But don’t you worry, Bilić rolled out a C-squad against the World Cup champs consisting of Pongračić, Smolčić & Mišić. Modrić and Baturina did not start.
Unpopular opinion: this was a “throw away” game to keep the Vatreni fresh for two huge matches this week against England and Spain on Croatian soil.
October 3rd: vs. 🏴England in Rijeka
October 6th: vs. 🇪🇸Spain in Split
Big props to Beljo on his goal which made things interesting for a few minutes in the 1st half. The Dinamo striker has been on absolute FIRE this season!
80′ SUB Modrić comes on for the final 10 minutes to a standing ovation from the Sevilla faithful. Petar Sučić comes off.
63′ Goal Spain. 3-1. Lamine Yamal takes a dummy in the box and goes 1v1 on Barca teammate Dominik Livaković. Yamal winds up and smashes the ball, kissing it off the near post. It happened so quick there really wasn’t anything for Livaković to do.
60′ SUBS. Beljo and Kocačić come out. Budimir and Mario Pašalić come in.
55′ YELLOW CARD. Mišić picks up Croatia’ s 4th yellow card this match after a late leg whack on a Spaniard.
52′ YELLOW CARD. Marco Pašalić picks up a caution after a weird build up with Cuccarella who instigated the contact.
SUB Pongračič out. Vušković in.
HT Spain up 2-1. Spain could easily have 3-4 goals at this juncture so the fact this is still a game as Croatia play their C-squad is a big deal. Vatreni with tons of fight as this match is getting chippy. Perišić playing well and his crosses are on point. Beljo with a header goal against the World Cup champs! Who had that on their BINGO card tonight?
45′ Spain rocks the ball off the far post.
37′ Petar Sučić picks up a ridiculous yellow card after he tries to pop the ball over Simon. Ridiculous. He should have gone with the header. This game is getting dicey.
36′ Livaković spills the ball in front of goal and Spain scores. However, play is ruled offside.
31′ Spain scores. 2-1. Lamal crosses the ball into the box following a corner and Pubil easily heads home. Šutalo looked to have an eye not he ball but it went over his head. The equalizer did not last long. This is now the third time this week Croatia has scored a goal and immediately conceded within five minutes. This is a problem and becoming a trend. Not good.
28′ GOOOOOOOALLLL!!! 1-1 as Croatia tie it up. Perišić with a perfect cross from the left flank and Beljo climbs the ladder to head home inside the left post. WOW!!! Beljo can’t stop scooting in the HNL for Dinamo and now he has a goal to his name against the World Cup champions. Remember, Spain only conceded one goal the entire World Cup in eight matches…and that came against Belgium in the quarterfinals.
27′ Livaković playing great. This will only up his stock in front of the Spanish fanbase as he now plays for Barcelona.
18′ Cubarsi with a fine shot for Spain but it goes just wide of the far post.
15′ Pongračić picks up a yellow in the attacking half for a late tackle.
3′ Livaković with a great save! Could be 2-0 already. This Croatia C-squad looks rattled early. Hopefully the floodgates do not open tonight.
2′ Spain goal. 1-0. Before the seats are even warm in Sevilla, Lamal scores. The ball is passes across the box left to right, a Spain attacker dummies the ball and Yamine Lamal is left WIDE OPEN. He hits a perfect shot far and low. Nothing Livaković could do.
Alright…here we go!
After a fortuitous result against Czechia in Prague over the weekend, our beloved Vatreni travel to Spain Tuesday night to take on the World Cup champions in Sevilla. This will be Spain’s first match on home soil since winning their 2nd title in New York over the summer. I imagine the pre-game festivities inside the stadium leading up to the opening weekend are going to be crazy with tons of atmosphere.
Spain came back from behind to defeat England 3-2 at Wembley on Saturday. Spain are HEAVY, HEAVY, HEAVY betting favorites in Vegas at -650 against Croatia. I would happily take a draw in this match all day long as the last time Spain lost a competitive match was June 2025 when they lost to Portugal in a penalty shootout during the Nations League Final.
I expect Bilić to roll out a B-squad in this match. Why?
This is a tough match on Spanish soil against the best team in the world. Personally, I would rather conserve our best squad for the Spain return leg in Split next week. Poljud is going to be rocking in a week’s time. Playing out competitive matches against some of the toughest competition in the world is not easy. I would not blame Bilić one iota if he went light in Sevilla.
Stanisić is out with an illness. Baturnina is available after recovering from an illness.
🚨 DO NOT HIT THE PANIC BUTTON! 🚨 Bilić is treating Spain in Sevilla as a “throw away” game…and this is unpopular opinion, but CroatianSports is okay with the decision.
Remember, Croatia have 4 games in 11 days this international cycle. That’s a lot of football to be played, especially with guys like Modrić 41 years young.
The match vs. Spain in Split (Poljud) will be the crown jewel of this Nations League campaign. We expect two A-level lineups vs. England and Spain on Croatian soil in the next week.
What really bothers me, is that the media were laughing and mocking us during their coverage of the game . And that Lexi Lalas is a smug bastard. JMO
The tactics are good. The problem is so so many individual errors. All caused by terrible decision making. It’s like the players are retarded. It’s a confidence thing. At some point the tide will turn and we will be fantastic. When does that happen? We have to wait and see. But certain players have been bone heads for too long and I’ve lost patience with them. Smolcic did well. No complaints about him at all. Misic actually did ok. Main culprits were sutalo, pong, but also Marco p, Petar sucic, Perisic, and others making completely ridiculous decisions during the game. Forcing things when just keeping possession was the right choice. Spain are the opposite, every single decision every single pass every single run is the right one. It’s baffling and painful to watch our national team do things out there which are just amateur, literally not even professional football standard. But these things change quickly once something starts building. We’ll be ok
Sutalo at midfield?? Has he ever played Midfield?? Let’s give him a break. Coach Bilić was resting key players and it was a special night in Spain. The 2 home games will say a lot more where we are. Go Croatia!
No, the tactics were no good.
And we won’t be ok until the sideshow Bob’s retire once and for all.
Then we’ll be k
no shame losing to spain. we can not play on their level. nobody can. maybe france and they are better than france. 2022 world cup was a miracle. we plazyed like shit and got lucky with penalty kicks while being outplayed by japan and brazil. that got dalic to stay lomger but it hurt us keeping him. we should be eliminated in group matches by belgium but that monkey missed his chances.
2024 euro = zero wins.
2026 world cup = barely beat panama and ghana, out in round of 32.
we do not have quality to be a top nation now. our best forwards are no good. and our best players are 40 and 38 years old. good luck slaven because you will need it.
looking at youth ranks there is not much there
2018 lucky? Then I will take luck. Pasteur says ‘chance favors the trained mind’ and Dalic had his teams prepared. Great ‘22 memories! 2024, we had two heartbreaker ties. And we got shortchanged against Portugal on the ball that ‘hit’ Matanovic’s head. Let’s give coach Bilić a chance. Go Croatia!
Spain was great but several (not all) of their players played dirty. They took a lot of cheap shots at our players. The ref needs to hand out yellow cards otherwise it will go on and on until our players explode. Maybe that’s the point.
Spain was able to complete way too many crisp passes into the box. Our defenders were caught flat footed. We didn’t make any such passes. We missed Stanisic and Modric. Majer and Jakic deserve chances. Kova was great again. We need to rely on him even more in transition. I thought Misic was out of sync with the offense.
It’s easy when you win. The real test for a coach is holding it together through rough patches. Spain and England are tough tests. Dalic was especially good at keeping the team together. I hope Bilic will be able to do as well.
1) you ask for a new coach ✅
2) you want new players ✅
3) you want better set plays ✅
4) you want a more attractive system ✅
5) you want Vuskovic and Gvardiol playing together ✅
look folks, lets start at the silly comments I see. criticizing Smolcic and Misic while giving excuses to Gvardiol (two bad games in a row) and Vuskovic ( who played so-so vs Czechia and better today). if you’re going to be critical then be fair about it. both Smolcic and Misic had their work cut out for them against the best team in the world.
everything starts at the top, where Bilic stands and we can look down the line and begin to analyze from there.
did we look like we were dangerous at any point of the game?
did our style of play impress you these last 2 games?
were we organized and break out well for our counter-attacks?
Today I noticed something I haven’t seen in a long time. both Kova and Misic had troubles finding open players to pass to which forced them to either attempt to dribble or force a pass. thats often looked at as if they were poor but the truth is they need passing options and didn’t have many.
my guess is that Bilic is saving what he thinks is his best 11 for England. the guy loves England, he lived there for years and I don’t think he did much that was noticeable for todays game other than bring in players we’ve been asking to see.
Nice post and all but you’re dreaming
As predicted
All 4 goals/creations came from the wings
Zero from central
Anonymous said u need to 2 v 1 both sides to shut down the wingers
Bilic didn’t listen
4 goals
It’s just Šutalo bro, all 3 goals, the 3rd one is Mario Pašalić letting Pedri play that, there’s no preventing Lamine from scoring that if he has the quality, Livakovic had no chance.
Perisic, Kovacic and Gvardiol all did fine vs Lamine, Lamine only competed 1 dribble out of 9. It was when our Cb’s had to step up, the Cb that did well was Vuskovic, when the other Cb had to defend (sutalo), he did nothing.
Attacking wise Baturina hasn’t played a single minute yet despite being our best player, his impact will be immense when he’s back. Our strikers have been good Beljo and Matanovic, Musa would be good too, budimir is struggling but not too bad at least.
Spain is on another level than everyone else. They have no weaknesses now that they 2 wingers with great speed and dribbling. Yamal is almost unstoppable. Hopefully we can get a result at home against England. The goal in the end is to finish third which they most likely will.
We didn’t finish 23rd and 26th in the last 2 tourneys because we were unlucky, we’re plain shit.
The 2018 finalists should have been their last dance
Oh but no, keep playing 80’s borns
Whether we like it or not, Modric, Kovacic, and Perisic are still some of our better players. These games coming up at home will tell us more about our team. I hope that a week together should give a little more order and stability to the team. I miss Zlatko but let us give Coach Bilić a chance.
Bring back Dalic and 20 cases of rosaries, Bilic and these guys stink
Boy how we change our tune. We knock down Dalic so much and his piety and now we want him back? Let’s be patient as Coach Bilić has only had one week. I am more intrigued how we will do at home. Go Croatia!
Don’t need to see Mišić again.
Still need to figure out the back line. They need a consistent center back partnership.
Ivanović looked lively when he came on. The future at left wing when Perišić retires?
Franjo has to tighten up some of the cheap giveaways. I do like the effort though.
I wasn’t crazy about the Misic performance. Let’s see what Nejasmic can do at that position.
For those of you who thought Croatia would win this match, go back on your meds. Spain’s B team would beat our A team at home. They are clearly the best team in the world. And Croatia’s team isn’t the 1998 or 2018 team guys.
“60′ SUBS. Beljo and Kocačić come out. Budimir and Mario Pašalić come in.”
You too now Ante?!
Smolčić actually doing pretty well locking up the wing, it’s Šutalo and Pongračić who are playing awful. Nice goal from Beljo, Perisic great, Gvardiol doing solidly generally but id still rather him cb, I don’t blame him for that first goal that’s all sutalo not challenging the guy and letting him play a pass across the backline, Vuskovic would stop that. Šutalo multiple blunders, especially the 2nd goal, and very bad in possession, almost gave the ball away for a free goal. Pongracic also gave away possession cheaply and doesn’t challenge for the ball well, Šutalo and Pongračić just always let the attacker play the ball in the box or shoot without challenging it, they’re lucky if they block it. Kovacic challenging Lamine yamal well in their build up but it doesn’t matter when sutalo and Pongracic come into play.
Šutalo at fault for first 2 goals and all major chances (Pongracic for a few too).
Mario pasalic fault on 3rd for letting Pedri play that under 0 pressure but Lamine beating Livakovic on the near post gotta be some shit he knew would work from training or something.
Mišić good in the challenge but he’s showing how good modrić is. Mišić keeps moving the ball too quickly, he’s afraid of pressure and giving the ball to our players in awful positions making it hard on them, I think Petar Sucic is enough defensive support for modric and Kovacic.
Mario pasalic comes on and lets Pedri play a good ball in under no pressure, Kovacic was keeping it locked down, bad choice putting Mario in, unless he gets a goal later Mario has been a net minus.
Too bad Beljo got pulled too he was playing well.
Vuskovic major improvement over Pongracic so far.
When I saw the starting back 4, the Yamal 10/10 Sofascore was obvious, Šutalo makes the guy look like Messi.
Gvardiol better at cb, it’s better for Gvardiol to be the one to clear the ball in the box rather than the one defending 1on1 with the winger, Smolcic looks really good 1on1 vs dribblers tho although the guys slow in transitions which stanisic is not, Perisic good at LW but we need Baturina and Perisic still defends a lot like a fullback but attacks best out of all our defenders giving huge advantage, the opposite winger either stays forward and lets Perisic and Baturina run havoc on their fullback, or they drop back and become less effective in attack meaning Perisic gets more value being a LB, plus his crosses are amazing. Vušković has been good in the air too. Really shows how much we need modrić still to actually compete with the best midfields and control matches. Should have put modric not Mario pasalic, guys like Jagusic not getting the chance to start but Mario keeps getting it is baffling.
It’s too bad Ivanovic can’t get it together with his passes, so cheap, Baturina would help drastically here.
Didn’t even finish the paragraph and Šutalo lets a 4th from the 1v1 with Nico Williams, can we please now accept that our horrible goal talley over the past 3 years has just been Šutalo and Pongračić, they can’t be called up. Also sucks seeing Gvardiol gets tired running so much from fullback when he could easily play 90 minutes at CB.
Ffsake Ole Ole we are being laughed at
England gets to play against a 10 man team now and is able to run up the goal differential.
I’m only able to see the game via a gamecast and it’s looking just atrocious.
Oh good! Handball by Vuskovic…
Feel so sorry for perisic dealing with these dopes
I’m calling for the mercy rule
It was prefect time to put on modric but no he puts out the other Pašalić
Unbelievable
Weak goal for Liva to give up…
Bilić 2.0 is not going to work out I’m afraid
Why on earth do you put on Mario Pašalić for Kovacic
Ludicrous
Bad sub
Yeah Kovacic was running the team with Perisic. Nonsense taking him out.
No identity
Too old
Too slow
https://soccerstreams100.st/match/spain-vs-croatia
wtf was that Pasalic yellow, Cuckarella was the one who runs into him then dives
March 24, 2007
Bilic Sat my Darijo Srna in the 1st half
Bilic brought him on 2nd half and Srna ran like a madman and helped Croatia beat Macedonia
After the game Bilic said he made a mistake sitting Srna and wouldn’t happen again
Same tactic 19 years later ?
History repeating itself ?
U know what to do Vusko
LMAO
Sure Bilic
Bring on 19 y/o Vuskovic for the 2nd half
Come on man let the boy rest/load manage
https://soccerstreams100.im/sports/football/spain-croatia/66828/
Guys
Who has a link please and hvala
Try ppv.rw
It’s not the smoothest but it’s working so far
Sutalo. That was absolutely terrible defending for second goal. Like so bad. I’m done with him. He didn’t check his shoulder once.
Okay obviously there is a lot of negative to say and we’re preserving our best line because we know we’re probably going to lose this game… but we’re also finally getting to see how things go when we dare to make bigger changes :
– Even if Marco Pasalic is not always the smartest, for the first time in forever we have two actual real wingers starting and it DOES give us more width.
– For the first time in a while it feels like in this first half so far our weakness is in the middle, and I think that’s because of Misic (who was bad for the 1st goal and also sucked for another goal that was offside in the end)
Take him out and put Petar there with Kova instead.
Then put Luka Sucic or Vlasic there (or one of the 1000 number 10 we got lol)
Oh yeah and Vuskovic instead of Pong
Also I kinda like Smolcic!
Smolcic is a hard worker. He’s done pretty well.
When does Vušković come on seriously
Filthy spain
No Vuśković = Zero aerial presence
Sutalo showed the full 3” of his vertical
Owowow
I hope Dalic is praying for this team. Bilic , you better start praying this is crap.
Terrible line up and terrible start
Beljo and music and pongracic and smolcic selections are head scratchers for me
Seriously? It doesn’t matter the lineup. You don’t give up a 2” goal.
As suggested
Franjo needed to be LW as he would have cut that pass off to Yamal
Perisic strolling back
Vuskovic would have stepped up and cut off the play as ball pass thru
Sutalo half ass walks up and does nothing
Levels
Makes sense pero up high? Misic not in proper position doing nothing as the #6
Makes sense!
Matador defense in Sevilla
As Britney says
Link me baby one more time!
Have time to watch today
Love to see our B squad roll into Spain and spank them
I think Luka will be subbed on as a final good bye to Spain
Last game
In 63’
Igor covered 7.3km
Of which 1.17km was running
That’s the benchmark DDB has to beat today ie on equivalent per minutes basis
Let’s see
Poor Pero
Gets stuck with the B team lol
He has to do the running for basically 8 other players (Kova can run in his own)
He has to press forward for Beljo
Cover Kova if he bombs forward
Cover Misic if he slots in if Pong does an end to end run
Etched
Poor Pero
He only has 212 minutes at Inter this season (compared to Vuskovic 708 minutes) so he’s obviously told Bilic he wants/needs these minutes
Some needs to check Bilić’s Bet365 and GermaniaSport accounts.
I got a good laugh last game thinking about the excitement on this board for the bilic era and the introduction of the youth only to see a bald, 33 year old hnl misic checking into the game. And now he starts vs Spain. Was he on that top 10 call up list?
Funny enough, I’m pretty sure they had him pretty high on that list.
But yeah if the plan was to play the B team you’d think we should’ve given our younger players a shot.
Really don’t see the point of having Misic even in the squad. If we wanted a DM could’ve given someone like Darko Nejašmić a chance instead.
We will get smashed. If we concede less then 5 goals it will be a moral victory.
Pong starting……LOL
Honestly this is a 4 game in 12 days type lineup- bilic new spain was going with an experimental lineup, he didnt want to bring an A squad and get pounded!
He also needs to get eyes on everyone, see how practice translates to game time performance etc.. thats why he has a 26 man camp- too bad bati is out , this would be a fun test for him
No Vuskovic LMAO
DDB
Perisic Pero Marco
Kova Misic
Josko Pong Sutalo Smolcic
Liva
Also no Bati
I’m just patiently waiting for people to start criticizing Bilic for not starting Vuskovic, like Dalic did.
could they see things on the ground level that we don’t or are they just blind?
also, no Gvardiol at centre back…this might be telling us something we have already seen but won’t admit because we all have our ego’s!
I think this may be a ‘playing with house money’ type of lineup to keep most of our guys rested for more winnable matches. This international window has a lot of games in a short amount of time. Beating Czech away puts us in a good position to not go all out in every match.
Agree Stjepan
Bilic going for the win next game vs England
I like the lineup. every player is quality and can compete…have some faith Stjepan!
Haha, have to live up to my Croatian cynic roots.
this person would be telling the people who were killed in Vukovar to not worry too much because the serbs are not that bad…… misic, marco pasalic, pong, etc do not rpovide quality against teams like spain
Josko has to play LB – there is no other option – someone has to defend Yamal and it ain’t 37 yo Perisic
Maybe Bilic doesn’t want to confuse Vuskovic by now playing him with a new CB partner?
Next game when Stanisic returns Josko moves back to CB and Vuskovic comes back too?
Vuskovic already played 708 at Brighton this year – he can’t/shouldn’t play 4 more games in 12 days – if he plays 2 or 3 max that’s fine – on the other side Sutalo and Pong barely played this year so they actually need minutes
Sutalo is a very good player that had a bad experience with a bad Ajax last season. Pong did well in the World Cup for us. far too many people, including me (calling him a red card waiting to happen), don’t give him enough credit. he’s tough and a dirty player and thats challenging to attackers.
Josko hasn’t been great for some time. Lets call it like it is and hope he gets back on track.
I love Vuskovic and I love his fighting spirit he brings. the guy really demonstrates every game has small battles all over the field and he loves to come out on top of every one of them!
Spain is a very organized team that requires experienced defenders and lots of physicality to stop them.
I actually like this lineup…minus Beljo! I prefer Matanovic but oh well!
Sutalo was one of the best players on the field in his last game for Lazio. . .
Let’s hope he is now on track and can maintain that form.
Agree. Save Vuskovic for the two games back home. He can’t play all four.
I think this is more Bilić protecting Vuskovic, he knows we’re gonna get pumped.
This is a throw-away game. Nothing more to be said. Bunker and pray. All we can do. Bilic saving his best squads for next week in CRO.
Still no lineup
But this video 20 minutes ago shows Perisic jersey with captain arm band on the hanger
That confirms no Modric
@ anonymous
L sucic is never gonna have a lot of tackles not every player is the same. To me which I’ve stated in another comment which is not going through L sucic is more like kramaric than kova or modric. Except in the #10 role he still can hold the ball and pass better so you don’t sacrifice possession.
I’m sure olic back in the day ran way harder than rakitic and had more duals but we didn’t go hey let’s not play rakitic because he doesn’t run like olic hell hey also never really ran like Modrić or Brozo.
When I look at this team in next tournament
Modric isn’t playing, kova and P sucic are in the #8.
If we develop good wingers that are good then fine put baturina im the middle and L sucic goes to bench. But right now I don’t see a better option than baturina on left, which leaves L sucic behind striker.
On the right I see a lot of players including Jaga if he plays, no reason he can’t be like baturina is on the left.
In my mind we don’t have a # 6 that is at a level to start in national team.
What you’re describing for Luka Sucic is what I called a luxury player or luxury 10
Krama works at Hoffenheim because all the players around him run – he’s survived there bc they are mid-table team
What your describing requires peak James Maddison or Bundesliga Florian Wirtz level skill in the 10 which Luka Sucic hasn’t shown (he could barely get the ball past a debut LB for Czech) – he’s not that player
The game has moved away from those luxury 10s anyways – it’s more Jude Bellingham type that run and contribute
A few months ago I rewatched Euro 1996 Croatia Turkey – couldn’t believe how much Prosinecki and Boban were running back and forth and they were attacking midfielders – this was Zuti already at Barca and Madrid – he didn’t need to run around but he did
No clue what you’re saying about Rakitic – he was one of the leading players in the whole La Liga on distance covered running and played a ton of games – he was very responsible defensively covering for RB Alves bombing forward and Suarez Messi and Neymar in front of him
The Croatia NT has in fact never had a midfielder who didn’t run and wasn’t also responsible defensively – there is not one example I can think of that just pranced around the pitch
And the proof is in the Bilic pudding – that’s why he’s putting the biggest engine and workhorse of all Pero in the 10
No denying Pero main guy no bigger fan than me. But he’s not a #10, also this comparison Luka played against a player on his wing that sucks in the Czech league is nonsense. Guy plays week in and week out in La liga, always with the cheering picking.
Always with a comment to make an argument stick, Frajo every time he played been the same weather it’s against a top country or Faroe Islands runs and then nothing in final third. Whether he plays against a part time footballer or a EPL player same shit. He’s a striker and that’s it not a winger.
Also last comment on L sucic if he never ran he wouldn’t play at real. He doesn’t have status to just go on the field and coast. The guy covers a lot of ground for a guy who plays behind a striker his heat map shows this. You don’t play 120 mins in a cup final by just being a player that stands on the field.
Spain released their starting XI 1 3/4 hours pre kick off – seems early before deadline? Hopefully Bilic can review and amend his as necessary
https://x.com/sefutbol/status/2104978301919883440?s=46
Disrespectful lineup
Rodri and Olmo out in midfield
Zubimendi and Fermin come in
Laporte out as CB
Cool Guy Dean Huijsen in
Nico Williams and Ferran Torres out
Alex Baena and Oyarz in
So so arrogant on Spain’s part
It’s too bad juranovic isn’t available I don’t like Smolcic next to Vuskovic two slow players next to each other. Might be a long day at the office.
I think after today people will be off the Smolcic train hopefully I’m wrong, he seems like a normal guy.
With misic Marco pasalic Bilić will either look like a genius or putz.
I think the bigger issue with Smolcic is that he hasn’t been playing club football.
He’s always been a fringe starter at Como, but he’s only played about 45
minutes this season. Now he’s being thrown against Spain. Sink or swim game for him.
I agree with you on this but I think we don’t have another option. I for one like Smolcic but I don’t think he’s in form at the moment.
Think he sticks to back 4 (too much risk back 3 – he’ll get flamed like Dalic if it goes wrong)
Jakic over Smolcic at RB – Jakic has proved he can fill in at RB – the only memory of Smolcic is he being slow vs Wales – don’t think Jakic is significantly faster but u agree cant have Vuskovic and Smolcic next to each other
Jakic or Smolcic – that’s why 100% u need Vlasic at RW like against Ghana and Portugal (we conceded 2nd the minute he went off and stopped helping Stanisic on Laeo) for Nico Williams
Left flank would have Perisic and Franjo – Franjo there for the physicality and defensive work rate ability to help with Yamal
Guess that means Bati plays the #10 central
Can’t see Luka Sucic starting this match based on what I saw last game – he’s a luxury wanna be creator with the odd shot – but lacks a complete game as eg he had 2 duels while Franjo had 12 last game
Jakic deserves to play. He has played well for the Repka.
Also have a hunch / smell Mario Pasalic for this game for some reason
we can lose 3-0 and that doens’t mean Bilic is a putz. spain is best national team in the world. we can lose 1-0 but get completely outplayed. or win can give them plenty of trouble but give up bad goals to lose 4-1. let us wait and see how we look. many times the result of the game can be misleading.
Matanovic not in the squad today – maybe a dion game
I want Perisic to play his natural position vs Spain and I also want to see Bati in his natural 10 position. P. Susic is the Croatian “Valverde” and will do well at right back.
Liva
P. Susic – Vusko – Sutalo – Gvardi
Misic – Kova
L. Susic – Bati – Perisic
Matano
@ZDS lifestyle
L Sucic is to me the next kramaric but better at keeping possession and passing. He really should only play the #10 role and that’s it. If he starts only that role if we’re down a goal and he’s a sub whatever position. If he can’t start in the ten role then bench.
When I look at the last game a lot of our threatening chances in first half he was part of. He’s very offensive minded, he’s not gonna be the next Kova or modric that’s P sucic and baturina like I said he’s the next kramaric but can help out with keeping possession so your not giving that up by starting him.
Also there can’t be a lineup without P Sucic to me most important player.
@ maminjo I liked your lineup, better than whats reported. I think i would roll this out against spain.
………………..Sutalo ……………………Vuskovic………………………Gvardiol………………..
Smolcic…………….Kova………………P Sucic……………..Baturina………..Perisic……….
……………………………………………………..L Sucic…………………………………………………
………………………………………………………Matanovic…………………………………………….
No stanisic no Juranovic smolcic gets the start were gonna play by default in our own half most of the time this is how i owuld roll.
Yea, it seems like everyone is reporting something different.
I do like that Bilic keeps his cards close to his chest. Every predicted lineup had Vlasic starting against Czech, but he barely even played.
Right now, it seems like any one of Matanovic, Beljo or Budimir is starting. Misic in place of Modric seems to be consensus…for now. Backline supposedly remains the same, plus Smolcic…or maybe Sutalo. Who knows. Baturina allegedly back, but who is playing along that offensive line (P.Sucic, L.Sucic, Marco?) I have no idea.
Curious to see the starting lineup once it’s released.
SN just now release this lineup less than 10 minutes ago:
Livaković – Smolčić, Vušković, Gvardiol, Perišić – Kovačić, Mišić, P. Sučić – Marco Pašalić, Budimir, Mario Pašalić.
So now we have Mario Pasalic possibly starting on the wing. The Dalic special, ha ha.
😉
Luka Sucic prancing around the field – not able to beat a first cap LB the whole game – and not helping defensively, including on the first goal sleeping
Meanwhile
Matthew Mayich (Modric is the screen saver on his phone) pushes himself in the Arizona sun on his first training until he gets heat-stroked and ends up hospitalized
Levels to this Croatian thing
Personally will be shocked if Vlasic isn’t utilized like in the Ghana and Portugal role – Smolcic (or even Jakic) aren’t the fastest FBs and you need to 2 v 1 Nico Williams on that side – Misic needs to provide serious cover for the back 4 – you also can’t have Lamal vs. Perisic for 90 minutes and Baturina isn’t 100% reliable defensively yet on that “LW” side (see Portugal – when he didn’t really help Perisic) – so you need a solution for the left side too (Franjo was really responsible defensively last game – so he’s a good option)
Musa must be really crap at training – he’s been left out again today from the squad – Majer too – as are Stanisic (virus) and Matanovic – Beljo will get his chance today (I’m actually looking forward to seeing if he’s fixed his attitude and can really work for the team today)
@CroatiaFooty
🇭🇷🇪🇸 Croatia’s expected XI for tonight’s Nations League clash against Spain:
Livaković – Smolčić, Vušković, Gvardiol, Perišić – Kovačić, Mišić, Petar Sučić – Marco Pašalić, Budimir, Baturina.
Luka Modrić is expected to be rested, while Josip Stanišić is out.
[Sportske novosti]
U also have Cucurella on that left side at LB – he’ll easily shut down Marco and bomb forward – so you 100% need Vlasic to deal with Cucurella and Nico Williams
Pedro Porro is injured – so the Marc Pubill filling in at RB – so Croatia needs to focus attacking down Spain’s right side – and just shut down the offensive on Spain’s left side – if you start Baturina on the “LW” – then you need to man mark Yamal or something (but that will open space for others/in the middle of the pitch – so not as easy as just sticking Kova on him with Misic in front of back 4)
We need to get them back after they beat us in our first Nations League game after we won silver in 2018.
Biggest ever loss.
Hrvatska in World Cup pens, 4-0.
Hrvatska in Nations League pens, 0-2.
We had em!