Much braver and better performance tonight from our Vatreni. Good changes by Bilić to bring on a natural six to protect Kova and Modrić with Jakić, who had a good game. Vlašić and Šutalo were good as well. But the two sitters that were missed by Matanović in the first half and Perišić right before his second yellow kept Spain right in it, and the World Champions showed they’re the champs. Also a shame for the soft Perišić 2nd yellow card – Baena did a similar foul last week in Seville and didn’t get a second yellow. We’re still in 3rd place, which gives us Pot 1 for EURO qualifying. And most likely, we’ll need just a point in our last two games vs. England and Czechia (most likely the latter).
Full-time at Poljud. 1-2 to Spain. Croatia loses its third match of this Nations League campaign as the first international break under Slaven Bilić comes to an end.
89′: Goal. Spain. Mikel Merino with a late winner for Spain.
87′: Last substitution by Bilić. Mario Pašalić comes on for Kovačić.
81′: No change in the decision after the VAR check. Ivan Perišić is sent off, and Croatia has to play the last 10 minutes with 10 men.
79′: Ivan Perišić receives a red card…VAR check in progress, which might save us.
76′: SIMON WITH ANOTHER BIG SAVE! Perišić reads the Spanish defence and gets a first-time shot off inside the box but can’t beat the best goalkeeper from the previous World Cup.
71′: Dani Olmo receives a standing ovation from Poljud as he makes his way off the pitch. Bilić also makes another change as he brings on Martin Baturina for Nikola Vlašić.
66′: First two subs by Bilić: Igor Matanović and Luka Modrić come off for Dion Drena Beljo and Petar Sučić.
61′: Goal. Mikel Merino makes it 1-1. It was coming, sadly, as Spain had us absolutely smothered inside our 20 meters.
56′: Dani Olmo just misses a header at the far post. We’re sitting deep; it’s tough to see how we’ll be able to hold on to our lead this way against the World Champions.
53′: Lamine Yamal goes through one-on-one with Livaković and fails to round his Barca teammate! The superstar winger goes down without any contact, so no penalty given by the referee.
46′: Second half has begun; Merino on for Baena is the only change at the break from either side.
Half-time: BRAVO HRVATSKA! Great changes by Bilić for this game. Jakić has been huge defensively with his positioning and interceptions. Vlašić has had a top game on the right side; Perišić scores as soon as he’s moved to the wing. 9/10 first half; shame Matanović couldn’t convert for 2-0.
45+1′: Lamine Yamal gets played through brilliantly, tries to get in his shot at the near post but hits the side netting.
42′: Cucurella with a low driven cross across the 5-yard box, Oyarzabal is just short of it. So far, great defensive performance from Croatia as Spain has no solution to breaking down our block.
23′: SIMON WITH A MASSIVE SAVE TO STOP MATANOVIĆ FROM MAKING IT 2-0! A big mistake from the Spanish defence as they lose the ball in their own box, but Matanović’s shot isn’t good enough to beat the Spanish keeper.
22′: Ivan Perišić picks up the first yellow card of the match.
17′: GOAL!!!!!!! IVAN PERIŠIĆ!!!! A quick counter from Croatia, Kovačić drives and lays it off for Igor Matanović, whose shot is parried by Simon straight into Perišić, who heads home for 1-0 at Poljud!
13′: Another chance for Croatia! Stanišić with a header from a Perišić cross that’s saved by Unai Simon. Great opening minutes from us.
6′: First shot of the game falls to us as Perišić’s shot from inside the box is blocked for a corner.
1′: Kick-off in Split at a full Poljud!
Slaven Bilić’s starting line-up: Livaković – Stanišić, Šutalo, Vušković, Gvardiol – Modrić, Jakić, Kovačić – Vlašić, Matanović, Perišić
Well, guys. Here we are. After conceding 11 goals to Spain and England this week, we have to run it back against World Cup champs Spain — this time at Poljud. Croatia manager Slaven Bilić has already publicly stated should our beloved Vatreni conceded 4-5 goals, he will resign on his own will following the match. Lot’s to play for here, but I am most interested if the boys will get up for this game…or has Bilić already lost the locker room?
The CroatianSports.com recommended starting XI vs. Spain. Here’s who we want to see start in a match where we need to see the boys have a good showing:
Start Modrić. Bench Kovačić. Play Petar Sučić deeper in the midfield as a 6. Play Luka Sučić as a pure 10 and let him rattle off some shots!
Osijek v Istra Sat 12pm ET
Can someone watch in detail and kindly report back on Vrbancic vs. Skafar-Zuzic ❤️, Ahmeti, Kumar and Sepic
PLEEZE!!!
Man, how are Icelands women that much better than ours.
Looks like no World Cup for the ladies..
Do you want to hear Anonymous’ 100% true story when he picked up the ENTIRE Iceland women’s team in a Reykjavik bar?
Of course Anonymous closed with the the CAPTAIN
Pictures to prove it all
Anonymous is the GOAT of all GOATs
Not really.
Yeah post the photo I want to see it
Leonardo Vonic starting Moreirense
Playing now 2 G+A this season
Looks like he pushed himself to number 2 striker in Portugal mid-table team
Former Croatia U20 and German U19
Some of these random guys eventually will explode into Lucy Craig’s mouth (or copper hair)
*number 1 striker (not 2)
Franjo bench 2:45pm Friday
Nice to see Biondic win POTM in Belgium (probably nothing)
Biondic should be a must call up for the next window no?
Starting and putting up great numbers for the best team in the Belgium league, which is probably the best European league outside the top-5.
Also he can apparently play the RW too
Think Igor, DDB and Franjo top 3 strikers
If Biondic gets called it has to be for striker – we’ve seen Franjo when forced on wing, Crnac at Norwich forced on wing, etc they aren’t as effective – they ain’t wingers – we need wingers on the wing (versatility still useful but not base case)
So Biondic needs to be better than those 3 (assume Budimir gone and Musa 4th choice) to get a call
Probably doesn’t happen short term (we just had striker tryouts) but maybe in 2027
Also n.b. Franjo scored a bunch of goals at USG but couldn’t replicate at Benfica / Lens yet (yes I know he was behind Palvidis at Benfica but still) – meaning these USG stats will probably get discounted – but he has at least 8 games in Europa where he can make an impact
I think Croatias most underrated question right now is who is Petar Sucic
For a while Croatia had a strange number of high level midfielders all come of age that could control midfield tempo and possession: modric, rakitic, brozovic, kovacic.
For the hype of a cro midfield factory , that hasn’t truly come to pass for that type of player. It touches a bit back to the cam problem i had previously mentioned where everyone is a cam but no one actually good enough to be one
Baturina will never be modric. He is an attacking third player, not a metronome guy. That’s fine. He might actually be good enough for the cam role.
Luka sucic also is not that guy and falls squarely in that cam convo but not good enough.
Kovacic, if healthy, can help carry a lot of that metronome role for another 4 years
So that leaves p sucic, the best box to box complete midfield option we have now but what is he.
Will he ever have the tactical awareness and work rate as brozo to become the six?
Does he actually have the technical chops to control the midfield from center and be next up?
Or will he be a bit more tweener in nature.
Unfortunately of the young guys, he remains in a logjam at inter that will limit those development opportunities to see who he really is and without cros play will be much more capped.
It doesn’t always have to be about having a star midfield leading the way.
For example, the Netherlands were known for having elite midfielders and forwards throughout the 90s and early 2000s, yet they still managed to achieve equally high tournament finishes when they struggled to reproduce such offensive talent and their star power shifting to their backline (led by Virgil van Dijk).
In similar fashion, we have the “potential” to have an elite set of backline players in Vušković, Gvardiol and Pavić
We also seem to finally have a decent set of youngsters capable of playing up top in the striker role.
Also, our central midfielders are very good with Baturina and Sučić. Even if they’re not at Modrić/Rakitić level, they’ll be pretty good.
People forget that Virgil van Dijk was actually pretty mediocre at age 19, and Rakitić/Modrić didn’t seem like a workable tandem until their late 20s.
We’re judging Vušković, Baturina and Sučić waaay too prematurely here.
Not sure – but we know who is father and mother is – his little brother posted a family pic at Polud with the 4 of them – dad and mom still wearing Nike jerseys and bottoms – Pero obviously offered them adidas merch and they said “don’t need new stuff the Nike stuff still in perfect shape and that’s what we’ll wear”
You can learn (reconfirm) a lot about Pero based on parents mentality
He will go right to the top – we know this by looking at dad and mom
Have you all seen Dalic’s recent comments about the national team? Such loser talk.
Why loser talk? Have you not seen our ranking for the last few years or our recent nation league results. We are not back in 2018.
If you take it out of context, it sounds terrible.
If you read the whole statement, then it’s not so terrible.
He says we have good players and admits that even he had himself a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Spain. He said we are a 10-15 ranked team (which is pretty accurate) but, yes, him saying it would take a miracle (bilo bi čudo) to be top-10 is a bit much.
We need a genuine superstar like Modric to crack the top 10 again.
Could be a while.
Skafar-Zuzic has the potential to be better than Kvaratskhelia
If he lives up to that potential tbd
🤞🏻
Our very own Yamal!
That’s a stretch on skafar-zuzic Special K might be the most exciting and under rated player out there currently.The guy is like prime prosinecki but with speed and slalom like moves.
HE deserves far more recognition than he gets.
@CROBRO
Look at Kvara stats when he was 17 in Georgian league and compare to Skafar-Zuzic – he’s already ahead of him on some stuff – so don’t think it’s a stretch
His IQ is crazy high, how he reads the play/how will develop, both feet, bag of tricks, can go both ways, great acceleration, excellent change of pace (up and down)/direction, body feints, disguised creation/shots, etc etc etc
The kid is 17 yo and crazy talented – and his ceiling is Kvara level or higher – we’ve never had a player like him before – now it’s up to him how he develops from here (and God needs to keep his knees healthy – please God) – honestly HNS should appoint Pero as his big brother and take him under his wing and guide the boy
100% Istra have to keep Frederiksen this season so defenders have to worry about both sides
Yes we do and we will get it!
We’ll be back, it usually takes us about a decade in between days…
Meaning, 2028 if history repeats itself will be ours..
1998, 2008, 2018.. you get the pattern..
Be patient, I warned of a rough landing when this gen retires.
It was rough but we’ll be back with a vengeance!!
LFG
Oh BTW, see you all in Dublin..
Bati’s Panama Neymar-flick hockey style
x.com/AustonStachews/status/2107837907893731392?s=20
USKOK ARREST BORNA BARISIC CEPIN LAND DEAL MONEY LAUNDERER 2X 30K LOANS!!!
First Dario Simic and now Borna Barisic – is any of the NT players actually clean???
Give them a break. They’re just Hercegovci. 😉
Jakic married Lucija Jelic in July
Weird thing is she ain’t following Jakic on IG but is following Ivanusec
Did Jakic marry Ivanusec’s sloppy seconds??!
What’s with all this Jelić trivia?
Lucija is Kristijan’s mom – please keep up!
Is this a porn site man
Yup – http://www.CroatianBonersForMorons.com
How did you find out? Are you a paparazzi?
We were all waiting for Modric outside Real Madrid y’day – so we had time to look into it – poor Modric hasn’t figured out how to cover his face fully in his hoodie – we got him!
https://x.com/CroatiaFooty/status/2108105116284747953?s=20
Anyone know 13 yo Kristijan Jelic ?
He made his debut today for Croatia U15 in a friendly match vs Italy
Of course his Croatian dad Drazen posting it on the Gram with the caption “Sretni Broj ❤️ 13” (bc he’s 13 and wears 13)
One to keep eyes on
Euro 2028 qualifiers will run thru June 2027 window – the same time the U21 have their Euro 2027
What happens to Jaga (and other U21) during their window? Will they stay with A-team or will Olic cry
Of course the U21 will have friendlies in the March 2027 window – if Croatia in group of 5 (which I think they will be as not too 2 in Nations League QF) they will also have Euro 2028 qualifiers during this window
Please advice if Jaga getting shafted again ☹️
Marko Pjaca has 6 goals and 2 assists in 12 games. He is a winger that can play both RW & LW but Bilic decides that MLS Marco who is warming the bench in Orlando is more deserving of a call u
Lovro Majer is only 28 yrs old and has 5 assists in 10 games this season. He had to beg to get back on the team and Bilic doesn’t even dress him. Total disrespect for a player who has 38 caps and 9 goals for the Vatreni .
Bilic is basically a dumber version of Dalic. Who were the other candidates for the job that the HNS passed up on?
P Susic is a better version of of Broz but Dalic & Bilic both didn’t have the balls to bring Modric off the bench to make room for Susic. They made him play as a right winger or a #10 FFS.
We missed on Edin Terzić and now were stuck with Bilic.
In his prime Brozovic was a world class defensive midfielder (No.6) not sure that P Sucic is anywhere near that. Yes he has potential but will see what will happen. He is struggling at the moment to get playing time at Inter and it might be time to look for another club.
Per Anonymous eye test 2nd half Portugal that Igor was the best
Bilic is a bit late but confirms what Anonymous always knew – please note he highlights his OOP attributes (just like Anonymous pointed out to u MORONS)
So so easy
Slaven Bilić on Igor Matanović:
“We won’t go through everyone individually, but Matanović has certainly moved a little ahead of the other strikers at the moment.
He’s strong, he’s tall, you can’t ignore that. I used to play centre-back myself. He never stops, he fights for everything, he sets the tempo, and quite a lot of what we did was based on the tempo he provided.
He’s not the only one like that, we have others as well, but he’s good.”
[Nova TV]
Mario pasalic
Kramaric
Majer
Budimir
Misic
Musa
I think these guys can go immediately, nothing wrong with musa but if you have Beljo and matanovic you don’t need musa. Ivanović rounds out the striker room 3 strikers enough if all we ever play is with 1.
If zvonarek continues to start in Portugal call him he’s an 8.
If soticek continues to play we’ll call him. I watched him in Swiss one thing about him I like he’s not a liability. I think he just don’t offer enough on offensively he went to young.
Segecic try out
And of course Jaga for me those are the 4 from u-21.
Wedding boy to me if he continues to play well in Spain stay he needs more minutes in proper position he stays
Mario pasalic offers very little as he ages he’s slow not good holding ball and in 2 years he’s prolly starting to play in lower leagues. Kova is the only mid in 2 years that’s realistic to start and contributor. But you never know not everyone ages the same obviously Modrić is the outlier most guys by 34 start to drop significantly. So I wouldn’t say 💯 Kova has it like he is today since is gets injured a lot.
Anonymous World Class Reverse Psychology worked on Bilic
He’s already scrambling/justifying he’ll call up U21s 5 minutes after Anonymous says we don’t need them
Order priority (based on what’s missing in A team)
Hrgovic and Sepic [LB – not Sepic can also play LW]
Sege RW [only 25% Perisic games on RW he prefers LW]
Soticek (and Skafar Zuzic in next 6-12 months)
Jagusic [Mayer and Krama upgrade]
Vrbancic [back up to Jakic Moro Darko]
Zvonarek 8 [behind Pero – more when Modric retires]
There is Stojko competing too – tbd if he can leapfrog Wedding Boy – know he can also play on the right
Anyways – You’re Welcome!
🎙️ Slaven Bilić on the U21 players and Croatia’s future:
“There will certainly be some. I agreed with Ivica Olić to keep them at U21 level this time, as they had a very important qualifying match. There are players there, but they are also the future — the near future.
We are especially following players in positions where we are lacking profiles, and those are the wings. We did play with wingers against Spain, but Vlašić isn’t one; he is a little different.” [Nova TV]
Where is SOULCHAMP? I always appreciated his positive posts. Have not seen his post since before the World Cup!!!
In jail
🤣
I didn’t know the two third worse 3rd place teams also have to battle it out to stay in group A. I guess we still can get relegated.
Bottom two third placed teams and top two fourth placed teams in League A have to face the four runners up from League B in a two legged playoff at the end of March.
Since Euro2028 qualifiers begin on the exact same day in March, it means that we would be seeded in one of the groups of four (instead of five) and our first two games of Euro qualifying would take place in June instead of March.
If Bilić chokes the playoffs, then it gives us a chance to replace him with two and a half months before the next set of games in mid-June.
Coaches tend to get fired or become available at the end of the club season, so there may be options (assuming this worst case scenario happens).
I don’t think another round will tell us anything.
– Bilic gave us Turkey 08
– Gave us 2010 “ Only coach to not have qualified for tournament with prime modric”
– contributed to 4 out of 7 our worse losses in cro history.
What did we gain from yesterday? We lost, it was a nothing game for Spain and world
Cup final for us after England debacle. We still had possession in the 20’s I get it’s Spain but cmon doesn’t matter who we play shouldn’t be lower than high 35 Obviously we were gonna fade he was slow to react.
No vision, he makes no sense. Jakic not even in squad originally?How did Mišić leap frog jakic by playing his whole career in HNL. Ivanović on wing?
Yesterday at 1-1 is when you sub Ivanović for matanovic and he presses Spain how do you not know that is what Ivanović is for. That is literally the best situation for Ivanović and also what we needed.
Mario pasalic sub again recycled Dalic tactic.
I think we do enough to stay in A group which is obviously the goal but I don’t think he has a plan for the group on how to move forward.
We qualify for euro and have a weak tournament.
Two scenarios will happen old guard will stay for the whole duration of next two years and we have a weak euro.
Or old guard starts transitioning just before euros in which it’s late seems also weak euroto me one of two will happen. Hopefully I’m wrong!
@ anonymous
Had Jakic in my starting line up for Spain.
You’re bang on about the Ivanović sub.
He proved this round that he’s absolutely NOT a winger, and he should only ever play as a striker.
He’s built for speed and trying to hit on the counter and beat the offside trap.
He’s not that great of a passer or crosser, and can’t take on guys from the wing (he struggled badly in that area during this window).
But he’s great at pressing, has speed, and makes a lot of sense to play against a team that is dominating possession on us in our half.
Beljo is useful in the opponent’s box (especially with headers) but in this situation, Beljo wasn’t pressing or disrupting the opposing backline. Even when we intercepted a pass, he’s too slow to run down the length of the field for a counter anyway.
We should move forward with Matanović as our undisputed starter at striker, and sub in one of Ivanović or Beljo depending on the situation.
But (similar to the ‘Mario for Kova’ sub) I’m worried Bilić doesn’t see this.
I’m glad that for many, in this tournament, they are beginning to see what I have seen in Matanović. He is our best option as it stands as a starting striker. Noone else can provide what he provides for us up front and even defensively when necessary.
When nothing is happening up front he is great at holding possession and carrying the ball forward. He can make plays like he did against Czechia providing a crucial assist to Modrić for that goal out of a duel for a loose ball. If he is not scoring he tries to make things happen for others. Great, great player and he will be phenomenal for us moving forward.
If he can develop and work on his accuracy in the net then he will become a very dangerous striker for us and I would dare say again even better than Mandžukić of the right progression happens.
My only qualm is that consistency with him. He isn’t at Mandžo level yet but if he progresses he can be an even better centre forward.
Maminjo- Ok, one more round and hopefully, Bilic knows what he has . God willing.
Deal 😉
Better game, not a better game. Who cares. Bilic, Dalic , the mistakes just repeat themselves . There was no need to sub out Kova with a few minutes left. For what? A guy with ski boots on? It’s so interesting that we constantly have coaches that have to overthink a change and then they should be subbing like early in the second half they don’t . It won’t change. England , we get thumped again and Czechs could be dicy . We’ll continue to be a tier 2 team and on we go.
I would still give it another round.
Bilić made his subs at 60 minutes, which normally isn’t bad…but he was about five minutes late in this particular game because we were gassing ourselves out with Spain.
He called up too many of the fringe old guard guys (like Krama) and an audition list of midfielders and strikers.
This took up too many roster spots and when he decided to start Vlašić and Jakić, all he had left on the bench to replace Kova was Pašalić.
He wasn’t going to put in Mišić, Ivanović, Marco, Musa, Budimir or Krama (and Lovro didn’t dress).
He just didn’t have the personnel to replace Kova, and that is his fault…but at the same time he was evaluating all these guys in the past for games as well (which cost us roster spots).
Some of them are not good enough or redundant and likely won’t be there next round.
Let me take the other side
Who was the personnel he didn’t call up this time who could have replaced Kova at the same level ? There is nobody else
He called 27 this time – so 4 people should get cut but that just takes you down to the 23 limit – three seem obvious:
– Majer [didn’t dress for 4 games]
– Musa [didn’t dress for 3 games]
– Budimir [37 at next Euro – DDB ahead of him 2nd choice – he’s now 3rd choice]
Fringe:
Misic [Jakic ahead of him]
Krama
Franjo [not seen as winger – so SS role ahead of Krama hopefully]
Wedding Boy
Marco Pasalic
Standby: Moro, Stojko, Fruk
It’s nice to romanticize youth integrating youth (I do it ALL the time) – but which youth are actually mainstays at their clubs (% of total minutes) and delivering consistently that you would stay are better right now than people on the fringe list?
Cutting one fringe gets you to 23 (max squad size) – so you need to cut at least a 2nd fringe player and a youth needs to replace the 2nd fringe player. You want a 2nd youth, you need to cut a 3rd fringe player, etc
Sege > Marco Pasalic. Objectively no, he’s started cold this year at Pompey (I suspect he’s a hot vs. cold player, based on his temperament i.e. he needs to feel confident to produce hot)
Vrbancic > Moro, Misic. Can’t objectively say yes after 5 HNL games, but Misic shouldn’t have been called over Moro (made no sense).
Soticek > Perisic. Objectively no. Failed outside of HNL – ran back to HNL – can’t say objectively yes after 5 ok/good games
Stojko or Jagusic > Krama or Wedding Boy. This is where Krama’s position becomes under threat (well it’s already under threat by Franjo) if Stojko or Jagusic can really impose themselves at club this year (and Jagusic is playing as SS at PAO in some formations so it’s like-for-like) – for Wedding Boy to be dropped, Stojko or Jagusic have to be BETTER than him at their clubs (and Wedding Boy plays in La Liga)
So I’m the first to say integrate youth – but when you go name by name it’s hard to say which of the youth should be called up for which existing player – that’s the issue both Dalic and now Bilic has faced
Hopefully some of these youth have a great October (but again Bilic announces the squad 2 weeks in advance – so there is really only 2-3 weeks of games to judge on – not a lot of time)
If there is no one else, then why even have guys like Krama on the bench at all (if you have no intent to play him)?
If the plan was to eventually replace both Modric and Kova (in case we needed to protect the lead or draw) then why not just cut Krama and put Majer or call up Moro?
If you have 5 minutes left in the game, then why even bother subbing out Kova at all?
Look, nobody’s perfect and I understand the risk Bilic runs by calling up multiple wingers, forwards, midfielders, etc. He wanted to test them all out, and it ate up roster space. But we now know that guys like Jakic, Smolcic and Beljo can be useful to us, and guys like Krama, Pongracic, and possibly Mario Pasalic we can move on from (and create spots for others).
But, come on. I think we both know that Kova could have stayed on the field another few minutes to close out the game. Bilic subbed out Kova so the crowd could give him cheers. Either that, or Bilic legitimately thinks that Pasalic is capable of defending and disrupting Spain’s possession, which concerns me even more.
Either way, it was a dumb move that cost us the game.
I forgot Darko
Guess this goes back to he should have run a try-out for the Broz position this window – not strikers (cutting geriatric Budimir is obvious and swapping DDB for Musa doesn’t require you calling up Musa)
If Darko and/or Moro were called instead of Krama (should be club recovering) and Majer (don’t need another “pretty boy” central 10) he’d have what he needed
So that decision is on Bilic
Not sure Kova was taken off for an ovation (maybe but that’s dumb if so)
He played a lot of minutes in all 4 games in 12 days – so it’s possible he was just done and signalled he needed to come off – not necessarily physically even but he could have been mentality spent (especially rebounded after getting 7-0 by England it’s all very draining for us imagine the players)
It’s what every team does when they go through a re-build. They start integrating youth and guess what…some of them might not me ready but you have to go through growing pains. Greece, Italy are going through it right now.
What I blame Bilic for the most for calling up all the dinosaurs to the squad for this mini tournament. He didn’t have the balls to cut Krama & Buda. Calling us Misic at this stage of his career was also very stupid.
He’s lucky to still have a job.
We started the game very well. Gvardiol eliminated Yamal with the help of Perisic with two exceptions when Yamal get behind and had two decent shots on goal. As a defender you may never fall asleep. Our defensive shape was good most of the game until the last 15 minutes when the midfield started backing into our defenders. We allowed the Spaniards to receive the ball at the top of the box and play give and go. That was not the case in the first half.
Mario Passaic is a defensive liability who provides little offensively. Marco Pasalic is faster quicker and very dangerous for 25-30 minutes. I know Baturina was sick but he needs to play with Kova and Modric. He is able to hold the ball and let the rest of the team catch up.
Why didn’t the almighty vuskovic lead us to victory man
He’s 19 yrs old. Give him some time. The haters on this site with bite their tongues.
What’s annoying about the Kramaric call-up is that Bilić had a perfectly legitimate excuse to not call him up as he’s only averaged 11 minutes a game this season. He’s not fully match fit. That was a wasted roster spot.
Kovacic was the driving force for much of the game for Croatia
Things tilted toward Spain the second half as Spain had a clear strategy to stop letting kovacic break free and they did so
After that, no one else on Croatia can carry the ball forward in that way and relieve pressure
As i saw kovacic get subbed at the end, i asked myself a question I’ve often debated. How much advantage vs disadvantage is there for subbing in fresh legs but someone who is not on the rhythm of the game especially in midfield where rhythm is key
Kivacic was tired but he had also spent 88 minutes watching and understanding how spain was attacking and playing. Pasalic couldn’t pick that up just from the sideline
Ultimately it was pasalic semi let Spain slip behind him on the second goal
That was a bad sub regardless of how tired Kova is.
There are other players you could have put in that at least provide something in this situation.
Lovro Majer may not be good defensively, but he is elite when it comes to passing and possession. Even he would have fulfilled some parts of what Kova provided. Not saying I would have subbed him in, but just using him as an example.
Bilic (and even Dalic before him) need to understand Pasalic is a “niche” player who you put into the game when you’re down a goal, but you need to have creators out there with him (like Modric, Perisic or Kova) to send balls into the box for him to get his foot or head onto. He’s good at moving WITHOUT the ball, and charging the opponents box…but only if we have possession and someone to send the ball in. This situation was the complete opposite.
He’s absolutely NOT the type of player who can win possession, hold possession, or make a the necessary passes in tight situations against elite teams to maintain possession and kill the clock.
Bad, bad sub. There were only a few minutes left in the game and the sub was really just so Kova could have his name called and the crowd can go ‘yay’.
lol Corluka red card – look at him swarm the ref on an obvious UAE handball at the end of the game (in the middle of the pitch) – he’s SUCH a cheater – he never got off his ass that quick for Croatia
x.com/SBSSportau/status/2107571150217724280?s=20
Wild scenes in the game y’day – it’s worse than Croatia vs. Serbia
lol look at Dalic when a member of his coaching staff tries to enter to crowd to punch someone – Dalic walking around (all black) with hands in his pockets – finally 1:30 in he tells him to calm down
UAE were awarded a penalty – but VAR intervened 3 minutes late (the UAE guy was about to take it all lined up) and said no penalty
https://x.com/mohamedelgazar4/status/2107568877144301633?s=20
lol wild brawls
https://x.com/FF9083294524254/status/2107618360079048809?s=20
0:25 nice keeper reflexes by Subasic
https://x.com/Rabanalsafena/status/2107561994161131666?s=20
Bring back Subasic for the November games!
Thanks for the comical link. If the Croatians only had half that fighting spirit against England, we wouldn’t have lost 7-0. Now we know what Zlatko Dalic brought to his players. 😏
I agree.
4-2 losses are a lot better than 7-0 losses (despite teams like Ghana and Congo being able to draw England).
We needed a change from Dalić.
Bilić is here to see if he can do better… but he needs to figure things out over the next couple of games or he’ll be coaching in the Middle East as well.
England could have easily scored 3-4 more goals in the WC group stage game vs Croatia. 4-2 was flattering for Croatia.
Imagine if we had Jakic instead of Mario ahead of back then at the WC
Just imagine how different we would have looked and competed
By having him on the field u don’t need a back 5 he afford u the ability to get back 4 and overall would have been much better off
At least we figured out after 4 years we need a Broz replacement on the field!
I meant Czechia not Checia sorry about that
You have offended the Czech minority who read this site. Prepare to be banned.
A much better performance in this game loosing 2 to 1 against the best team in the world is respectable. We would have to win the next two games to avoid having to play a playoff game in the 2028/29 Nations league against the runner-up B team. We still have to beat or tie Checia to get 3rd. This national team now has to slowly transition to a younger and faster team over the next two years. We have an exceptional class of younger players of which some should slowly be in introduced into the senior team . There are already some younger players here not enough atleast 4 or 5 more are needed for a proper rebuild. After the under 21s finish plying in the euros Bilic should imedietly bring in 4 of the best performing players from that tournament. That will give the coaching staff one year to get them ready for the Nations league playoffs. The HNS could make it mandatory for the under 21s. to play the same formation as the senior team so that when the under 21s. are brought up into the sensor squad there already familiar with senior system. This would slow down the time it takes a new young player to develop and speed up the time for the coaching staff to evaluate the player. By 2028 the older players we’re relaying on now will have retired. If we want to remain with the top national teams in the world a rebuild is necessarily there will be growing pains along the way the fans and media have to be patient.
Bilic subbing out Kovacic was a silly move, no idea why you would want to do that when he is your best midfielder and to me he did not look like he was totally out of gas. He takes him off and Spain score.
If you are going to sub him, bring on someone who can run, and chase and Mario Pasalic is not the player that can do that effectively.
I remember Dalic did the same thing with Kovacic and when taken off we have also conceded goals.
You are all saying soft yellow and it was but WHY does Ivan even put himself into position where a second yellow might be called it’s just plain stupidity sorry
Stanisic would be on Bayern’s Janitorial staff if he made the blunders he’s had the last 2 games it’s odd how he never has those brain farts for his club team ?
You’re right…
but it’s completely annoying that WE always have to be the team that is mindful and make sure that WE have to ensure that all our plays are perfectly contact-free beyond a reasonable doubt.
Whereas, Cucurella can grab shirts, throw his forearm into every player’s chest, and bodycheck everyone on every single challenge he makes (comfortably in his own box) and there is no need for him to be careful. There will never be a card or a PK call against him.
Meanwhile, Dani OImo slips into our box (on the FIRST chance for Spain after we were dominating them in the first half) and the ref has to go to VAR review to confirm if he can use it to get Spain back on track and equalize the game for them.
It was the exact same situation in 2018 against France in the final with Griezmann, where France were being dominated by us, and the ref game them a free kick outside our box the first chance he could (so to give them an advantage).
Cucurella is a dirty, dirty player.
He got away with so much in the first half alone.
Absolutely brutal.
On one corner kick he completely mugged Sutalo, far worse than anything Vlasic did to that Portuguese player at WC when Portugal got their penalty kick to help them back in it. This was a mugging, not way off to the side, but right when Sutalo had a chance to head the ball of the corner, it was right there.
A little tough to jump while piggy-backing Cucurella.
No call. Nothing.
Silence from the officials . . . and nothing from the ever-vigilant peanut gallery up at VAR.
I get it that you don’t want to slow the game down and call everything, but then be equal to both teams.
There were three times Cucurella could have been yellow-carded in the first half.
Dalic had a problem with me. Why hasn’t Bilic called me? Because they both suck.
That olmo is something.
Dude don’t forget
Speaks it heavily
Much better game. We were more compact & aggressive. We needed to bury both of those sitters. Even burying one of those chances and we win the game. The second yellow on Perisic was soft AF. Im in disbelief that VAR confirmed it, but then again the game is telling us not to believe what we actually see anymore…instead believe the subjective BS game rigging VAR.
The England game was a fluke. Sometimes a good ass whipping is what you need to wake up.
Kovacic is our best midfielder. Even though he can’t finish, his speed and slaloming runs helped create and break Spain’s press. Kova is the same age as when Modric won the Ballon D’or. Could he be a classic late bloomer hrvat??
It’s starting to look that way.
Jakic always steps up and if he keeps his form, should be an automatic call up. Great Swiss Army knife player.
Our D was better overall. Lamal cooked Gvardiol a few times, but at least there was help to contain his runs.
Matanovic is our best striker. Krama & Ivanovic need to be dropped for some of our young U21 talent ie. Jaga/Soticek/Segecic.
@Truth
Can u ask ur useless pimply analyst to run a quick correlation for me?
Total minutes played over 4 games
Vs.
OOP ability/running stats/defensive work rate
Thesis is players who are poorest in OOP ability/running stats/defensive work rate played the least about of minutes (Mayer, Wedding Boy, Budimir, Musa, etc)
On my desk by 6am ET please
Thx
Poor Jaga
Soticek and Sege incoming (don’t tel Bilic Sege plays as a central 20 for Pompey)
Skafar-Zuzic keep working if u only have Soticek in front of u there is a chance for u on the A team in 12 months (Soticek was good in the first U21 game)
🎙️ Slaven Bilić on Croatia’s lack of traditional wingers:
“We don’t have wingers. Those two from Rujevica against England, Yamal today or the French when they switch to 4-1. We have to play differently. There are Šotiček and Segečić; those are the two profiles of players.”
*central 10, not a winger just look at heat maps
The corollary is he doesn’t see Franjo as a winger so unless he produces at Lens centally he might lose is spot
Jaga can be the Krama and Majer replacement hybrid SS/central #10 – he probably wasn’t impressed with Wedding Boy – so Jaga is compete with these 3 players to get the call
I Bilić is right about that.
Other than his speed, Franjo doesn’t seem to have winger skills.
He can’t take a guy one-on-one. Never got past anyone. Never sent in a cross either.
I think he’s just a counterattacking striker that you play up top who can use his speed to beat the offside trap. Might still be a useful piece for us, but probably off the bench.
P.S.
Also telling he didn’t name check Pjaca (even as he scored a bunch of goals this season) and is focused on youth – telling
Jaga is not poor..
His piece is the piece of all pieces..
Did not deserve to lose today.
Matanovic missing a great chance on 21 minutes and Perisic on 76 minutes proved costly in the end.
Second yellow for Perisic was very soft and I wonder if the situation was reversed weather the Spanish player would have got a second yellow.
Jakic and Kovacic I thought were our best today. Jakic a great performance playing as a no. 6. and Kovacic again proving that he is our best midfielder at the moment.
Looking at their first goal, the main blame has to go to Stanisic for a poor clearance. He should have headed that ball into the corner or towards the byline.
Vuskovic also left Merino unmarked and went towards Olmo but was unable to intercept his pass.
Gvardiol played better today and I give him credit for playing 4 matches in 12 days. He needs to play as a LB like at Man City, and no more CB for Croatia.
Sutalo and Vuskovic as CB’s did well despite one or two mistakes.
Last match against Czechia will determine if we come third in the group and get seeded for the EURO qualifying draw.
If we do come third looks like we will have to go into a play-off against one of the runners up from NL group B – could be BiH, Kosovo, Slovenia, or Wales ?
Not on your life . would they give a Spanish player a red card . And don’t kid yourself. If we had the lead and time was running out they would put 10 million minutes of injury time and if an opportunity arose a penalty. We could have beat them at that euro that time had they given us that penalty that time . Spain is a great time the best but they can be beaten , England almost did it. We won’t be beating them anytime soon. We have a lot of work to do
If/when Modric retires I would make Jakic the captain – he’s perfect captain material – a mentality monster – his attitude sign handedly set the tone
Ez there champ
Why?
Look who captains Argentina when Messi not playing (now retired)
Romero, Otamendi and De Paul
All mentality monsters
That’s who you need as captain (or at least vice captain)
Jakic bandwagon – goes choo choo
Slaven Bilić on Kristijan Jakić’s performance:
“Jakić was never in doubt for me. He is versatile. He can play as a full-back or midfielder, he has aggression, courage, and enough quality.
He was on the preliminary call-up list because he was stuck behind others at Augsburg. Now he has moved to PAOK, he has breathed new life into his career, and he has a lot of quality. He has what we are missing: relentless energy.
He came on against England to try to save us and limit the damage.”
Got to feel for Majer
Didn’t even make the bench over 4 games
Ouch
Budimir seems phased out of the team (Beljo replaced)
I will say, I am a little positive with this outcome moving forward. An away win against England would give these guys confidence. Finish the next two games strong. I have to remind myself we played a team that conceded 1 goal in the World Cup.
I’ll say a 2-1 win against England away and a 1-0 win against Czech home.
Typical Croatia…we can’t clear the crosses. Does Stanisic have a splinter in his foot? He can never clear the ball. Spains equalizer was caused by his error. The second goal was the exact same. Not mad or frustrated with this outcome. The red card cost us the game. A draw against Spain would’ve been a win in my books. We played with urgency thus game. A Czech win away and a 3-1 loss is what I’m anticipating in November. It just seems embarrassing we are still dependent on a 38 year old to score and carry us.
Also Stanisic was responsible for that awful clearance and gave England their 6th goal. He’s by far our weakest link as of now.
My thoughts:
Much better…..
The first half we ran and pressed and it kept Spain off their game. The second half we came out completely flat footed and let them come at us wave after wave, reminiscent of the England game. After 55 minutes I was screaming at Bilic to make some energy subs but he couldn’t hear me😂 . It ultimately cost us. Once the first subs were made, things settled down considerably.
After Perisic’s reckless play led to a red card, we needed to calm things down. So what does Bilic do? Yeah, let’s put in an attacking midfielder. He was partially to blame for the winning goal. I just don’t understand that.
The defense was much better.
Jakic was mostly solid.
Bilic did some good things, but also failed at the end.
Perisic was the all at the same time the reason we could have won but also the reason we lost.
Oh well, hopefully we’ve learned what we needed to and at least get a result next month against Czechia to secure Pot 1 for the Euro draw.
Bilic, Dalic – it’s the same. Get a lead, can’t hold the lead and then blow it late- another loss to England and we flip the coach card to the next hack. Bilić actually has worse sub moves than Dalic and I didn’t think that was possible
I was hoping for a win at 1-0. Frustrated at 1-1. Then knew it was pretty much over after the red.
I was sitting there wondering “what shitty foul play is Spain getting away with?”. And the comments here answered that. But you still have to score and you still have to defend.
Hopefully some lessons to practice for the next round of games. After the last few games, 2-1 is ok.
Vlad on suicide watch.
This was probably the worst possible result for him.
It’s a loss, but keeps Bilić as coach. 😅
Someone should check on Stjepan Stanić too.
Dalić easily lost to the only decent team the UAE has played so far.
Lol
Zlatko Dalic exuded class, respect and honor. It’s too bad you hide behind your computer as you would never say the things you say to peoples’ faces. ‘Numerus stultorum infinitus est.’ Viva Zlatko.
I think he’s still perplexed why Bilic would start Jakic over Wedding Boy in midfield
We have too many “pretty boy” players meanwhile Jakic who is also handsome is the perfect “bad boy” we need on field at all times
Shame he’s 29 already – but good for next Euros and WC
What do you guys think, yellow, red or penalty shot?
See if this works?
https://share.icloud.com/photos/040JUmcESE-vkl-uAuG5D2hRQ
The problem is our guys don’t know how to show the ref or VAR that we get held. Others flop around and scream like little bitches whick brings the foul to the ref’s attention.
I have a picture from the first half of Sutalo’s bicycle kick on that corner.
In the background I have Stanisic being bear hugged by a Spanish defender with hands fully locked in front of his chest so Stanisic cannot escape.
That is a full yellow or RED card followed by a penalty shot. Ivan clipping the back of Cucerella leg by accident is not a yellow or red on any normal day.
I wish I could share this picture for all of you to see, just looking at the match fixing makes me want to puke.
Is Spain the better team, yes but all UEFA and FIFA care about is the false 43 game win streak narrative.
Spain plays dirty and when we match them with challenges we get the wrong side of calls.
Why wasn’t Spain penalized for faking being hit the face 3 times. The commentators won’t even tell the truth, nothing to see here folks.
Even if we have another Golden Generation, it won’t matter because even though Spain is the world best they still have to match insure matches are fixed for them.
Also if we scored those two sitters I still think they would find a way for us to lose.
After 30 years of this BullShit I don’t how much more I can take.
Faster than Anonymous picking his nose.
Stronger then this forum’s greatest MORON
Able to eat 2 tons of cevapi in a single bound,
Look it’s Klepetan,
It’s Rimic Automobili,
No, it’s SUPER SLAV.
The most honest…most facetious….most ridiculous….most incredible commentator on Croatian football. The game was a farce. Not a second yellow
… Matanovic gets two-handed in the back barely a foul called…. Olmo running around like he got shot when was never touched, aside from across the shoulder nothing called…. realistically Josko could’ve had a card on that American Football tackle on Yamal but, alas, nothing… Ref was saving that for the phantom yellow on Perisic. It’s crazy. I’m proud of our boys. Love the NT and always will. Super proud. Super happy of their display today. Proud to be Croatian!
Well done. That performance was excellent. Partly unlucky in the end but let’s remember that Josko is far from fit and in form. Vušković is still a teenager. Players have had a virus and the players have had to recover from the most horrific match in our history. The showed pride, energy, courage, quality, confidence, belief, and perhaps most importantly because it’s been so lacking – organisation. Still a few poor decisions but overall they’ve done enough there to redeem themselves. Sutalo, what a player when his head is screwed on properly. Perišić lmao what a legend. This is nations league, come the qualifiers they will be ready. Believe
I really hope you’re right about Joško. I wasn’t impressed with him today.
Made some bad plays.
Šutalo still needs to be better if he’s going to start games. He was holding his balls in the first goal and had a bad gaffe late in the second half.
Positives are that we finally have strikers. Been missing that for a while. Beljo is better than I thought. Unlucky that there Spain CB cleared that cross. He would have buried that header.
Jakić played well. We need some tough guys and he’s always done well for us.
Need to hope that a lie of this was viral recovery and we’ll have to re-assess next month.
Bilić gets another international break, but won’t have excuses next month.
Not our worst game. Hopefully we can move on from this international break and come back stronger for the next
Baba Jaga enters the room 😉
hope you’re right about that
needs new energy new leadership
it’s time
All in all, not the worst game. Outside of the 15 mins leading up to their first goal and the period after the red, I thought we played a very good game.
Our press looked good, and we made Spain give up many uncharacteristic mistakes. It’s just really unfortunate we missed those two sitters.
We had some calls go against us, but I also don’t understand what Perisic was thinking there with the red. As a veteran, he should’ve known better than to be so careless, especially since he was already on a yellow.
Would’ve also liked to see Bilic be more proactive with his subs.
Hopefully we can build on this game moving forward. I would really like to see some new faces in the squad for next time. Would be interesting to see players such as Nejasmic and Biondic be given a shot.
In what Universe do you make subs to a team that is beating the -maybe most dominant national team in football history- at halftime while up 1-0….then when they would’ve lost 6-1 you would’ve said Bilic has no idea of what he is doing. You guys are crazy.
Overall, I was happy with Bilic’s decisions today, however, let’s be real you could clearly tell our guys were getting overwhelmed in the lead-up to their first goal and we needed some changes sooner.
We looked much more energised right after Sucic and Beljo were brought on.
We played fine, but I agree with many of the other comments, Bilic should have started the subs much sooner, probably at HT…unfortunate misses by Matanovic and Perisic..we easily could have had 3 goals..
The obvious is that it was a much better performance. Frustrating part is we missed two sitters and it changed the game. Exceptional teams make you pay for that.
Frustrating not to get a point out of that game..
Bilic needs to go just for the Kova sub alone- just stupid
He’s done this exact same thing twice now.
I don’t get it.
Enough with the Bilic hate! You neglect the amazing gameplay the team had and the tactical changes and harp on one thing…. like I said in my earlier post….Unity as Croatians….stop this stupidity like you would’ve done better managing this team. Show some respect 🙏 maybe you are too young to remember ’98. The man deserves respect!
We can’t criticize the game play?
We should just blindly cheerlead and not talk about tactical changes that could make the team better?
Absolutely you can talk about tactical changes, you think you could’ve done better and you have a better understanding of our NT?
Were you not calling for the head of Bilic on a platter?
I never called for Bilić ‘s head on a platter.
You got your posters mixed up.
But I do remember 2008 when he botched things up at the bitter end…
Yooooo…..chill out…. it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. We are on the right path. Take it easy. You guys were all for Ante saying it’s cool to play a C team against England, but now our coach has no brains?
fkn stupid perisic missing the sitter and then getting sent off with the frustration foul…
Weak yellow call by the ref
It was a yellow, perisic knowing he is on a yellow should know better.
That was a dive by Cucerella never a yellow card.
How dare you say “stupid Perisic” are you ten years old…. without him we wouldn’t be where we are now. The best players on planet Earth miss these. Is Vini jr. trash because of the chances he’s missed this year? What about the African legend Mbappe? Now a guy who ran his ass off and created non-stop and faltered once….he’s garbage? Stop!
Perisic didn’t miss. Great anticipation to intercept that ball and a remarkable toe save by the Spanish keeper. Two inches higher and the ball is in the net.
When the camera looked at the Croatian bench after Spain scored we looked demotivated.
It’s demoralizing when your best isn’t good enough.
Mind you, the harsh red card didn’t help.
Well, we didn’t play demotivated.
And I didn’t find it demoralizing.
Too many here are way too negative.
We missed two wide open chances. If Matanovic scores we go up 2-0 . . .
We got the red card and we played with 10 men for 15 minutes.
I didn’t find the game at all demoralizing.
A great effort. Well done.
Good effort, but we were running out of gas and needed to use our subs a bit better. It’s impossible to play with that level of intensity for so long. Bilić maybe a tad late on that.
I actually liked the subs themselves…except for the Mario for Kova sub (which makes no sense). I can’t stand that sub because it’s just a “clearin’ the bench” sub and not one that makes any tactical sense.
Finally….a comment with some sense
Guess I won’t be doing some Xmas skiing at sljeme
Thanks merino
That 10-1 bet looked good for awhile
It was still a good bet to make for that kind of payout.
Some people here were expecting a 5-0 loss, and are now awfully quiet.
The game was very close.
It was a great bet from a math perspective
11/1 to 9/1 odds implied 8-10% probability win rate
It was reasonable to expect a 40+% probability we’d win (given expectation of response after being a Serbian Film’d) [40% Spain win / 20% draw]
Even at 6.5/1 (the tightest I saw pre-match) was 13% probability win rate
The market was significantly under-pricing Croatia rebound today
Once you sub in Mario Pašalić for Kova, it signals that you’ve given up trying to play.
I will never understand this sub pattern
Subbing in a guy who cannot defend or hold possession, in a game where you need exactly that.
Yeah ridic sub. And it was clear Kovacic, who has been our best player in all these games and had played a lot, was finished long before and had to have been taken out. Actually it should have been Sucic for Kova and not Modric.
Yep
Normal sequence and dive routine, both teams do it, but not a yellow.
Isn’t it strange how Perisic commits 2/3 fouls and he is off?
Ffs, well it was a good effort.
Should have scored 2 more goals if our guys were able to not shoot directly at Simon.
Also Bilic definitely took too long with his subs.
Does give me some hope moving forward though.
One of their own players dives in front of his own box and holds his nose…
And the ref stops play when we have the ball just outside their box.
Come on.
Ref couldn’t wait to give that red card.
Man brutal sequence for Perisic… missed a sitter then got himself sent off 🤦♂️
Diving barstads
Perisic with a red card
Spain gave us two sitter goals (One in the first half and the second half)
100% subs new energy asap
Does Bilić understand football
What is he waiting for
Jebem ti Šutalo!!
(I’m back on the anti Šutalo train now) 😉
What bad coaching. Celebrating a goal like we won the World Cup, does not see players are spent.
Does not make subs, they score.
Okay great first half bilic, but come on we need some subs now
Matanović needs to learn to hold up the ball as a 9
Gvardiol is struggling out there
Dalic lost 2-0
Contra indicator intact
Stars aligned
Subs please, these guys are spent.
We have run out of gas. Gvardiol’s poor play led to llamal breakaway.
We have good players on the bench.
This is where Bilić needs to use his subs.
He just dribbled it out for a corner, when he had plenty of time to clear…
What has happened to him?
Yamal dives but doesnt get a yellow card?
Olmo slips but gets a var penalty review?
What!
That was an amazing interception by Vuskovic on the break.
Probably saved a sure goal there.
Game is 90
45 left
Nothing accomplished yet
Spain will react
But Croatia will beat Spain’s 42 game unbeaten streak (as predicted) as long as they can stay concentrated and motivated till the end
Jakic gives it all very good player.
Imagine thinking Misic was going to be better than Jakic as the 6
Terrible call by Bilic
Jakic is having a great game clogging up the middle , yelling instructions. Taking charge. He has his opportunity under new manager and grabbing it by the throat.
I’ve been pounding the table on Jakic for years
His performances at RB were excellent
He played against Scotland with one leg bc he loves Croatia
Now he comes in as a 6 which we haven’t played with in 4 years and Croatia looks the best it has in 4 years
Anonymous is the GOAT of All GOATs and thank got Bilic read and listened to Anonymous
He set the tone early.
In the first few minutes of the game, a Spanish CB had the ball in his third and the rest of our team was waiting for him to make his move…
Then Jakić looked around at everyone, threw his arms up, and full sprint ran at the defender and bodied him (forcing the defender to make a quick errant pass).
This is what we were missing last game.
Jakic is working hard.
Great effort by the whole team in the first half.
Only good thing about this game is potentially we could have finally figured out back line.
Matanovic with a good low smart shot
I’m scared at how pumped Spain will be in the 2nd half lol
Vlašić is not great on the ball
I would throw in someone more technical than him especially against espana
Torino captain and mentality monster and physicality monster
He needs to play 90 if he can
Oh man this is the worst thing that could have happened.
Euro 2028 again with modric amd co
😂😂😂
Much better performance in Split
Gvardiol still very suspect at left back
Shame about Matanović missing
Lovely surprise. Who are these guys? Only wear the blue kits if this what we get when we play the blue kits. Lifts the soul to see some effort.
I told you it was the kits!!!
I posted the stats from Reddit
76% win rate since 1996 in Away kits
Math never lies!!!
We spent the last week arguing over who can and who can’t play. Today is a demonstration of how wrong we all were.
WE HAVE THE PLAYERS, WE JUST NEED THE ATTITUDE!
Excellent game all around so far! Kovacic and Vlasic working extremely hard and deserve some credit!
I wasn’t wrong.
I said that it’s not a personnel problem and that we played too lethargically and didn’t play physical enough against England.
You’re welcome. 😜
Agreed but both you and Anonymous consistently crap on Sutalo while making excuses for others. Lets just be happy for the effort so far
I actually used to be a Šutalo fan.
But hopefully we stick to a rotation of at least these five or six guys in the backline in Stani, Vuško, Gvardiol, Smolčić, Šutalo, etc.
I don’t want to go back to Duje and Pong. Anyone new, I’m hoping will be the younger guys.
I’m never wrong
I said Broz was the most important player in 2018 and 2022 and we need a 6 in front of defence
Bilic read and threw in Jakic
Now we have a 6 (first time in 4 years) and Croatia is Croatia again and the best it’s looked since 2022
You’re VERY welcome 😚
Spain goalkeeper pases it to a Croatian shirt we should have scored!
Huh.. would you look at that.. we are actually playing with some passion so far.
Perisic ! ! !
https://soccerstreams100.im/sports/football/croatia-spain/70004/
Why didn’t Kovacic shoot???????????
Dalic losing 2-0 HT
Best contra-indicator possible
That means Croatia winning
Croatia to win odds now as tight as 6.5/1
Anonymous singled handedly moves the odds from 11/1 to 6.5/1 in a day
maybe we’ll have a palermo moment (nov 14 1994) and reintroduce ourselves to the world
we’re still here and we’ll be back shortly
We’ll find out if there is an issue in the dressing room . I think there are . Spain 5- Croatia 1 . Goal scored by Livakovic who just said, “screw it” , I’m playing out nobody else is playing defense, why should I”
I will continue to attest despite Maminjo protestation that euro 24 and wc 26 were not flops.
Wc 26 is obvious enough. Croatia won 2 games against two legitimate teams and took a really good Portugal team within a hair of the brink
Euro 24 continues to be unappreciated. They lost to Spain 3-1 but that was the only game Spain has been outpossessed in in the past decade and additionally they had a higher expected goal total than Spain as well. They outperformed both Albania and Italy except for last minute brain farts.
But those bad breaks are soccer.
We praise the accomplishments of the 18 and 22 but the narrative would be massively different if one of those penalty shoot outs went the other way (chance of winning all 4 of them is like 6 percent) or even worse if lukaku was actually functioning and they never even got to the knockout.
Remove the blowout vs Canada and Croatia scored 2 goals in that tournament over 560 minutes or 6.2 games
What it always come back to is cro wasnt as great as the results back then, they’re not as bad as the results right now but they need to return to a system that gives them a chance to get lucky
You can play mental gymnastics all you want, but we have been playing poorly for three years.
At Euro 2024, we struggled to create any sort of space and refused to play wide. Short corners, zero crosses, just the ball up the middle into the most congested of areas. We were too easy to plan against and defend against, which was why teams like Albania were able to get the result on us.
I find it funny that you are giving praise for our 3-0 loss to Spain at Euro2024, which was caused by playing more aggressively against Spain (leaving ourselves more open to their attack)…yet at the same time, you are criticizing Bilic for doing the same.
We are playing more open with Bilic, and we’re being punished badly for it…just as Dalic played more open against Spain in 2024, and we were punished badly for it.
So which is it?
We finished 20th at the Euros (out of 24 teams). That was our worst ever result in a tournament and we were in an easy group (with Italy being dispatched very easily after they made it through ahead of us).
The 2026 World Cup was a bit better, but we were still easily beaten by England (with Liva bailing us out from a very likey 7-2 loss) and the Panama game was the same as the Albania game (except Panama were unlucky and hit the post in that first half instead of scoring).
Ghana was a nice free flowing open game (very similar to the Czech win we just had last week), and the Portugal game was one of those weird outliers where we were utterly dominated in the first half, then we dominated them in the second (with several VAR calls going all over the place).
Not sure how you could suggest that these two tournaments were a success, or that we are playing any better than we are now.
It’s exactly the same.
The only difference are the quality of opponent. We are not playing Panama and Albania right now, and instead, we are playing the two best teams in the World right now in England and Spain (who are on an unbelievable unbeaten streak).
Spain full strength line up
Every position best player available
No Baturina no P sucic no L sucic I hope they lose and Bilic get sacked. It’s 2026 and I feel like it’s 2024 lineup besides Vuskovic.
Dont worry
60 minutes to low-block / frustrate Spain then bring on the young bucks to win the game 1-0
I legit feel Iggy levels of fright. Its gonna be hard to watch this..
Why would you wish for us to lose? Maybe those three players are injured or sick, or had a death in the family or just have not shown they are good enough in training. So many “armchair midfielders” here. You all now know more about Croatian football than Bilic….the same way you all knew more about Croatian football than Dalic. Don’t we talk about how strong we are as a nation and a diaspora because of our togetherness, resilience, fight and never say die attitude? Now we’re on here hoping we lose? We’re like goldfish forgetting the incredibly joyous memories of times together with, family our friends and our people watching what these players and coaches gave for us. Now Luka is too old…Kova is too slow Perisic is a geriatric….Gvardiol can’t defend…Vuskovic is overrated and slow…Nevermind sramota the 7-0 loss to England…..sramota the attitude of us!!! Terrible!
Liva
Stani Vusko Sutalo Josko
Jakic
Modric Kova
Vlasic Mata Perisic
It’s nice that Bilic listened to Anonymous with inserting a proper #6 in front of back 4
Physicality and mentality monster Vlasic on the RW
Could also be 5-2-2-1
Jakic Sutalo Vusko Josko Stani
Kova Modric
Vlasic Peri
Mata
Vlasic help 2v1 Baena
Peri help 2v1 Yamal
Bilić looking to get sacked with this lineup
Not a fan of the big changes Bilić has tried to implement
Dalic set this team up nicely over past 10 years, the team was humming, drastic changes weren’t necessary
I know as the incoming manager you want to put your stamp on the Team
But there was no need to go so drastic. We had a great cohesiveness in place, we had team chemistry and hierarchy and that all been lost now with Bilić
He should have made small adjustments to Dalic’s Hrvatska but not drastic changes … too many changes implemented too quickly is a disaster
Hopefully Bilić is done after today.
He’s not a good coach.
Croatia deserves better.
I wouldn’t say they were humming in 2024 and 2026. In qualifiers yes, Dalic was generally a maestro. Dalic had a few faults, 2022 was more than a bit of luck and a lot of grit and determination.
In Euro 2024 qualifiers, we lost at home to Turkey and managed only 1 point in two games against Wales.
We did good in the last qualification campaign but we only had Czech and Faroes, so you can’t really measure it. Historically easy group.
The team hasn’t been “humming” since maybe 2023. Even in 2022, we had an immense amount of luck.
Large changes were needed, especially since we have still been so reliant on players who are well past their primes.
Guys….not able to watch live today. Anyone know if there will be a link to watch the game after on demand (youtube or other site)?
Hvala!
My question exactly!!
You guys are still streaming Croatia games? Been saying for years to get an IPTV unit. All the games, all the time, Croatia league, all other leagues, all qualifying games. And Croatia games on the Croatia channel NOVA.
well, for me, i use a vpn set to Zagreb + https://novaplay.dnevnik.hr/home
Now, I think you may need to pay for this…you used to be able to get for free on novatv.hr (maybe you still can?)
Back in my day, Croatia games were simply unavailable. If they were available, you needed to physically go to a crowded restaurant or bar that was showing it via satellite (and buy food and drink).
Nowadays, you have endless ipTV and streaming services that offer you every single game for peanuts.
It’s absolutely insane that there are people out there still unwilling to pay a few dollars per month to have access to every single game that they could even watch on their phone if they wanted.
I’ll gladly pay a few bucks per month but I’m not sure which service to get. Can you please send me the info for the one you use? I’d like to have Croatian league games as well, does it have that? Thanks.
Setanta!!!
There was a cover charge just to enter too – probably for parking too
You had to call before every game to make sure they were actually showing the Croatia NT game (no internet) – best were when Croatian halls were showing but that was mostly for playoff games (Slovenia playoffs for Euro 2004)
These kids have no idea – they crying bc they can’t find it spoon fed to them in their pygamas in bed lol
Not slighting the players, but I don’t agree with a formation that deploys 4 attacking players vs Spain, after what we’ve witnessed this cycle. This is absolutely a game that needs someone responsible sitting just in front of the back line to coordinate, cover, and congest passing lanes. That’s probably Jakić or Sučić. And as much as I want wingers, I think the work rate of the often maligned Vlašić is better in this situation that Pašalić. Matanović is the present, while Beljo is the future.
What I’d like to see for the first ~hour:
Perišić – Matanović – Vlašić
Kovačic – Sučić – Modrić
Gvardiol – Šutalo – Vušković – Stanišić
Livaković
How are you guys accessing the game within the US?
Croatianwarrior,
DAZN in Canada carries all Nations League games.
I think DAZN is available in both the US and Canada. Check it out. I find the subscription is fairly reasonable. (And no GBVH, I don’t work for DAZN. LOL!).
DAZN also has all Champions League, Europa and Conference League, so you get the European games for the Croatian players on the teams in those leagues, plus you obviously get the games for the Croatian teams playing in those European leagues, say for example Dinamo or Hajduk this year.
You also get the Bundesliga, and La Liga highlights . . . and some of the Belgium League . . . the exact offerings change a little from year to year. I was able to watch Vuskovic play some games in the Belgium (Jupiter Pro) League two years ago, and then also closely follow his next year at Hamburg on DAZN.
However, it depends where you are as to what exactly you get . . . so I would check it out to be sure it offers what you want. In Canada you need a FUBO subscrption (or pay extra for the FUBO feature via DAZN) to watch the Croatian players who play in the Premier League, Italian Serie A, and the French Ligue.
This is more of a stop the bleeding line up which is fine
Baturina can’t be trusted with the defensive responsibilities and looked like he was a shadow against England and likely not recovered
In some ways he could bee important in a game like this as his ability to draw fouls slows the game and gives croatia the better they need but i think he’s just not up to form
P sucic has run a lot. Jakic is a Hail Mary extra defender type
Vlasic is responsible
Expect to see a much more conservative play style here resembling a bunker
Baturina is fine defensively, but he’s likely not recovered from that virus.
Petar Sučić may have run a lot, but we’re still going to be rolling out guys (like Perišić) who have played all three games as well.
I’m not so sure I like the idea of Petar Sučić on the bench.
Matanović starting is a big plus though.
Jaga + Sege + Kumar + Sepic
1pm ET Tuesday
Sege needs to show today
I say play the guys that are hurting after that debacle on Saturday. Play the ones that have some pride. Play the ones that are angry. Play the ones that are embarrassed and have some smarts….in other news Zlatko Dalic is playing a championship game today. Oops, I forgot: he doesn’t know how to coach.
Have to stop Spain’s dart passes into the box. It killed us last game against them. Those passes wreaked havoc and made our defense look like a jail break.
433
Livaković
Stanišić – Šutalo – Vušković – Gvardiol
Jakić – Modrić – Kovačić
Vlašić – Matanović – Perišić
Still sticking with the senators for this one?
Baturina and Petar Sučić on the bench? Yikes.
At least Matanović (one of our best players) is starting.
Maybe Vlašić will throw an elbow up or two on Cucurella in front of his hometown crowd. Knock out a tooth hopefully.
Lineup from Sportske Novosti for Spain today
https://youtu.be/Zlitpw8TlVE?si=cEuz4L3kqb2dqpS-
Anyone have a link for today’s game?
Little conspiracy for you all, but why the heck are they broadcasting every other game but croatia games on Fox Sports? Like literally every other crappy game, Czech versus Spain, today Czech versus England?
And yet our games are not being broadcast at all on cable???
They had Spain vs Croatia last Tuesday on FS1. Calm your pants down
I think matanovic has shown himself deserving of the first spot
Of course, Ante with his 10/10 effort for the Croatian community but 3/10 soccer knowledge dinged him as sub par vs Czech even though he made the effort play that freed up the modric goal (technically an assist), put some dangerous shots on goal with limited service, and pressed hard. 4 shots and some out of nowhere that were threatening.
I even liked him against England. He came out there in the second half and bodied some people at least
Transfermarket just bumped his value to 30M (it was 7M 12-months ago)
vs. Beljo 15M Musa 12M Budimir 2M
#s/math don’t lie
He’ll be the main guy once this “audition” crap is out of the way
I like Matanovic a lot from the first time I saw him play. He is a terror in the box and works hard, not unlike Manzo. But I think Beljo deserves a chance. HNL or not, the guy scores. His production should not be ignored. Jakic needs to play. I want to see Majer especially if P. Sucic is #6 and if our damn back four can stay disciplined.
I disagree.
Matanović has been great for club and country since this summer when he turned around the Portugal game.
He’s been one of the lone bright spots these past two games.
Beljo has been scoring, yes, but most of his accolades are from goals scored on weaker teams in the HNL.
Glad that he scored on Spain, proving maybe that he can do so regularly outside the HNL…but he still has nothing on Matanović.
If there’s any positive from this international break, it’s that we should roll with Matanović and Beljo as our #1 and #2 options.
Agreed
I’m not against Matanovic being the first choice as long as Beljo gets opportunities.
Dalic gets UAE to the Finals..
https://www.instagram.com/p/DeEkF_8KjAo/?stkn=MWx3dTZyY2lhbDVxYQ==
World Cup finals?
You can only beat who is put in front of you. Their Nations Lreague Finals
Thanks for giving the shoutout that Zlatko deserves. The treatment he received on this site was laughable. Should Bilic expect anything other than the same thing? Go UAE! But go Bilic today!
This is what one of the UAE players said of Coach Dalic: “Dalic is a distinguished coach and he has a smooth style, and he knows your needs as a human being before you are a player, so that you can give the best you have inside the green rectangle.” Always good to hear the inside information rather than from the armchair quarterbacks. Go Croatia today- maybe Coach Dalic will say a Krunica for us!
Returning to work to have English colleagues hang shit on me was not fun today, I have to say.
I have been laying low haha, it being England is the worst aswell
Remind them the we gave them their worst evwr loss too.
Perisic just can’t play as LB, he’s always higher up and leaves huge gaps behind. With the players available for tonight, I would play Jakic as RB, Stanisic as LB and Perisic could come from the bench to replace Baturina if needed
I’ll never have anything bad to say about Olić. Legenda!
Goals against Italy England Turkey Serbia. All wins. 4 of our best games ever.
Some we’re probably too young to watch.
His missed sitters against Turkey at Euro2008 probably cost us a tournament win and gave us our most heartbreaking ever loss.
France 2004 90+3′ he flew down to the wing to set up Mornar who missed a sitter to make it 3-2 (we should have won anyways as Trezeguet handball goal)
Germany 2008!
Fun fact: after he scored in Istanbul 2011 he came over to the sideline to hug Bilic and he ended up giving him in quick peck on the lips it was kind of a quick Titanic moment (it wasn’t homo – it just happened) – which then seemingly encouraged a fan to really kiss Bilic in 2012 euros (just look at Jelavic, Subasic and ESPECIALLY VIDA see it happen – Vida (aka the most macho Croatia ever) is ready to explode lol)
metro.co.uk/2012/06/11/slaven-bilic-caught-in-awkward-kiss-moment-with-croatian-pitch-invader-463343/
Brazil 2014 cross to Marcelo OG (which we should have at least tied if Brazil weren’t gifted a penalty)
SN front page (not helpful)
grači su se zagrijavali blizu fotoreportera, jedan od njih prenio nam je kako je jedan od reprezentativaca kazao Kristijanu Jakiću:
– Ti ideš u igru, ja srećom ne moram!
Ime nogometaša koji je to rekao nećemo objaviti jer više govori o ozračju u momčadi nego o pojedincu, a podsjećamo da je Jakić ušao kod rezultata 5:0 umjesto Luke Modrića, završilo je 7:0, a moglo je biti i gore. Moral je bio na nuli.
Oof
We need to be feisty and win balls/possession in the midfield to have any chance of not getting ass whooped.. the backline needs to be compact and not stray away but provide stability and transition the whole midfield needs to play a complete two way game.. Matanovic must be Mandzukic… we then may have a slim chance of getting a decent result…. Things are somewhat glim now… we have been here before… we tend to forget… but we learn and move forward… another age has begun…..
3-4-3(3-4-2-1)
—————————Matanovic————————
————Baturina——————Vlasic—————
Perisic———————————————Stanisic
——————Modric———P.Sucic——————
——Gvardiol———Vuskovic———Sutalo——
——————————(Beljo)—————————
——————————Musa——————————
—————L.Sucic(Kramaric)Pasalic————
Ivanovic——————————————Marco.P
—————Kovacic—————Majer—————
———Pongracic—Vuskovic——Jakic———
Captain to start which may be one of his last games let’s not forget..Majer nor Kramaric have yet to register any minutes and a possible start in the middle for Lovro is possible as for our beloved false 9 Krama… seems like his days are numbered plainly as there are just better options now.. will Marco.P start instead of a shaky Stanisic on the outside right where I see Sutalo stepping in as the RCB position allowing either RWB option to be a versatile and more foregiving one.. toss up on L.Sucic or Vlasic but I’ll take Vlasic work rate here….
Many people see an option for Stanisic to go to left back and Jakic to start on the right side this of course if we use a back line of 4 which is highly possible indeed..
Time will tell either way will be hell!
On another note I wouldn’t mind to see a fresh face on goal maybe Pandur
We could definitely be a little nastier. Don’t see much toughness in this squad.
We are this generations guys you dont want to f*ck with like Vida, Simunic, Mandzukic, Kovac, Stimac, even Rebic.
Rebic was a little too unreliable and unpredictable but you know what I mean.
Rebic was always good for some Imotski Kung fu would stamp on opponents if required kind of miss that.
Tito’s recommended lineups
Perisic——— Matanovic ————Vlasic
——–Baturina—————– kovacic———
———————-Sucic——————————
Gvardiol—-Vuskovic—-Sutalo—-Stanisic
or
———-Beljo——————Matanovic———
Perisic————————————–Baturina
———Kovacic—————–Sucic—————
Gvardiol—-Vuskovic—-Sutalo—-Stanisic
Modric as a super sub
Why don’t you choose another name?
HNS wasn’t good for alot of the time with Dalic as well. It’s flawed in fundamentals and yes, going to the well again with another flunky Croatian coach just doesn’t work. Yes, Bilic will soon be gone and we will start over. We can watch and hope but something is seriously wrong in that dressing room and maybe one day, we will find out. I say just give the job to Modric that gets him off the field and the guys listen to him anyways. Best fix possible. Another Croatian player from the past will just be a waste of time.
Takes years to get coaching badges and required coaching experience to coach an A-team and Modric hasn’t even started
Don’t worry.
It Terzić gets fired at Bilbao then he’ll take over for us.
Now we’re talking
Guys –
We really can beat Spain tomorrow
The only way to erase being Lucy Craig’d by England
Is to ruin Spain’s 42 game non-streak
Immediately everyone will forgive England
There is no other way
Anonymous did their part and passed a copy of the director’s cut of the Serbian Film to Bilic to show the boys after dinner with the message Spain are actually Serbs and it’s either we F them or we get F
For the youngish reading a Serbian Film is a real film – not for the feint of heart – Serb director said its metaphorical commentary on oppression of Serbs (as if!) – but once u watch it u cant unwatch it – the scenes will stay with u for a life timeline – for those that are adventurous track down the directors cut (it was banned basically everywhere when the film was released) – it ain’t metaphorical that’s exactly what the Serbs did and/ wanted to do to Croats – hence why we hate Serbs!
That movie is satanic.
Cornell’s Lucy Craig got red hair
Croatia got red checkers
There’s a lesson in that
Copper not red!
Ha!
She made off easy – we had to handle 11 of them 😉
I can’t wait for another massacre so Bilic can GTFO
I would never go with the same defensive line up as against England where we got thumped 7 – 0. Our defence is bad and the formation also needs to change, and I would start with 5 at the back.
Gvardiol has played three full matches and has been our worst defender and needs to be rested. Sutalo needs to come in and play as a CB.
We also need to give Kotarski or Pandur a go in goal.
Smolcic has the virus and looks like he won’t take any part in the match.
https://x.com/hnsfamily/status/2107226409894813925?s=46
Why is HNS posting a picture of Bati slipping during a shot with his ankle completely rolled over???
I mean u can end up sidelined with ligament damage from this (the foot looks really planted)
We really don’t need this
@anonymous. If you play through the movement by looking at the distribution of Bati weight, his kicking leg is following through and coming round. The weight is fully to the left so he is playing a curling shot. The standing foot often ends up like that, after the strike, when you play that shot. It facilitates a greater range of movement through the ball. He hasn’t slipped. There is no weight on the standing leg at this point and no risk of injury. It’s normal
Btw I have my first training session as a professional academy coach tomorrow! Nervous as hell. But I’ve planned it so hopefully I can put my money where my mouth is. Watch out Bilic!
You guys keep missing it. As usual I’ll bring you back down to earth
When maminjo claims we should expect championships, i always call that out for the ridiculousness it is
At the same time, to think this group can’t compete is also off base
This has been overwhelming a bilic problem with tactics. Bilic has an ultra aggressive press style. He inexplicably tried that against both England and Spain without the horses to do it.
The back line like looked terrible but it’s also cause they were put in an impossible position constantly scrambling to cover Englands quick movements through a wide open croatian midfield
As i said, there is a reason no one loses to England 7-0 and we did and it has to do with trying to play at their level
This is simple. Sit the whole team further back and grow into the game
I agree that most of us here are fixating too much on the backline personnel.
As if swapping out Vušković with Šutalo or Pongračić would have made a lick of difference. It probably could have gone worse.
The rest of the team simply couldn’t touch the ball for the first half hour of the game, and allowed England to dance around them all game and enter our third of the field unscathed.
Even the minnow teams out there would at least grab an opposing player’s shirt. Anything to stop them or just get them off their game.
I actually do believe that this virus likely contributed to the lethargic form of some of our players who played (now Smolčić caught it and it out for Spain) but still.
It’s not an excuse for this.
Vuskovic beat Arsenal 3-0
The issue ain’t Luka it’s what’s around him on the NT
Facts
Vusković was way too slow. While some of the mistakes were on Gvardiol’s part as the other defender you have to step on and have the speed to do so.
“Farther.”
I disagree with that lineup. Take Pasalic out. Put Perisic on left wing and on D you put Stanisic as one Back and Jakob on the other or slime Gvardiol to left back and bring in Surla / Erlic or Pong next to Vuskovic.
I meant Perisic on Right wing sub him out after 60
Erlic was not on the call up. Bilic’s options for defense are limited.
At this point it is very difficult to point to what a lineup should look like. To be honest I haven’t the faintest idea of who Bilic should put on the starting 11.
To be honest I think everyone else doesn’t have a clue either.
I think this is a period of rebuild that is what we are facing. It’s gonna be a shitty tournament or two till we get back to something consistent.
I am not expecting much out of this tournament at all at this stage. We will be lucky if we have a more consistent team by the Euros.
The fact that we don’t have a dynamic striker and now a very shaky defense shows a lot. On both sides of the field we are hurting, to top things off Bilic left is exposed in the middle which was our one strength.
I am not suggesting these players are not good, or that they won’t be ready I just think it’s going to take time.
Hypothetically- if croatia win tomorrow – would this be a successful international window ?
It depends on what people want out of the team. Croatia was supposed to be a consistent team. Won that could pull off wins more frequently.
I would say it depends on the win. If it is a convincing win then yes. If it not a convincing win then no, it would not be.
They have a lot of work to do after what those three games showed. While they won against the Czechs it was not a convincing win it was luck or the fact that the Czech are a much weaker side. Which is questionable by the result we got against Spain versus how they did against Spain.
We will be lucky if we don’t lose all three games at this rate.
For the first time i can recall, im not even enthused to watch our games atm : /
Our level is so far off England right now it’s scary. Forget England we’ve struggled with Scotland in recent years.
I’d be happy with a scrappy loss by 2 tomorrow.
Please more than 2! We need 4 for Bilić to go, Welcome to the shit show!
We didn’t struggle against Scotland we had changes in the squad Croatia was the better team when we faced Scotland. We just had some kinks and players who were problems.
Speaking of which that Euro tournament with Scotland was ours to win and lose. That was the tournament we should have won. Spain was weak at that point so was Italy and England were nowhere near where there were at this stage with Tuchel.
We had so many players that were headcases over the years. Kalinić, Rebić, Livaja. These players decisions that impacted the squad and left serious issues for the team. Whereas if they could have kept their mouths shut and played things could have been different. In the end it could have been for the best. At this point, we have to develop our youth and not look back.
But when you consider all this plus a tournament (Nations League) where we had ten players with different issues and still made it to the finals, I think Croatia has managed to do incredibly well and with consistency.
The problem right now is will they bounce back, I am not really sure. For Modric’s sake I hope so, he only has so many tournaments to go.
I dunno what to think.
Guys,
I’ve watched this team since the beginning, sjecam se 98 u staroj kući prije dolazka u SAD. I’ve never seen us so lifeless and pathetic. Someone else mentioned on the other thread that even during the Barić era we weren’t this impotent. Maminjo mentioned how we have had so many losses this calendar year, he’s not wrong. We have been trending poorly past several years.
In my opinion it’s a combination of our lack of elite depth and tactics. We don’t have modern fullback – period. Today’s nogomet is played with potent fullbacks that can get up and down the pitch, Stanišić ain’t that. He’s serviceable and responsible but he’s not a top tier fullback in the attacking half. Left back has been a void since Jarni.
We have to try this younger crop of players, they bring something our established senatori don’t have- hunger. Any time I watch the younger players, they’re flying all over the field, they have energy and passion. Jednostavno- oni grizu na terenu. This is not something that shows up on sofascore or opta per se, but look at our physicality against Spain and England. Duels, tackles, fouls are all a measurement of aggression and fight.
We looked like we were playing at 70% against England. We were slow to every 50/50, they out muscled us on practically every duel. Lack of commitment defensively when you don’t have guys diving or sliding to intercept passes. Vida and Lovren get their foot on at least two of those tap in goals where Vuško and Joško just watch the pass go past them. This part is not a Bilić problem! This component falls squarely on the players and their lack of desire. Bilić and Modrić can only motivate so much pre game- the players have to out and play with maximum effort.
Don’t get me wrong Bilić is ultimately responsible for the results. His tactic of playing the high line with improper defensive midfielders and lack of pace in the back 4 was catastrophic. However, some onus is on the squad for their lethargic performance and lack of defensive discipline. I lost count but like the 4/5th goal Baturina is standing right next to the goal scorer Saka in our 5 meters when the ball is wide to Bellingham and just starts jogging away from him to the top of the box??? Wtf??? Where is your professional discipline?!
This team lacks discipline and fight. I hate to think that our recent success has gone to their heads where the players believe they can stroll out there and not have to grit their teeth to come out on top. Dalić kept this in perspective. He always talked about how we have a target on our back and will get everyone’s best shot because we have been so successful. He’s not wrong there. England were licking their chops to embarrass us after our performance against Spain.
I’m not saying we need a disciplinarian as izbornik, but Bilić has to go back to the basics. He needs to light a fire under these players asses and if they don’t have the hunger any more then we bring on younger blood. There has to be accountability for poor performance, and there is no better motivator than riding the bench!
HNS taking sound-bites from ❤️ Srna ❤️
You know it’s serious / they mean business
Put some flyers on Croatia to win tomorrow – great odds – banking on Croatian mentality to be correct and focused
https://x.com/hnsfamily/status/2107184328820089101?s=46
Got our republic to win tomorrow @10-1.
Why not
That’s actually a great bet to take with that kind of payout
Good move.
Crazy good payout despite it being a game in Split. Anything can happen.
Yeah, my thought process exactly
It’s already dropped to 9-1.
People are taking that bet.
I know…
Some coin is being put on the croats
Started at 11-1 this morning 😉
The Spain odds have tightened too – the draw odds have widened
Modric will die on the field tomorrow – he’s too proud to let the kids, misfits and other geriatrics ruin his reputation – he will channel his inner little Luka shepherding in the mountains and finding out the Serbs killed his grandfather and inject it into their arms and souls
If we break Spain’s 42 unbeaten streak most on her will again be reactive and say we’re the best team in the World ha!
gledam španjolsku konferenciju za medije i jebeni Olmo priča bolji hrvatski nego Matanović, Pašalić i Stanišić.
priča bolji kajkavski možda
the left flank will get killed with this line-up. Perisic at LB again….very dumb.
WTF does Jakic have to do to get back in this line-up? MLS Pasilic is not even a starter for Orlando.
Matano
Perisic – Bati – L Susic
Kova – Susic
Stani – Gvardi – Vusko – Jakic
Pandur
Good line up
Issue is didn’t Bilic say all players will get minutes – so can see Majer starting and Budimir (he hasn’t started yet)
If Bilic is going to start a another geezer who is 35 yrs old he can go F himself. Start looking for a new coach right now.
Bilic didn’t have the balls to cut some of the older players from the squad and call up Jaga, Sega or pretty much anyone else with a heart beat that can play left back.
When they released the squat list for Nation’s League I knew it was over for Bilic.
Bilic said in the presser that the three oldest players LM10 Kova and Perisic were the only ones with energy last game
He also said he’s against youth
Wish was kiding but his words
I like Jakic always puts in a shift unlike rich players who probably just impressing their super model Gfs.
Jakic has to be one of the most disrespected National Team players of all time.
He one of a few players who can play multiple positions and they just leave him to rot on the bench FFS.
For sure, he’s also got the coolest hair on the squad as well.
Very important for psyche
@zds good line up
Some good ideas but . . . not sure this is the very best CroatianSports lineup. . .
For example, perhaps Matanovic should start instead of Beljo . . .
Bit će jedan na jedan. Ubacite sve mlade dečke unutra.