to attack up the left, so strategically, that a hole for Dalić to manipulate. Vlasić puts the high press, and Juranović manipulates lost balls with his speed. I actually like it.
Ok lemme get this straight, Lovren opens his big mouth at press conference, saying he wouldn’t be happy sitting on the bench. Dalic caves in because he doesn’t want a Kalinic 2.0.
Sutalo allegedly loses his starting position because of some poor performances in the Champions League, mind you he’s playing against better teams than Lovren.
For some puzzling reason, the 24 year old Erlic is left on the bench (way to integrate youth Dalic). In favor of a 33 year old, error prone Lovren.
As we all know, the Vatreni had their strongest defense in recent years with the CB of Erlic, Sutalo, and Gvardiol–as we saw in the recent Nations League.
Why on earth is he bringing Lovren back???, who gives up a penalty every group stage, who will start bitching at teamates when things go wrong (instead of taking responsibility).
Erlic is steady and dependable, and is very solid at Sassulo. If not Sutalo, then Erlic should partner Gvardiol here.
We as fans can’t change the line up so let’s hope everyone selected plays well and win one game at a time. 🇭🇷🔥💪⚽️🥇🍻🤪 Enjoy the game everyone 👍👍
Luka:
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https://www.marca.com/en/world-cup/2022/11/22/637d225722601d03088b45b6.html
OMG i am SO fucking scared wont someone HOLD ME LOL
Lovren starting? Can anyone provide me with a reason why? He’s a cancer to the team. Erlic should play over him. Jurnaovic I’d be satisfied with. Maybe Vida starting? He’s better at ball clearance and better foot IQ than Donkey Dejan. The guy can’t go one tournament without arguing with a player or coach. We have to control and overtake the midfield.
He is a bit of a worry with some of the penalties being given atm. Sorta worried he will give one or two away
Agree Vida > Lovren
I think most people would
But we keep in mind Modric deciding line-up/formation – Modric wants to win – so we should all accept it and all selections (esp. when they “don’t make sense” to us on the outside)
Let’s go!!!