Croatia Starting XI: Subašić – Strinić, Lovren, Vida, Vrsaljko – Modrić, Rakitić – Perišić, Kramarić, Rebić – Mandžukić
Croatia was the better team in the first half against Nigeria and it showed in the 32nd minute when Luka Modrić whipped in a corner kick that got lost in the box; which led to an own goal. Mandžukić got the last head on it and the Vatreni went into halftime with a much deserved 1-0 lead vs. the Super Eagles .
Kramarić looked great and Mandžukić had some cheeky passes inside the box. The defense looked durable enough to withstand any Nigerian attacks, but at the same time, Nigeria never developed quality chances.
Luka Modrić was named Man of the Match as he strung together the Croatian midfield and converted a 71st minute penalty kick after Mario Mandžukić was completely wrapped by a Nigerian defender in the box following a set piece.
It wasn’t the cleanest game by Croatia by any means, but it was the result they were looking for. A 2-0 win over Nigeria alongside a 1-1 draw between Argentina and Iceland means Croatia is atop Group D after one match going into Thursday’s duel with Argentina. A win over the Argentines all but ensures that Croatia will move onto the knockout stages.
^
Slaves such as you want no part of free speech. You’d never in a million years say that to my face.
^
Crnkovic’s soccer comments are alright, but it’s when he talks about stuff other than soccer is when he should shut his mouth.
You should also shut your mouth as well.
@crnkovic, why are you here exactly? According to you, anyone who believes in the “right words” can become Croatian; heredity means nothing, right? We all know this b/c you’ve said clearly on this site that you support “diversity”, right?
i remember when i was at school, we had a good school team and we were pretty cocky. it was the 1990 world cup and some of us were laughing at UAE being in the world cup saying we think our school team would give them a game maybe beat them…a few years later i was in italy having trials for a couple of serie C teams, our training base in the mountains was shared by perugia, at that time a solid serie A team, and…UAE under 19. i watched UAE u19 play Perugia u19(primavera) in a training match. UAE played them off the park..
neither morooco nor iran are trash. nor are australia or tunisia. dont talk nonsense. for example, morocco comfortably beat serbia recently, outplayed ukraine comfortably in a 0-0 draw and thumped south korea with their B team…you don’t get anywhere by disrespecting your opponents or the valid acheivements of others. that attitude stinks. lol. ask france if australia are “trash..”
Many teams in the World Cup are trash Iran, Morocco,Tunisia,Panama,Australia,Saudi Arabia. Teams like Wales and Chile missed this WC also the Netherlands.
Well no team has been dominant but their stats have been much more promising
It’s not overly helpful to simply look at goals
Gotta look at quality shots on goal and possession instead
And even though Argentina, France, and Germany had disappointing results, their stats in this category are much more promising going forward than Croatia s 0 shots on goal in 90 minutes
I could look past it for Croatia if scoring hasn’t been such a consistent issue for them
@The truth
But then again which team has impressed this world cup so far?
Argentina drew, France barely beat Aus with a controversial pen and fluke goal, and Germany lost to Mexico (a team our B team beat).
The only dominant performance was by Russia who played a garbage KSA team. At least our team won comfortably with a somewhat decent performance, with room to obviously improve.
Yea Iggy, i was just posting some facts about the low the comment total and some people come back with childish insults
I agree though that perhaps it’s cause people are at gatherings. Me myself was not able to post till probably 5 hours after the game cause i was hosting like 40 people
It’s a lot of fun hosting a big party but it did distract me from following and analyzing the game as closely as i usually would
I might have to do a rewatch
@jv
Croatia did not impress because they did not get a shot on goal till the 90th minute against a weak Nigeria side
Sure you can go Greece or Portugal style and draw your way to a championship
But tougher in the world cup and the odds are against it
^^ i meant with qualifiers with the above post
Yeah i noticed not many commenters too but i put it down to the fact cos it’s a world cup people are watching with families, in clubs, etc, rather than the usual hardcore group of us who get up (at least in aus) at ungodly hours to watch games all alone in the dark and then post 30 comments on the site during the game 😉
Seriously, why did we not impress?? Fat lot of good it’s done us in the past!! Portugal won the euro’s drawing games and we played to win and it got us no-where.
Bilic summed it up perfectly and put Paul Merson in his place!!! I for am satisfied with a 2 nil result and 3 points. That’s what matters!!!
Stfu truth troll. Maybe, people are actually interacting with other humans and/or enjoying real life group activities this weekend instead of living on the internet like you ypu 4th grader internet troll. Keep trying to turm a positive into a negative, you ass.
I find it interesting that this thread has had under 100 comments. Usual numbers after a significant game are 300 plus comments
Maybe I’ll have to get the owners of the site to pay me to drum. Up some more interest
The nice thing about today’s win, is the Argentina game becomes a freeby
Even if we lose, Destiny is in our hands vs Iceland
Ante are u trolling Lovren with that picture?
Is that the closest Dejan gets to organizing a Lovren pool party? 😉
A good win, as the points were needed. The team needs to tighten up a few things, in prep for matches against Argentina and Iceland.
Bilic is right yeah. Good to hear his thoughts.
well said, Maminjo.
Here’s what Bilic had to say…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XFpgKv3uGE
LOL.
What an idiot.
Well it’s great we got the opening win… First time since 98
Unfortunately, i can’t say there was too much to be excited about.
Croatia had 0 shots on goal
Give credit to mandzukic for being a difference maker. Some decent layoffs and instrumental on both goals
But going off this performance and continuing to sacrifice kramaric in his best spot for mandzukic is fools gold
Mandzo header was way off target and luckily deflected in. Don’t count on that in the future
And then definitely don’t count on Iceland and Argentina defenders to tackle him in the box with two hands like Nigeria
Overall, i was excited to get the win. Would’ve loved to go to the world cup again but too much business stuff going on. But got to host a great afternoon party for friends and family. Barbecue, kids having a great time in the pool, and then set up a mini movie screen outside for everyone to watch the game. Great time
I love the result, but Croatias performance was disappointingly similar to what they’ve done for some time
@truth. Where are you chump? We will proceed.
Win is a win who cares about the rest.
The Pjaca situation is worse than I thought.
His speed and explosiveness are gone.
He won’t be of any use to us this tournament.
He’s probably going to be an Alessandro Del Piero situation, where he will take three years to get back to where he was before that injury.
BZ, good comments bro!
Maminjo i did reply but my comment is in moderation purgatory so you will prolly see it in 20 years if you come back to this thread as a much older man and review LOL
I didn’t say it wasnt a great result; it was. Terrific result. But we didnt PLAY terrific. Im not having a go at us, i think it’s actually a great sign, there’s room for improvement for sure.
IF we want to go far in the tourney we need to be able to do this, be not at our best and still get a really good result. Overall, super-happy with today! It worked out great and signs are good. Chacne to really click into gear vs Argentina too cos in a way the pressure is kind of off since we won the big game already. Even if we lose to Argentina it’s no catastrophe so hopefully we play free of pressure and the way we all know we can (but dont always do).
We didn’t play great?
Who in this World Cup has?
France needing a soft penalty and fluke goal to get past Australia?
Denmark needing a brutal penalty miss and six acrobatic saves from Schmeichel to get passed Peru?
Uruguay needing a late goal to squeeze by a nameless Egyptian squad who were missing Salah?
We beat a full strength Nigeria squad 2-0 with several opportunities to make it 3-0 or more.
We played a strategy that took away Nigeria’s long ball away from them, daring them to try and take it to us through the middle.
Nigeria WILL take points away from Iceland and quite possibly Argentina as well.
This was a SOLID win.
The most meaningful win so far this tournament (that didn’t involve some scrub team on the losing end).
badelj starting against arg
Yah we didnt play great tbh but got the job done which is the main thing
Dalić is still fine tuning his mastermind with this crew.
Still less than year being coach.
I would like to see some slight adjustments vs Argentina.
I like Modrić farther up for Argentina and Iceland.
Important to be solid today.
In shape 30’s are beasting so far.
Nice balance
Canadian TV called the win “masterful” – don’t know abou that but a good win
we dont want iceland to win, then they will bunker vs us
Alotta people like to pick on the Big Fella! But ya know the guy is a Battering Ram and combines well with Croatia’s technical midfield. As we saw today, Mandzukic won so many aerial battles, held up the ball, great link up play, plus helped out in Defense.
Hats off to Strinic, good performance. He didn’t over-do it offensively. He was solid, contributing to so many vital tackles, clearances, and headers.
He went up against Victor Moses–who’s Nigeria’s best player and an amazing winger. And Strinic did well to contain him. If he plays with this kind of concentration and focus he should be solid for us at LB during the WC.
We also saw Rebic’s fangs and claws as he simply terrorized the Nigerians. He was a beast! I think he will only get better with time.
we are a must win for Argentina, hopefully they open up and we bust them, th thing that scares me is the coach knows this to and he will try to play for a draw
Really should’ve been 3-0 if Kovacic had bothered to pass either of his golden chances to a wide open Perisic but one time he shot tamely and the other he made an incorrect pass
Is anyone else terrified of Argentina? I am more scared of Argentina now then before they tied to Iceland. Now I’m worried Argentina is going to take all of their frustrations out on Croatia. What result do we want to have between Iceland in Nigeria, what’s the better result for a Croatia????
A systematic victory!
Everyone played well.
Especially some of the guys under a lot of criticism here. Mandzukic Strinic Lovren Vida.
Hats off to Lovren as well.
great result. great start. very happy. strinic very good. couldnt ask for more from a first game.
Toronto Croatia, we got the nerves out of the way today. Argentina should be a barn burner.
Great job by the ref too. Nigeria was diving all over the place at the start, but he noticed after the first few and adjusted.
Initially, on the pen I didn’t see the foul, but it was clear as day on the replay. The ref didn’t hesitate, just pointed to the spot and pulled out the yellow.
Good assessment bz
On the radio in Vancouver they weren’t really throwing cro too many compliments
They sad krama trying to claim the goal
So he greedy as long as working for us who cares at this point
Like Toronto said we can play better
We got the 3 points decent goal difference and onward and upward
Rakitic looked good I thought
Too bad bout his and brozo yellow
lucky we have badelj kovacic and modric with zero cards
Really hoping we don’t need to use bradaric
Ya would love to see pjaca come alive
Perisic looks to be touch slower mind u he is going against young black dudes what do u expect
I thought we held our own speed and physical wise
Good win and no Homosex today.
Mandzukic Motm. Integral in both goals. Not only was his link up play good as usual, his DEFENSE on set pieces today was superb. I knew he would get tackled like that, and am glad fifa is cracking down on that bullshit. When I said he was gonna get mugged yesterday, I got ridiculed as ppl seem to think Mandzukic starts this shit, he literally did nothing yo instigate the mugging, other than be in perfect position for a header.
Vrsaljko-holy bat shit. His defense was awesome, but man I’d never seen him play that poorly offensively. I expect better performances going forward. Can’t do much worse.
Modric- when Brozo came on, and Modric pushed forward, we looked like the Dangerous Dalic’s again. Dalic now knows Modric needs to play attacking. Rakitic and Brozo or Kovacic can handle holding.
Pjaca-sad to see how much speed he has lost. Needs more time to recover.
Lovren and Vida combo=Perfect today.
Classic Subasic- didn’t need to do jack shit. Hope he appreciates it, & stays ready cause Messi is coming!!!
Yea they were impressed on TSN basically on how Croatia controlled the tempo but we’ve seen when Croatia plays really good…they fire on all cylinders and I’m sure none of us would consider this game ..that type of performance. I’m still happy of course!
I’m actually happy that we won and we can still expect better of our guys
My favourite part was the embrace by the friends of Mamic (Modric & Lovren), I really enjoyed that!
Mandzukic made himself a nuisance which definitely led to both goals …so credit to him for that.
Toronto
They were really impressed on TSN
I get it not like we totally owned it but hey a win is a win
Lots of positives!
We haven’t won first game at WC since 98
I for one am greatful!
Modric delivers Messi didn’t
To je to
Argentina will be hard but we alive and well
Let the haters hate Lika! Most people that can’t stand Mandzukic can’t see the game for what it is! He had a good game.
Nigeria has a tough midfield.
Kovačić has to start against Argentina.
Dalić .. toooooooooooooooooo!!
Anyone want to make a comment about SUPER MARIO? Strinic wow!!! Left back is solid lol.
Happy to get the win but I wouldn’t say Croatia was impressive by any means. We gave up possession wayyyyyy too many times.
We must do better against Argentina but since we play to the level of our competition I think we will.
I was happy to see Pjaca get some time on. Luka played great as usual. Rebic was a workhorse …Kramaric will have to wait for another day to leave his mark
Great game. We were so fucking good on winning headers D/Offense which helped retain possession and frustrate Nigeria. The only thing I was concerned with is the lack of Goals being created and by this I mean we got a PK and an OG otherwise no shots were really scary. With this said I think as a team we have become much harder to score on as well which is great stuff. Just happy we won 😀
Three key moments
1/ Corner Croatia: Mandzukic dares to go with his head where probably no other player dares to goal. The ball ends up against the leg of a Nigerian and goes in. 1-0
2/ Corner Nigeria: Nigeria would have equalized if Mandzukic didn’t show up and cleared the ball.
3/ Corner Croatia: Mandzukic managed to get in front of his Nigerian defender who lost his mind and embraced Mandzo to stop him. Penalty and 2-0.
If you want to play great football, leave Mandzukic on the bench. On the other hand, if you want to win…
@ anonymous – 100% agreed – Mandza made both goals.
I told you boys so. We ok.
WE DID IT BOYS!!!! 😀
Mandzo instrumental on both goals, nothing but lies said about him.
Ya I take my strinic comment back
Those couple of start at 2nd half clearances were shady but he has been on point
We need more from vrsaljko
Mandzukic played like a beast
We have nuff toughness we didn’t have before
Crappy yellow right now on brozo
Dare I say Strinic has played well tonight?
Truth is on suicide watch
Love how Luka njst embraced Strinic for that vital stop
Strinic playing well tonight.
…and Strinic just saved a goal! He’s doing well today!
At least we playing much more organized
If we had dalic against Portugal at least he would have tried somethings and who knows
Man strinic had good first half
Now he is doing his best impression of pranjic/strinic combo
Sigh
Kontra !!
Kovačić for Rakitic who is on a yellow.
Pjaca for Rebić
Badelj for Kramaric
Concentration is key now…we have to play them smart and hopefully get them on a counter attack!
Looks like the only plan of attack has been to tee up the ball for the guy following up the play.
They will have to open it up so we will see what happens now
Let’s do this!!
Playing solid so far. Sime needs to sharpen up. Liking this lineup when we need goals. U Boj!!
Yeah i noticed Mandzu set up a few guys with little back passes, plus more or less created that goal so he’s gone okay so far.
We need another goal !
Vrsaljko couldn’t kick it into the Adriatic if he was on the beach lol
Mandzukic laying off great passes today!
Own goal but good build up
ZDS!!
Ajmoooooooooo!!!!!
Guys does anyone have a link to a descent stream? I am in Sweden and the bastards are using paid channels for the Croatia match.
links??
Like…loved it. I’m in London close by…great write up.
Ajmoooooo!!
U boj everyone. Time has almost come. Feeling we gonna be ok.
This is our face to the world. Did you guys see the piece on Toronto Croatia on tsn? Omg Beautiful.
Love you guys! Except truth! Lets Gooooooo!
Great lineup. Exactly what we need and as good as we can field when we need goals.
Rebic gives us some speed and aggression we’ve lacked. Kramaric is in great form…ajmooooooo!!’
All in with the starting 11.
Subs will be chosen depending on the match flow.
Let Nigeria feel us from the jump.
Kramaric has the opportunity to become World-Class in one tournament.
U boj ..
It is our chance to win this game and win the group like we did in Euro 2008 and Euro 2016. I just hope we dont fall apart like that last game of World Cup 2014 when we lost to Mexico 3:1.It will most likely be Modrics last World Cup i hope his teammates lift for him and do something positive.
Well said Toronto!!
Let’s go! Time to prove that we are a elite team.
We’ve beaten Iceland before so no reason why we can’t again.
Argentina will go hard against us now but will be somewhat deflated …and we always play to the level of our competition so we have a chance at beating Argentia for sure.
Today against Nigeria we need to score goals and send a message to everyone else in the group that we plan to finish first.
I want Kramaric to make his presence felt on the world stage.
U boj
Let’s go! Time to prove we are a elite team
Starting line up-
Subasic
Lovren
Vida
Strinic
Vrsaljko
Rakitic
Modric
Rebic
Perisic
Kramaric
Mandzukic
Let’s go. Time to prove we are a elite team
Laknat…what ever! Positivity bro!
The problem (about us defending like Iceland) about our defending is that I think we will maintain possession and they will counter attack us. I doubt we’ll see longer periods of them controlling the play but I could be wrong.
Point the finger of blame for GoalKeeper tonight as he wil make such an awful mistake
Mali Ante, if Iceland is a goal down they can’t bunker. We have to maintain a lead.
We play better when we counter anyway
It’s the reason why our record against elite teams is better than 50%
Lika, agreed. It could work both ways…if we defended like Iceland does I’d feel better about it. I hope it adds pressure rather than lighting a fire under them….
Either way we can play with anyone and truly compete. Not have to bunker and pray for the odd counter chance like Iceland did. The stat lines were almost unreal. Argentina had 5 times as many passes…possession was near 80%!
If Cro wins today, Argentina will be in panic mode
Mali Ante, it also puts tremendous pressure on Messi and Argentina.
Anonymous, driving and texting in traffic is a challenge. Lol.
Goosebumps every time I watch this clip…
Ajmooooooo!!!
https://youtu.be/sK_Bus4SXIo
Not quite sure how to feel about this Argentina Iceland draw. On one hand it opens up the group but it also forces Argentina to push a little harder next game. We really need a win today and am confident we will win this one.
Hopefully we start that attacking lineup that’s been posted recently. Playing with both Mandza and Kramaric is needed today. U Boj!!!
-“Youre an idiot”
I always chuckle at the irony when somebody makes that statment with that grammer screw up.
However, Truth Troll, you are an idiot… despite for once making a specific and possible prediction.
Truth, your an idiot! You blow like the wind with your theory and logic.
Iceland (hopefully) won’t be able to just park the bus vs us though, hopefully they will need to play cos they’ll need a win, which will make it much easier
Argentina Iceland 1-1
I called it on this site 3 days ago- forget Argentina – it’s Iceland that’s going to be a pain in our side- their Croatia 98 – loose , full of pride, having fun, no pressure –
play for Croatia boys with pride and know that the world is watching us- love to stick it to all my Italian friends in Toronto later today
@The truth
100% – that defending was amazingly disciplined. They’re no pushovers. This group can produce anything – this result means nothing unless we don’t get a win today.
This Iceland team looks like it’s going to be a problem
Extremely compact and disciplined
It’s now been four years of good results for them. Maybe time to stop writing them off