FINAL: Croatia win 1-0 to take 2nd place in their Nations League group behind Portugal! A nice rebound from the 2-1 loss to Portugal on Thursday with some fresh blood in the lineup. Pjaca didn’t impress much on the wing but it wasn’t for lack of trying. It looks like the early yellow card took him out of the match a bit. But who is the world would have thought Modrić could score a “worldly” free kick over the wall from just 19 yards out??? Oh me oh my!
79′: Sub. Kova, who is on a yellow, is taken off for aria Pašalić.
70′: Some confusion in the Croatian box. Lewandowski grabs the ball and rifles it off the post. Croatia lucky not to concede there.
69′: Subs. Double striker swap. Budimir and Kramarić come on for Matanović and Petković.
52′: Matanović dribbles around the box through a fire Polish defenders but his shot rattles off the crossbar.
50′: GOOOOOOOALLLL!!! Luka Modrić chips the Polish wall from 18 yards out of a free kick!! Oh me oh myyyyyyy. All placement, no power. Absolutely incredible!
46′: First sub of the match. Luka Sučić comes in for cousin Petar Sučič. Solid sub.
HALFTIME 0-0. Dalić needs to make the following changes. Kramarić in for Petković. Switch the Sučić cousins. Luka in for Petar. That should give Croatia a needed offensive spark to score a goal. Kova and Pjaca should also only play 15-20 more minutes as both are on a 1st half yellow.
30 minutes into this match and tons of life from the Croatian side. No solid chances on yet quite yet but the Vatreni have ball possession at 65% and have been lively moving the ball up the field. Pjaca not having a great 1st half but Petar Sučić and Matanović have looked good out of the crop of young guns. Well done by Dalić this week getting some fresh blood into this Croatian lineup.
Croatia look to rebound from a 2-1 loss to Portugal on Sunday when they face Poland in Osijek at Opus Arena. Poland defeated Scotland 3-2 Thursday in their Nations League opener through a 97th minute Zalewski penalty shot. Croatia is gunning for all three points in this match no matter who starts Sunday on Croatian soil.
Baturina started against Poland while Sučić, Matanovič and Petar Sučič all came off the bench. Let’s see how Dalić lines up the boys against Poland.
Looks like a 3–5-2 formation. Dalić finally playing a true winger in Pjaca from the start. Petar Sučić could very well be the future Croatia #6. And Igor Matanović (6’4”, 21yo) gets the start from the opening whistle.
Watched both games.
My biggest surprise was the play of Sutalo. He played outstanding. Playing in a back 3 really seems to suit him. DCC also played very well.
I can’t believe how much Sosa has regressed. He’s way to slow, not very good defensively and his crosses when he does cross are not very good. No wonder Ajax offloaded him after only a few games. May we should have let Germany take him?
Kova is our best midfielder. Played great both games.
Matinovic had good movement and positioning but finishing is horrible. Really bad. He looks like a poor man’s Mario Gómez. Not sure he hot playing time ahead of Budimir. I guess being the starting forward in La Liga is not good enough for Dalic.
I thought Pjaca was good against Poland. I didn’t think he was slow like some have said.
The only think holding this team back is Dalic. It seems like he has no idea what he is doing with the random player selections and formations. He decides to play 3 back when we don’t the the wing backs to play this formation, but when we did have wingbacks he chose to stick with the 4-3-3. He put Baturina under the bus……he should have brought him in as a sub for Modric against Portugal as an attacking CM (the position Modric was playing) and the position he plays for Dinamo. And then he starts P Susic who is a DCM vs Poland when he was not needed. Dalic is such a bonehead and not mention you have his assistant Corluka with the wealth of couching experience as his #2. No wonder Sigur decided to play for Canada.
Matanović was playing because Budimir will be 35 in 2026. Matanović/Petković is a possible WC 2026 starting striker partnership since Budimir/Kramarić will both be 35 by then. Dalić has said it publicly, everything this year is preparation for 2026.
He’s been reading my posts 😉
All that matters is 2026.
Only vets on the team should be Modric, Kova, Krama and Bruno (and perhaps Orsic if he can bounce back physically).
Guys like Perisic and Budimir should be phased out.
Well, despite something very unfortunate luka is staying to World Cup. It’s truly a fitting way to go for him
I unfortunately didn’t get to see both games. DCC is family. His dad does our ACs back home. So I’m happy for him. He always had good potential
Sorry to hear about Petar sucic not a strong game. I think he keeps developing
And between all we have and another little while before luka leaves with kova, majer, sucic boys and baturina. We can continue to boss the midfield
If we had a prime Perisic now with matanovic coming up.
Like others said he is hard to push off the ball and so is petko and budimir also hard to play against
We have enough big body presence and even throw Mario pasalic in the mix as that super sub big body.
I still hope orsic can be back. I know he is not playing much but how is his speed. I actually hoped he stayed in Zagreb. Was a boss there. Played in enough big games and kept growing. Maybe he can get back there and pre injury form
I still say both vuskovic boys will push for repka
Glad to hear on kova
His form for us has been fine. Playing for pep has helped and if he wasn’t always in Luka’s shadow who knows how he would be
But he’s got 4 good years for us hopefully still
Who cares really for nations leagues actual results but as long as we keep developing some youth and find a way to play with more flare that’s important
I actually still am not that mad at the euro. I think we were let down with some tactics and misfortune and playing boss Spain first didn’t help
But such is life
This is a good win and we move on
Croatia loses story gets two times the comments that the Croatia wins one does. Gluttons for punishment.
What a game by Luka, dominant from start to finish.
Car, Sutalo and Gvardiol rock solid in the back.
Kova was balling also.
Love the work rate of Matanovic up front…a true big target man and has a nice touch…and turn on the ball. So close off the one chance….the goals will come…creates a lot.
Am liking where things are looking…
2 starters with only their second cap in Matanovic and Sucic….
And Luka Sucic is silky smooth….and getting back to pre ACL…
We made Poland look like complete amateurs out there….
Very true. Should have bagged two goals at least though.
DCC great game, that slide tackle in our penalty box was amazing. This is the type of authentic CB we were missing in euros but had with Erlic.
Petar Sucic was terrible, we knew we were gonna dominate possession and attack, he should of never started.
Matanovic great positioning, zero finishing.
Pjaca does good cutting in when attacking but he cant play wingback, bit too slow and defending is just bad. I wish dalic subbed ivanusec for pjaca to evaluate him in this formation.
Sosa holding back on sending his signature cross. Thought for sure dalic was gonna sub in barisic considering we played in osijek.
Nothing much else to say on this match, good on dalic for experimenting and FINALLY benching Pong.
We seem to have a working formula and a good collection of younger and older players in defense, midfield and striker.
Just need to give it more games so we have a bigger sample to evaluate.
The wings, however, we need to experiment more with.
None of Sosa, Jakić or Pjaca were impressive.
Sosa has the crosses, but we barely see any coming from him because he just seems too passive or whatever. Doesn’t seem to fight his way up that flank.
I like that we have more physically capable guys out there. Having both Petković and Matanović up there, and nobody can push them off the ball. Both Sučić guys seem like bigger guys who aren’t weak either.
Our backline was huge too.
I would prefer to try some different guys on the wings.
We have Marco Pašalić (who seems to be a fighter) and I wouldn’t mind trying out a young guy our youth teams.
Šoticek is fast, Matković is huge… Maybe Oršić because he’s a big game player with alot of speed and heart.
I just want some wings who are willing to run hard, fight and own that flank, and press on defence.
So I missed the first half, but watching the two last matches made me think even more than ever : it was SO time to bring in different players and try a different formation
Also am I the only one who noticed that we lost some stability when Kova went off the pitch? I feel like he should have been replaced by a brain like Baturina (I believe he shouldn’t be excluded just because of the Portugal match, just reintroduced more smoothly). We brought on ‘’older legs’’, even if fresh, and took off our best playmaker of the moment….
It wasn’t a tactical substitution.
Kova was probably tired, so we just put Pašalić in there… but Pašalić won’t give you that defense and possession-ball that Kova gives you. So we dropped off there.
Perišić almost cost us the game there at the end. He kept that Polish guy onside, when Gvardiol was playing the offside trap.
This is why we need to pick a young group of guys who will play together often enough, so crap like this doesn’t happen at the World Cup.
Our backline needs chemistry, and we should probably just limit our defenders from a pool of Gvardiol, Šutalo, Duje, Erlić and Stanišić from now on.
I would add Vuskovic to that list as well when comes of age. He seems to be doing very well.
I would LOVE for Vušković to be added even now (as a backup) but Im just being realistic.
I didn’t read the rest of your post re: Baturina.
Yeah, I guess Baturina has that creativity… But he’s also very offensively oriented and we’d drop off in defense and probably possession too. But he’d probably have made some dazzling runs in that open field. I would have preferred that he was subbed in instead.
I thought it was the right substitution. Kovačić was obviously getting tired by that point from an unbelievable amout of running, and Pašalić read the game very well in his time on the pitch. It’s just that Mario is way, way slower than Kova, so he can’t do nearly as much. But he did create a couple chances.
Modric stays on the team – everybody else is game by game- Poland isn’t good at all and we should be hammering teams that are C level- keep the kids coming into games . Dalic can’t coach youth to the next level – it’s another kind of coach we don’t have right now-offensively, it’s embarrassing how slow this team is
Interesting that these boards are filled with people that complain about our aging core. These same people complain about the youth brought in. Baturina and Matanović will be fine. Think about how shit you were in your 1st beer league match and now winners of the Sunday league “Champs” T-Shirts.
Should it be pride or sramota that our best player is turning 39 tomorrow?
Luka4Life.
Matanovic already has more misses in his career than Lukaku
@Lovro
Lmaooo
We are so freaking slow and not creative at all my god you can see every pass before it happens. 0 creativity 1v1 no one runs into space or pulls defenders its possession ball and ball watching. We can’t score goals in live play unless it’s a penalty… rough days indeed
Duje Ćaleta-Car with the career resurgence.
I did not see much of the Poland game but from the highlights of the match and the Portugal match, Duje Ćaleta-Car has looked more solid and more stable at the back than any match that I have seen with Marin Pongračić in the last year. I think Ćaleta-Car also moves the ball better from the back. Maybe he is finally maturing into a reliable and solid defender.
Whoa, both Petar Sucic and Igor Matanovic in the starting eleven? Suddenly Dalic is a risk taker? ha ha
Luka Sucic in the starting eleven is the safer (and probably better) pick…but if he does still have a light injury, then I’m glad we went with Petar Sucic instead of forcing in a player like Mario Pasalic or whoever.
I want to see Baturina get another chance (as a sub) especially since he has a lot of chemistry with Petkovic. If the Petkovic/Matanovic partnership is not working, then we’re going to have to get creative with subs to make sure we have the right combination out there with Baturina, Pasalic, Luka Sucic available off the bench.
My guess is Mario Pasalic will be one of the first subs to come in (likely for one of Matanovic or Petkovic).
Baturina may get some minutes, but it would be a shame if we take out Petkovic (when subbing in Baturina) and we don’t take advantage of their great chemistry together.
But wait where is Luka Sucic!!
Wow I’m excited to see how this line-up will do! Fingers crossed
As Anonymous pointed out after last game Petar Sucic was a “WOW” and did more in 13 minutes than Batutina and Luka Sucic have in 16 caps and told Dalic he needs to start today
Anonymous eye test never deceives
Hence why Petar Sucic stars today
Ditto Matanovic
Nice to see Pjaca too (makes sense we can play more offensive on that side given opponent)
Let’s go !
Dalic must be reading Croatiansports.com….
“There’s always debate and questions about why we called Perisic up, but I don’t see anyone better in Croatia. If you can find someone better, and faster than Perisic on the left side, then show me. I don’t see anyone better.”
Once again – I’m not sure Dalic even knows what he’s saying at this point – Perisic came on and played entirely on the RIGHT-WING – can someone please show Dalic a heat-map for Perisic vs. Portugal – that’s the right-side, not left-side
I can’t recall another time in his [135] caps that Perisic has played exclusively on the RW (there has probably been some random game here, there)
I actually think RW might be better for him at this pt in his career – he doesn’t need to speed down the left flank to get a cross off (which he can’t really do anymore) – he can just cut back in on the right flank and cross it in – so it actually makes sense for him to play RW
But than if we are looking at RW – we have Marco Pasalic and even Halilovic who just won player of the month, etc etc etc…
The good news – since he’s reading Croatiansports.com – and the feedback on Igor Matanovic has been universally positive, rightfully so – that we can 99% count on his starting him for this game
Dalic having a CroatianSports account is confirmed.
Matanovic is starting.
I call a 1-0 victory for Poland on an early goal
I know this will be on Nova in Cro, but here in the states, will this be on Vix again? Is there another NA provider carrying this?
https://www.livesoccertv.com/match/4909714/croatia-vs-poland/
DAZN