Not the start we were looking for. Spain capitalized on all their chances while Croatia went 0/4 on theirs. Croatian defense looked slow in regard to the Spanish attack. Everything that could go wrong did. Jebiga. We move forward to Albania on Wednesday and look for all three points.
FINAL: 3-0 Spain. That was truly a Murphy’s Law game for Croatia. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Lot’s to unpack here. Lots!
81′: FROM BAD TO WORSE. After VAR review, Perišić is called for encroachment in the box. The goal is disallowed.
80′: Petko’s penalty is missed by Simon! The balls goes straight to Perišić ho slots it back to Petković for a tap-in goal.
78′: Spain bumbles the ball in the box. Petko has a free shot on goal with no goalie but is fouled. Penalty Croatia.
72′: Krama on. Petko on. It’s little too late.
65′: SUBS: Sučić on for Modrić. Pašalić on for Kovačić. All attacking midfielders. Nothing Modrić can do this match. Save him for Albania.
56′: Perišić in. Budimir off. Croatia currently not playing with a true striker down 3-0 to Spain.
55′ A comedy of errors. Two chances at point blank range in front of the Spanish net. Croatia can’t put it in. The Spaniards celebrate like they scored a goal. That’s how impressive that stop was.
52′: Livaković with a fantastic save! Should be 4-0 Spain. Spain counters on on Croatia with speed. No answer yet.
46′: No subs????? Perišić is seen on the pitch with his jersey on but is not put into the match. No subs from Dalić? Why?? Take of Broz for Pašalić or Perišić. This is not a 1-goal game. Go get some goals!
45′: 3-0 SPAIN. Absolute disaster from Croatia. Defense has zero answers for Spain. On the last kick of the half, Yamal swings in a cross from the side and Dani Carvajal is WIDE OPEN in front of the Croatian net for an easy tap-in. Spain cashed in on all their chances in that half. Croatia had chances and didn’t do anything with them. Dalić will need to offload the bench for the 2nd half. Expect to see Perišić, Petković and Pašalić come in pretty quick. If it stays 3-0, Dalić needs to play Sučić and Baturina for experience.
42′: WOW. Budimir should have scored a sitter. Gvardiol shoots the ball across the face of goal and it should have been an easy tap-in from 6 inches out but Budimir misses it completely.
34′: Croatia return with some fire. Broz with a decent shot on goal which is saved. Majer picks up the rebound on a half open goal but shoots it outside the post. Could have been a goal.
32: 2-0 SPAIN. Fabian dances atop the Croatian box and rifles a low shot to the bottom-right corner. Croatian defense in shambles last 5 minutes.
29′: 1-0 SPAIN. Morata scores. From nothing in the midfield, Morata makes a run through the Croatian defense and receives a perfect through-ball. 1v1 on Livaković. Nothing the Croatian keeper could do.
21′: The Vatreni have calmed down the game and regained possession. A cross gets swung into the box and Budimir heads wide from a tight angle. Much better from Croatia the last 10 minutes.
10′: All Spain with possession so far. Croatia has yet to enter their attacking half. Maybe by plan?
5′: Spain with the early possession and shots on goal. They are the early aggressors in the Euro 2024 opening match.
Here we go!
Euro 2024 is finally upon us in what is surely the last Euro tournament for both Modrić and Perišić. I imagine Dalić will role out the exact same starting XI he did against Portugal last week. I’d be shocked if he tweaked anything from the 2-1 victory in Lisbon. Kramarić looked uncomfortable playing on the left side but scored 17 goals in all competitions for Hoffenheim this season. That is incredibly hard to bench and Perišić simply may not be at fitness level to play 90 minutes internationally. And if he isn’t, what an incredible ‘super sub’ we have in him coming off the bench!
Croatia’s starting XI vs. Spain! No changes from the Portugal match. Perišić will come off the bench.
Goal to the match: contain the speed of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams on the wings. Both are young, 16 and 21 respectively, but can burn a defense pretty quickly with their speed. Gvardiol and Stanišić will have their hands full. Contain these guys and Croatia should be fine.
The match will be played in Berlin. 50,000 Croatians fans are expected to pack the Olympiastadion. Last time Croatia was in Berlin, this happened. I already have goosebumps…
Group stage is where it’s at boys.
The writing is on the wall.
Italy will trounce us 4 – nula, and I cannot see a victory over Albania after that lackluster performance.
Something tells me they will get one over on us.
The team looks out of it, not interested in this year’s Euros.
I mean the Euros has become much less prestigious since they’re allowing most of Europe to qualify for the tournament
I would argue 16 teams was too many, now it’s simply ridiculous.
It’s all bread and circuses anyway.
Euros are very volatile.
I remember Euro2020 being a circus where teams that looked unstoppable in their first group games (Netherlands, France) got bounced pretty easily, and teams that looked dead in the water after their first couple of group games (Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine) did pretty well in the tournament.
I would not be surprised if we pulled off 4 or 6 points in this group and progressed to the quarters.
Only team who played and without a goal so far. Hopefully dont get knocked out without a goal and point.
Nowadays football has evolved. Not only u need technical quality, u need young and speedy players (powerful too) to win the game..good technique is never good enough. But look at my midfield and attackers..majer is only one below 30 years ago. And we are still relying on perisic to turn the game
I didn’t think Italy or Albania looked impressive in their match. I think we are better than both. If we don’t self destruct I think we win both matches.
Portugal friendly – lol – u didn’t really think a friendly means anything did u ? Do u think France who tied Canada 0-0 last week – wouldn’t beat them easily in a competitive/WC game ? So silly
Gvardiol @ LB – lol – as previewed, I told all u geniuses that he needs to play at CB – did we already forget he was the (or at least one of the) best CBs at WC 2022 ? To make matters worst (look at his heat map) he was glued to the line the entire game – he gave too much respect to Lamal on defensive (esp. since they were 2 vs. 1 on both wingers at all times, which than left space in the middle – see first goal) – on offensive – every time he got the ball – he was scared to try to run past Lamal – great job by Dalic by announcing 2+ wks ago that Gvardiol would play LB so Spain had all the time in the world to prepare accordingly. So silly
Budimir – lol – as previewed, he was terrible again (only won 4 of 11 aerial duels) – he offered ZERO pressing threat the entire first half (he was just strolling around b/w the two defenders like a stumbling Bambi) – when Livakovic was playing the long balls out – Budimir would be looking at the defender like a pilon and not even making any attempt to jump and try to win a header (I recall one aerial duel he jumped and won the ball nicely) – where r all the geniuses who said he’s good at garbage goals ? lol – he missed that perfect pass from Gvardiol from 1 yard out. Inexcusable given that’s his only purpose out there. Another crossed from Stanisic and his header was 20 yards wide.
Perisic – looked very good and hungry – why was Dalic saving him ? did he think Spain was going to be an easy game ? So dumb
Front 3 should have been Perisic-Kramaric-Majer (if not Marco) as previewed previously – which was the cause when Budimir came off and Petko came on later
Modric – did he stay up all night playing video games ? Looked his age today (for first time ever)
Kovacic, Modric, Gvardiol – they were “exposed” in that at their clubs they are surrounded with world class players around them there – sure, it’s easy for Modric to make beautiful passes when he has Vini Jr or Rodrygo as targets (but he had zero targets today to aim for) – Gvardiol didn’t have the same support around him – and it showed
What was up with all the hail-mary long-shots by Kramaric, Kovacic, etc ? We need to find another higher-probability way of getting goals.
Majer & Kramaric – look at heat maps – they congregated inside most of the game – which is fine – but than u don’t need Budimir out there
Majer missed chance (after the Broz or Kova shot) – if we had Marco Pasalic out there – he would have 100% put that in the net – that’s why u need to play wingers in the wing position
Dalic – the camera didn’t show him once on the touchline during the entire game ? Was he sitting passively on his chair during the first half – not out there giving further instructions (like the Spain coach was – who was on TV a few times)
I thought Pongracic was better than Satulo – first goal Sutalo ran the wrong way towards Nico Williams (which left the gap) – 2nd goal he could have done more to block the shot vs. letting it go through his legs – if Gvardiol was in CB – neither of those goals go in
Disappointed he didn’t give Marco a chance – it would have been something different down the right-hand side – Dalic is too stubborn with the “game-plan”
Yeah Pongracic was awful. I never disliked Vida or Lovren. I thought they were poor advancing the ball. But I would take solid defence in a second over offensive skills at the back. I had no confidence today in our CBs and feared the score might hit 5-0. After all, Spain seemed to score on each good opportunity and they did not have many in the end. Why not Erlic over Pongracic at least?
Yes what did erlic do to lose confidence?
He’s always done pretty good I thought for the repka
I think Erlic is slower, doesn’t move the ball well, not to say Pograncic moves it exceptionally well but Erlic is more responsible defensively.
His team also got relegated to Serie B.
My guess is Dalic wanted someone who can perform both defensively and move the ball. Erlic would have been under a lot of pressure with Spain’s high press today but I think he would have at least been closer to his man when defending.
I just always remember Pograncic not playing particularly well for us especially when defending. Erlic although awkward while carrying the ball at times still sticks to his man and I can’t remember him being responsible for any NT goals or being a liability defending.
This is not the year for us. Will best Albania but Italy beats us. Missed opportunities.
3 points for us and we go home.
Pointless playing Buddha if he gets no aerial service I think he got one cross from stanisic and that was 15 yards from goal.Krama was invisible too.
Luka & broz have dropped off greatly or is it just a bad game for both ?
Luka sucic for being one of our great young hopes needs to play with Far more fire!
Pongrancic is out of his element I’m shocked if he plays again.
We beat the shipwrecks then beat or tie the pizza makers and all is good with the world again.
Somehow we still advance!
I can forgive a leaky defense if we were taking offensive risks but it was clear from the start that we were playing Kovacic style not sure on what end the pitch the goal is football. So many passes back for no reason.
Then we had 4 players going for the ball in the center of the pitch, we don’t get the bounce or the ball and Spain ends up scoring the first goal.
I take back what I said, there is.no excuse for leaky defense at this level.
Gvardiol should be moved to CB. Then we need to play real wingers who know their role, move the ball down the pitch along the wings, not pass the ball back to the fullbacks. Budimir looked good to me. Petkovic unforgivably went for a penalty instead of an easy goal. What on earth was he thinking? What a Balkan move. Reminds me of Rebic against Denmark years ago, and of course Petkovic misses the penalty.
Hard to be optimistic about the future games especially since Modric did not play well . There was non of the fresh legs people here wrongly claimed he would bring after subbing all season. He always said he plays best when he plays a lot.
Well put but we kept passing back because Spain pressed us the same way Portugal pressed us in the beginning of the game.
Croatia is very predictable. Clog the middle, put pressure on Croatia and force us back and then Livakovic kicks it out and we lose posession. We don’t utilize wing play. It’s worked thus far. We still have quality but I think playing with heart and some luck helped the last few tournaments.
We had less energy because it was obvious Croatia was fine with a slow, stale game that ended in a tie. Spain was pushing more to win and was putting us on our back foot. Naturally we had more posession once Spain was up 3- 0.
We play slow posession with a false 9. If we can’t cross, Budimir doesn’t have service. Obviously Dali knows more than us but I hope he implements more fire power vs Albania with guys like Pjaca, Marco P, Sucic, Baturina, Perisic based on how he feels. We need a win first, preferably by a large marin if they can.
Dalic thought Pograncic was good enough to be able to use Gvardiol at left back. I don’t as many others here have posted. Yes Gvardiol is good there but he we lose a lot more at CB than we gain with him at LB. Gvardiol CB and Sosa or even Perisic LB would be more secure than what we had today. Attacking defenders are great but your first job as a D man is to defend. He plays LB in city because they have other good CB that can play there. We’re not Man City.
Good points in this comment. I would like to see Gvardiol getting slotted back at CB to replace Pongračić. Our LB options haven’t been great, but Sosa is the next logical choice. That’s the only change I would make.
Though think Dalić may stick with the same lineup against Albania or replace Pongračić with Vida which I don’t want to see.
CP85
Sofascore, for what it is worth, shows less possession after Spain went up 3-0.
57-43 Croatian edge in first half, which basically ended on Spain’s third goal.
50-50 in second half.
Is Sofascore right? Don’t know.
How did a guy like Porgancic, who had nothing to do with our WC, Nations League or Euro qualifiers suddenly get promoted to a starter?
Lovren was not loved by some of the so-called fans, but these types of goals don’t happen with him back there. Lovren/Vida and Lovren/Guardiol was a great duo. Ŝutalo/Pogranĉić is the worst we’ve ever had in the middle.
And Kramarić at left mid? I’m Zlatko’s biggest fan, but this lineup made mo sense.
Should we hope for a tie or Italy win in this game with Albania?
I Marcelo Brozovic, retire from HNS due to my inability to make a pass or defend.
Where’s the Truth and Ziva on thier Bunker Thoery, rotflmao.
I get the feeling that Dalić didn’t want to sub out Pongračić as it would be an admission of making a mistake to move Gvardiol to LB.
I think our offense wasn’t bad. We created chances.
We just struggled against their forwards who pressed our backline hard… and our CBs didn’t have a good game.
Gvardiol and Majer should have scored. Petković definitely should have scored.
We probably should have just made that one CB adjustment at the half, and we could have recovered.
Instead, Dalić just quit.
This game
Agreed. The high press caused the backline fits. Pongracic looked so uncomfortable all game and anyone who plays is will use this game plan. Pongracic was plain awful today. I think Gvardiol would have obviously been a better option at CB today and will be against Italy. He can play left back against Albania as we need goals now and need to beat them. Although Kovacic was good today, we needed more from him in breaking the high press. His speed to dribble out and link up play to the other mids to counter didn’t happen enough.
Overall, we actually played ok and this score was no way indicative of the actual game.
The gaffes/bad luck on the 2nd and 3rd goals (you can also argue Sutalo wasn’t in good position for the 1st goal although it was a nice through pass)
in addition to our horrible finishing killed us. Wasn’t our day. Get the shitty game out of our system and put it behind us.
A bright side to this match for me, was how well and comfortable Sucic was. He was playing really well against Spain. Nice touches and good movement. Pasalic found some open space there but Perisic couldn’t get the cross in. I think Budimir should have stayed on personally. Budimir has some opportunities, especially that header in the first half, I felt he should have done better there even though it was a difficult angle.
If it were me Kramaric was doing nothing for me in the position he was in. Not his fault, that is simply a position that does not suit him. I would have rather played a youth player like Marco Pasalic at that point or Pjaca, their pace may have done more there. Perisic in half form does more than any other player, it is incredible how much our attack depends on him, the guy is just amazing.
Having said all this it was definitely our defense that dropped the ball here. Sutalo and Pongrancic were both very poor in this match. Don’t get me wrong it is Spain, but it was some of the worst defending on our side.
I would have subbed Krama off I mean, for.oen for eh players mentioned…
I’m afraid this generation might be done. Changes must be made.
It’s not Luka’s team anymore. It’s gvardiols team now.
Time has come
A fucking disgrace, I’ve already recruited 3 grandmothers at 90 years old that can defend better……Obrana big problem my friends
Very poor defending from Šutalo and poor leadership of the back line. None of those goals should have been allowed by the defense. The question is what can be done? I hope the team responds like they did to the 3-0 loss to Austria and go on a tear after this. There were a few positive aspects of the game, but allowing three unearned goals is inexcusable.
Bad luck bad luck bad luck !!!!!
Spains first goal was nice we got exposed big time with that gap in the middle. They looked faster. The second goal was lucky and wouldn’t normally of happened.. it went perfectly through sutalos pretzel legs and into goal. Unbelievable. The third goal happened the last seconds of the last minute of extra time before half. Was a nice assist and finish. Would have been fine if some one had just kicked it out of bounds 30 seconds earlier and the half would have been over. Bad luck bad timing.
Felt like Croatia was a little stale didn’t look fresh and ready like they were up late the night before? Budimir could have would have should have finished at the net? The second big chance the defender blocked a point blank shot? Then it was like a circus act of headers and nothing happened? The third one I still am confused. Petko gets stunned gunned in front of the goal? Didnt finish?????????????????
Then misses the penalty and then we actually score on the deflection and they use the ridiculous Var and I couldn’t tell from the replay to see it but persic was called for “encroaching” and they took it away??
Seriously unbelievable
The team needs to drink a damn energy drink or something. Very disappointing and frustrating we had to start off in the hole. We can beat Italy and Albania and make it through so it’s better this happened now and we can fix the holes literally! I definitely hope they change the defense formation? Looked so opened…
Nothing was clicking, super off day. Hopefully we got that out of our system and this was a wake up ???? call!!!!
The Petko dive was disgusting….he tried to get Rodri sent off instead of just slotting it into an open net.
Gvardi back to CB.
Broz dack to the middle east.
Juranovic & Sosa both in.
Krama to slow to be a winger.
Majer best Cro player
Not playing Gvardiol at Center back is absolutely crazy. Crazy crazy crazy. I don’t care if we have to throw a plug into left back. He is a center back. Plain and simple. Sure pep puts him out there but city plays wayyyyyyyyy different. Massive f up Danas!!!!!!!
Yeah – whatever has to be done, this team should have a very good defense – not the turning of a strength to shitshow we saw today
Also, we need to figure out a way to score more than one goal in a match. It would help in situations like these
Spain’s high press in the first half gave us fits. We had more possession in the second half because Spain played back with a three goal lead. Our defense was absolutely horrendous. Nothing good from this game.
Not entirely true.
We had more possession even when it was 1-0 in the first half.
It was really only the first 10 minutes where Spain dominated possession.
Pongrancic will be yanked in favor of Vida is what I truly fear?
Fear? I think it might be for the better. Experience at this point
we’d concede 6 in the first half instead of 3 like today
Horrible “D” but let’s be honest that score flattered Spain. (Never mind the PK shit show…where to start?) ………… AJMO !
Expected goals fwiw
https://x.com/official_gwf/status/1802039266794438728?s=46
I’d be shocked to not see changes in the next match. My expectation even before today was this lineup today and a more attacking lineup against Albania with Petkovic, Sosa, Perisic/Ivanusec, and maybe Juranovic in for Budimir, Pongracic, Brozovic and then maybe Stanisic.
That was just diabolical but thankfully it was in the first game and not the last game of the group. At least now they will have to go into the Albania game with something to prove rather than just being overconfident like they always are against inferior teams.
All we can hope for is at the Italy beats Albania. If Albania gains any points, it’ll be tuff for us
Albania getting a point is good…
Yes defensive blunders Maybe getting exposed by their speed a couple times
But i actually am not even that mad
It was unfortunate
Again what does a
Gvardi, sutalo, stanisic, JJ
Back 4 look like
I know stanisic is probably better at rb but he is capable cb I believe
Perisic 35, major knee surgery
Absolute animal of a man
Looked very lively
Petko maybe not the guy for penalties but he does seem to make stuff happen out there
Would have loved to see young pasalic out there for a few mins
Subs should have been made at the half and especially defensive tweaks as maminjo said
It’s all still doable
Again, I’m not that mad
A couple bounces and it’s a far different game
The goal diff ya that may suck
If that third goal doesn’t happen at the half who knows…
Jebi ga
On to the next
Spain deserved to win, I’m not gonna argue..
But Spain is one of the best teams in the world. No national team, not even France or Brazil, could beat them without some luck. And we were extremely unlucky today.
So we move on.
I see it like this; nothing has changed for us. Only our knock out tournament begins soon than planned; it begins now!
I agree with Martin!
Our defense screwed us and those goals were our own defensive errors. Kinda surprisingly we should have scored at least 3-4 goals and we somehow didn’t. I’m not happy with this loss and I believed we would win but I didn’t expect our defensive gaffes.
I’m looking forward to the next two games. Modric was non existent today so I’m hoping he’s better next game. Kovacic did well, regardless of what many of you will say.
Petkovic missing that pk is exactly how this game went for us. He wasn’t good today and that miss was no different than the rest of the misses for us. At the end of the day we might have lost 3-1…it’s still a loss.
I’m looking forward to our next games I want to believe our luck will change. There is no way Spain was 3 goals better than us and sometimes results like this happen.
Agree with Slavonac who is often right on target. In addition to Modric, Gvardiol didn’t have his very best game either, though showed some flashes. Liked Kova’s performance, Majer had good energy. Yet even though we were not at our best, if we eliminated a couple of defensive errors and got a couple of breaks on offence, it is a totally different game. So a disappointing end result, but not a disaster.
I heard someone mention yesterday how tough it is for Scotland to go up against a big country like Germany with the math being what it is, the shear number of players some countries have to choose from. Yeah, tell us about it. Let’s not forget just how amazing Croatia is, how high above our weight we punch, competing against some of these countries who have cities bigger than Croatia. Our compete level is awesome. Proud of our team and of Croatia. Respect.
Would have loved to see what Marco Pasalic could have done against Spain. We needed his pace. It wasn’t a bad performance but it wasn’t good either. Why not take brozo and put Kovacic in his place? Why Did Bruno Dive instead of shooting? why did he take the penalty? why did it seeem like we stopped playing 10min left of the game.
@Martin
Love the name Martin, I’m bias since my real name Martin and not Sniper lol.
I agree 1000 percent, we now know going forward that Epicless Broz needs to be benched and what future adjustments need to be made.
Even though I believe Argentina was rigged due to mysterious virus infecting every nation but theirs, they did lose to Saudi’s in game one.
Cardiac Croats will reorganize, destroy Albania, the Wops and onto Gold.
Lastly, I really like Sutalo, he’s confident on his ability to move the ball in tight situations, which is highly needed against teams such as Spain.
Hello from berlin uzas uzas uzas pongracic modric broz krama bench. Uzas uzas uzas nothing more. No comment idemo dalje.
This was terrible nothing to say worst game in long time
Curious if Dalić changes the lineup for next game.
He seems too stubborn to make a change, but if this CB pairing continues to make mistakes then we’ll be out early.
It’s a tough call, this group looked way different against Portugal, and with a couple breaks maybe this game looks way different too. I don’t think being overly reactionary is always the right move but maybe seeing how they let brozovic eat the whole 90 mins , he may have tipped his hand and broz might be the odd man out next game. Move Majer to the middle, kova deep,and Perisic on the wing ?
I bet you that if we had LOST to Portugal, the score right now wouldn’t be as bad.
Can’t believe Pongracic and Brozovic stayed in for the whole game. I agree with Maminjo that changes should have been made in the back at half time.
The press/critics are definitely going to give a bad time to Dalić, and they will be right to do so.
Hopefully Italy loses to Spain too
Im not even going to read everyone else’s comments…All I am going to say is the following: it’s better to have this result now rather than in the knockout stages…although we lost horribly on the scoreboard, we were the better team, we outpossessed Spain, we just have to fix the holes in central defence…we will still go to the final
Everyone is due for a bad game. I’m just hoping this game is the “adjustment”. We can still make it out of the group right now. But not leaving the gate at full speed for the first game, and allowing Spain to conduct a clinic, sure doesn’t help things.
I kinda miss seeing Juranovic on pitch, he shots a lot more crosses than Stanisic
Confused why Petkovic dove instead of shooting. What a disgrace, not proud at all of our performance today
That’s what happens when you decide to fall over for a penalty instead of putting the ball into an empty net. Dumb fucking Dumb!!!!
for real.
I knew that Petkovic would miss it. Perisic or Sucic should have shot it in.
Idiot Petkovic. Just score the goal.
Dalić made the wrong subs.
We had chances, and missed a few gimmies.
Should have tried to keep it going and just make a sub in the backline.
Agreed
Yeah. And too late for the subs
I don’t like that we gave up. This is the Euros you need to keep playing.
Exactly this.
Need to be wary of plus minus.
This could easily be 3-2 right now with 10 minutes left to play.
Those guys are better and faster. Embarrassing result
Faster yes. Better, I’m not so sure.
I’m not convinced that Spain is going to win this tournament.
I wouldn’t have changed modric and kovacic both at the same time. Would have kept kovacic in a bit longer for a smoother transition and to test the waters first. I still don’t think we’ve been doing that bad
Also like Ante says… no real striker on field right now????
I don’t understand what Dalic has been thinking for this 2nd half time. Should have made more changes from the start. ????
I suppose to defend Pograngicic, it is his first Euro or major tournament. You can tell he is nervous
Spain clinical in front of goal. Our defence is awful in particular with the first goal with Sutalo being caught out with a through ball. Pongracic also struggling in the defence. Not enough aggression or running by the entire team.
Pongracic out. Erlić in OR Sosa in + Josko at CB.
Brozo out. Sucic in.
Leave Krama in but put Perisic on the wing…
I don’t think Budimir has been doing a bad job, I’d leave him in for now. But at the same time we do need all the fresh legs we can get so maybe out and Petkovic in.
Some of the young players who are HUNGRY and make individual efforts and are creative, who PUSH Like Marco Pasalic should be brought in asap. If only it were 2-0 and not 3-0….
Nothing is impossible but let’s admit we’re probably going to have to accept the defeat/loss and focus on still going through
Move krama into advanced midfield role if you want to keep him on or right side but he doesn’t belong on the left
We have 3-4 natural lw guys and we are forcing him there….
Speed is killing us as usual
I wonder what orsic is doing right now;)
Perisic left back
Gvardi stanisic JJ on the right
Pjaca lw Mali pasalic on rw
Take out kova put in sucic or old pasalic
Why the heck not
I’ve had worse ideas today
Perisic, Pasalic, Sosa and Sucic should be starting. Gvardiol back in the middle.
Budimir, Pongracic, Kramaric and Brozovic out.
Half time comments : I don’t think we’ve been playing bad – it took us time to get into the match but we just got unlucky/unfocused and paid for it. I find that this match could also have been at 2-1 for Spain right now, but unfortunately it’s at 3-0…. Fackkk lol.
Well, remember Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in their opening match even if they won in the finals afterwards… ????
LoL you young Croatians just expect us to automatically make the semifinal. Yes, we accomplish a lot in the past 2 world cups. But I remember not qualifying for Euro 2000. WC 2002 we didn’t make it out of the group stage. Euro 2004 we didn’t make out of the group stage. WC 2006 we didn’t make it out of the group stage. We didn’t qualify for WC 2010. Let’s not forget about what happened against Turkey in 2008
I actually thought the same
We needed a big save and a lucky bounce and would be different game
I was always against Gvardiol playing left back, but after watching him at man city/against Portugal I understood why Dalić wanted to play him there.
Unfortunately, we don’t have good enough centre backs to risk moving Gvardiol to the side. I get what Dalić was trying to do here, but I think he accidentally ended up fielding our worst possible back 4
This ends 3-3 don’t EVER give up on cardiac CROATS!!
The Italians better beat the shit out of the Siptari.
Let the kids play the second half
Time is now
If they can play a 16 year old we can play sucic and baturina
May as well let them get some experience at this point
Bring back Lovren
Put gvardiol back to CB..we need a leader in defence. Seriously Pongracic is too passive in defending.
I said that before the game. Why did we forget how well we defended during World Cup with Gvardiol at CB?
Yes
First time I agree with you.
Need to sub out Pongračić for Gvardiol.
I guess we go with Sosa or Perišić at LB.
We started to dominate possession and created some great chances.
It’s these damn counter attacks that we’re just not defending.
Ugh
I actually didn’t think it was that bad besides being 3 down
If we could have got the 1 back it would have changed it a bit
Bring on the pasalic boys and whatever after half
Still doable to get out of the group
Win the half and build on that
Ajmo.
Nema predaje
Does anyone notice that some of the goals we concede comes from fast paced players waiting on the touchline? With our defence playing a high line, it happened against Argentina and here. Just seems some teams figured how to open us up.
When you have a player like Pongracic who you don’t believe will even be considered to be on the team actually starting, you’re in trouble.
Pongancic is really doing badly. You don’t give up a corner at the last minute like that then stand by and let goal go in.
Can’t even watch this, we suck so bad.
This is beyond embarrassing.
5-0 later, don’t worry…
just sleep and stay in your dream
because the reality –> you guys are delusional ..
Dalc is shiiiit .. as I told you – don’t praise him |}{|
Gvradiol would have been better in CB. We are missing that Loven and Gvradiol partnership. Sutalo who didn’t have a good season at Ajax and pog with the lower tier seria a club isnt working. Majer good player but needs to be changed. Brozovic playing in suadi is showing.
Is it surprising? We are not moving. Our fake wings are going the wrong direction. Brozovic is cold etc.
okay im going to bed, this sucks
Holy crap… this is embarrassing. 2 goals in three minutes.
any links please?
okay, this sucks, they are swarming us ffs
It’s starting to look much better now, but still they can read our passes.
So Michael Oliver is the ref… Hope he’s good to us.
Hold me Iggy!!!!
Everyone else see the connection ?
Biličić 72 takes Croatian citizenship
Than lands 24 former cheerleader
Not his $$$ and fame she’s attracted to – it’s that he’s finally a Croatian
Pretty sure Biličić wish he made the leap a few years back
nypost.com/2024/06/14/sports/bill-belichick-72-is-dating-24-year-old-former-cheerleader/
Yeah right an ordinary 70 year old CroYank is going to score a hot 24 year old because he recently got a Croatian citizenship. I think it’s the 20 mil Bill made just last year. But whatever makes you sleep at night. ????
Dalic at Berlin 2006
Magically
sportske.jutarnji.hr/sn/euro/skupina-b/foto-pogledajte-kako-je-izbornik-hrvatske-izgledao-prije-18-godina-ovo-je-zlatko-dalic-navijac-15471839
We’ve got plenty of talent, heart, and vegeta. All we need now is a little luck and to wash it down with some rakia
This is a must win . We loose we are back to the same circle of trying to win the next two games to advance . This is not the same Spanish team that we faced in the past . They are still a very strong side . A win today would boost our confidence and let us carry momentum into the next two games . Before Luka retires I want to see him go out a winner . Hopefully the team will rally behind him and leave everything on the field . That all we can ask . I think we want more than they do
Well it’s that time boys, and by “that time” i mean time for me to need to invest in incontinence nappies as i will be continually pissing my pants in fear and anxiety over the next (hopefully) few weeks, starting tonight, 2 am our time, lol.
Let’s hope we do better than the Scots ay. Not really expecting a win or anything, kinda hoping for a draw as that would be huge but obv we are still okay even with losing. I dont think getting third is as automatic as ppl seem to think, i dont expect Albania to be super-easy beats or anything and Italy will be stingy as always. Anyway it’s that time again, let’s gooooo !
@MART
If you happen to read this…
I just watched the highlights of our friendly with Sweden U21 and I’m left feeling rather disturbed. I know how leaky the defense is but I dunno if there are any other issues..? Maro Katinic didn’t exactly cover himself in glory on the first 3 goals conceded, no wonder Dinamo let him go.
I know it’s odd to ask this when everyone’s focus is on the senior team during EURO, but any thoughts on the U21s or Dragan Skocic? Any input would be greatly appreciated, cheers.
Some players that were originally called up for these friendlies did not show up for whatever reason? Did not watch the match against Sweden due to other commitments apart from switching the TV on midway through the second half to check the score and saw that Sweden were leading 4 – 2 after which I turned the TV OFF in disgust. We have a poor defence which leaks goals like a sieve.
The coach Dragan Skocic is on thin ice, and I have seen some articles in Cro media asking what is happening with our U21 side. With a poor defence we should be employing more defensive formations, however this is not happening having conceded 14 goals in our last three matches.
On paper we should still come second in the group and qualify for at least the play offs for EURO U21. We have 4 matches left and they are all at home (Faroe’s, Andora, Portugal and Greece). The last match is against Greece which will in all probability decide who comes second in the group. If things don’t go well prior to this match I would not be surprised if Dragan Skocic gets the boot.
Seeing Cico tearing up is getting me pumped
there is no competitive atmosphere
in euro format with 24 teams nowadays
Dalic will take the 3rd with pleasure…