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.
Torcida want a new stadium
Plentko says renovation
Boban wants Yugo communist brutalist crap
Plentko says try again
We’ve lately been spending billions to upgrade our army.
I’m glad we’re doing that, but at the same time, what’s one less howitzer or one less cruiser if you can use the billion to get yourself a handful of elite class stadiums.
Nice to see the U19 call up more players that have never even played in the HNL while leaving Skafar Zuzic with the U18
MORONS!
https://x.com/nkslavenbelupo/status/2105355391374700569?s=46
Skafar Zuzic is preparing for the under 17 World Cup. That generation looks pretty good with him Dedic Bartolovic and Pavic.
Teo Barisic
Posted him slow walking and dribbling
The biggest issue is the muscle mass the players lose when they blow their knees
He had strong legs – now his legs look like anorexic pre-pubescent girls legs – in particular his right leg where he blew his ACL – it’s a little toothpick
So sad to see – it will take months to put back some muscles in the legs – nevermind regain full fitness
Liam Kante scored in 3-2 win U17 today
He’s progressing well – need him for the Euros
https://x.com/crotalentscout2/status/2105310220314452386?s=46
can not wait for all the people who cry about spain and portugal being african teams. will you say same about hrvatska if we start using crnci.
Don’t worry, we’ll bleach him up good like Beyoncé
Was yesterday the first time in 135 caps Kova started without Modric next to him ?
*119
Ok time to highlight the positives from yesterday’s game.
1. Beljo was good. I had serious concerns that beljo doesn’t have the all round game to be effective at top level. He has. His movement, strength, positioning and decision making were very good yesterday. That’s before taking into account his goal which he finished easily. How many times we’ve seen other strikers put that chance over the bar. Beljo is now a genuine option up top
2. Smolcic is no Cafu. He is not a big talent. BUT, he consistently handled the ball well under pressure and made the right decisions. That’s what we need. Better to have a right back who is solid than one who looks like a genius one minute and a mess the next. Smolcic is solid. We now know he is a genuine option at RB.
3. Gvardiol did well 1 vs 1 against Yamal. Yes Yamal scored 2 and set up another, but for a long time 1 vs 1 defending has been Joško biggest weakness with countless examples of giving too much space to the winger. He proved that even far away from full fitness and form he is still improving. It also shows that Bilić is doing a good job coaching. Joško stayed closer to Yamal and was afraid to tackle him. We haven’t seen that at Man City. It means Bilić is telling him to trust himself more in those situations. So good player + good coaching there.
4. The shape of the game was actually good. Too many times under Dalic we have played the whole game against top teams defending our box. That wasn’t the case here. We had multiple solutions to beat their press, several good situations on the break and some sustained periods of possession in their half. All this despite countless mistakes from the players. This shows that the basic plan is working well and we are being bolder and more aggressive in our approach. That’s what we all wanted. It will take time to gel.
5. Vuskovic immediately made a difference when came on. Proving once more that he is completely fearless and brings quality in both defense and with the ball.
6. Perisic and Kovacic are still very very good players and committed to the cause.
7. Bilić was fuming at the end. Regardless of the lineup and transition to a new style he expects serious performance level no matter what. That’s a standard we need and Bilić expects it.
Those are the positives as I see it and I believe they are significant
I agree with all of this.
If I were to pick one, I would say that the biggest positive is that this is Kovacic’s third competitive game in a row for us where he’s arguably been the best player on the field.
He’s never played this well for us, let alone for this many games in a row.
Most of us had starting thinking of transitioning away from him in the midfield, but if he plays like this, then we have ourselves another top caliber central midfielder on par with Baturina and Petar Sucic for the next tournamen or two.
As for the biggest negative…
For me, it was Bilic subbing in Mario Pasalic for Kovacic.
It officially signaled that we were not interested in trying to tie up this game despite there still being 30 minutes left in the game.
I understand that Bilic wanted to rest guys for England, but the game was still 2-1 despite half of our starters being new callups and backup caliber players all playing together for the first time. We had very few players capable of creating offense in the starting eleven, and then we decided to take out one of our best defensive performers too.
I thought we could have just went for it, and subbed in Modric and Baturina (which would have made a huge difference). Even Luka Sucic or Majer would have given us creative offensive options, and Majer always gives Spain fits.
Taking Kova out and replacing him with a defensively-inept Pasalic (who cannot create offensively either) was a very bad move that led to Spain scoring two more goals on us.
Modric ended up playing for 10 minutes anyway, with immediate impact seen on the field…but that was Bilic giving the fans a glimpse of Modric (and not really looking to tie things up as it was too little too late).
Just a terrible terrible sub that ruined the game for me.
Fair enough. Hard to disagree with that
Kovacic is world class.
With Kova, Baturina, and Petar Sucic in the midfield, and the likes of Modric and Majer providing support, we are good. Jagusic is also coming. Luka Sucic is another an option. We are good.
What this team lacks is dangerous, fast wingers. At least one. We need an answer to emerge there over the next year or two . . .
Who will that be?
Nik Skafar-Zuzic I guess. Maybe Soticek if he takes another step.
It’s the same issue with our CB depth, since it seems we cannot rely on Duje, Pong and Sutalo anymore but we have super young talent (like Pavic) who are several years away.
The talent is there, but we don’t have a history of calling up teens.
Maybe things change with Vuskovic being the trailblazer for it.
I hope Segecic can progress into a liga Petica lineup. He has pace and likes to go forward.
Great post.
As a casual fan of the Croatian NT I didn’t bother getting up to watch any of these games, just watched the highlights, and if to me it looked like Spain were on drugs from the highlights, I can only imagine what it looked like during the full game.
I think I’ll give the Bilic era a miss after seeing this line up.
Reading how Perisic was kissing the Morrocan/Equatorial Guinea players arse is sickening also.
the fact there are a few people in comments section who think Sutalo was playing in midfield yesterday just gives me more reason to belive you people are stupid and should stay with NFL and baseball. Some of you do not earn opportunity to comment on soccer.
I wouldn’t use the word stupid, but definitely too many people on this site who are commenting on players who they clearly haven’t watched outside of the NT. How many here can genuinely say they’ve watched any Ajax games in which Sutalo has played? Sucic at Inter, Sucic at Sociedad, Vlasic at Torino?
It’s not really possible to carefully watch how all our guys are playing in all these different leagues. But, again, if you’re going to throw out such bold statements like “X player is shit and shouldn’t be in the squad”, you do need to have at least a little bit of knowledge to back that up.
At the end of the day Spain was the better team but the match fixing is still beyond frustrating.
How does CUCURELLA pull down Misic in the box without a VAR call or fouling Susic and the ref giving Peter the yellow?
Then Alex Baena commits multiple fouls, flips off the ref, two hands Sucic in the back and Peter gets a yellow for the infraction that Afro CUCURELLA had committed.
Baena only gets a yellow after a million warnings but as soon as he flipped the ref you would think he’s on the naughty list.
Hands down Spain is the better team but even if we had our best match would we ever win considering all this corrupt garbage.
We had two penalties given to our opponents in the World Cup for far less. Yet we constantly given yellows while other teams are literally raping us.
The match fixing will continue and get much worse. Nothing ever changes.
Faster than Anonymous picking his nose.
Stronger then this forums number one 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.
Dutch ref. Always problems with Dutch refs. Always. And as for “other teams are literally raping us”. I don’t think you understand what literally means. If it was literal, I would think there would be a UEFA intervention.
Baena is a cheap shot artist.
Now that Olic has qualified and next two U21s games are meaningless
And it doesn’t look like any of the U21s are being bumped up to the A-team
Why doesn’t Skafar Zuzic and Pavic (and maybe even Dedic) get pushed up from the U18s to the U21s and given the opportunity?
Let’s see what Skafar Zuzic can do in the Soticek role with U21s/Jagusic and co next to him – let’s see what Pavic can do in the Prpic or Mlacic role (especially if you’re playing Kumar and Sepic next game)
The Greeks have been good to push they young talent through the ranks quickly
The entire U18 game vs. Algeria is available on YT – these are meaningless friendlies – give them the bump and lets see (I mean Durdov got the chance with the U21s because of two goals – sure it blew up in their face – but that’s a character/desire issue – every player is different)
That’s one problem with the Croats born in Croatia – they don’t have options for other NT – so get stuck in the system – if Skafar Zuzic was a dual-national and had options (like Niko Illcevic) – he wouldn’t be with the U18 now – it makes zero sense for Pavic who can still go to Germany to be the U18s – let him be with the U19s at least if not the U21s – poor management
At the end of the day Spain was the better team but the match fixing is still beyond frustrating.
How does CUCURELLA pull down Misic in the box with no VAR or get run into Susic while flopping all over the ground. Countless dirty plays unseen by the ref.
Then Alex Baena gets commits multiple fouls, flips off the ref, two hands Sucic in the back and Peter gets a yellow.
Baena only gets a yellow after a million warnings.
Hands down Spain is the better team but even if we had our best match would we ever win considering all this corrupt garbage.
We had two penalties given to our opponents in the World Cup for far less. Constantly given yellows while other teams are literally raping us.
The match fixing will continue and get much worse. Nothing ever changes.
Faster than Anonymous picking his nose.
Stronger then this this forums number one 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.
I really need to proof read before
submitting comments.
Please forgive my laziness:)
Spain is good
Never thought I would say this
I miss the lovren and vida centre pairing
This lineup was booked from the start, obviously saving players for the next two games at home. Our play was disjointed and aside from a few small spells, we did nothing. A number of times, players had the ball with no outlet passes and were surrounded by Spanish players, losing the ball. Lots of poor and almost panicked decisions.
Once Kova was subbed out for Pasalic, our midfield was way too slow. Surely there were better options (Majer,
Vlasic) Play either further up and bring P. Sucic back to protect our CBs. Misic played ok but is just way too slow.
Honestly, there wasn’t a single player that played well – Spain is just way too good at this point.
I’m starting to get a little concerned about Gvardiol. I’m hoping he still needs to recover from the injury and needs to round into form.
They were just too good, and it could have been more than 4 – 1.
Many of our players are not match fit at the moment due to lack of playing time at their respective clubs and playing 4 matches in 12 days is a killer for us especially coming up against countries like Spain.
More changes should have been done at HT and players like Kovacic, Perisic and Gvardiol given more time to rest for the upcoming home matches against England and Spain.
I always thought that our best chance of getting a result against these teams was against England at Rujevica.
Bilic has called up 27 players, but it looks like some of them won’t get any playing time?
I know Bilić called up some of Dalić’s guys just to give them a chance under his own tactics, but I think we all knew it wouldn’t change much, certain players have been underperforming for the national team for years now and with the emergence of new names and potential stars it’s a good time for a change in some names (especially while Perisic and modric are still here to support and teach the new names; and yes modric and Perisic should 100% stay, there is no replacement for either of them and their quality, and passion is unrivalled in international team football+ it’s always good to have some experienced players on a squad and there are no better choices than modric and Perisic in these departments, even as starters considering they’re outperforming the rest of our squad, they can easily play another season or 2 at least and play in the euros).
I think our best 26 man call up is something more similar to this for November/next year.
GK Livaković
GK Pandur
GK Toni Silić (Kotarski out)
DF (7)
CB/LB Gvardiol
CB Luka Vušković
CB Mario Vušković (Šutalo out)
CB Branimir Mlačić (Pongračić out)
CB/RB/DM Filip Pavić (Jakić out 50/50)
LB/LW Perišić
RB/LB Stanišić
RB Smolčić/Juranović/Valinčić (whoever’s in best in form fullback and in the best fitness, Smolcic wasn’t bad defensively vs Spain in duels, just doesn’t do well going forward unlike the other 2, a fit and inform Juranovic would be best but is unlikely).
MF (10)
CM/DM Modrić
CM/DM Kovačić
AM/LW Baturina
CM/DM Petar Sučić
CM/AM Luka Sučić
CM/AM Lovro Majer (Budimir Out 50/50)
DM Nejašmić (Mišić out)
CM/AM/RW Jagušić (Kramarić out)
AM/RW Segečić (Vlašić out)
AM/LW Luka Stojković(Mario Pašalić out)
FW (5)
ST Matanović
ST Petar Musa
ST Beljo
RW Marco Pašalić
LW Nik Skafar Žužić (Ivanović out 50/50)
***Must Swap 100% November call ups
Šutalo -> Mario Vušković
Kramarić -> Jagušić
Pongračić -> Mlačić
Mario Pašalić -> Luka Stojković
Mišić -> Nejašmić
Vlašić -> Segečić
Potential Swap’s for experimenting
Ivanović -> Nik Skafar Žužić
(Franjo has good potential and will likely improve and become a future regular in the squad, it’s just his passing has been destroying so many quality possessions and chances, he hasn’t been providing enough offensively, he’s not ready to start for national team yet and isn’t a good replacement for Baturina, zuzic however fits a similar dribbler profile and playmaker as Baturina and could be a potential proper LW sub, he might be the attacking spark Croatia could appreciate and makes stuff happen, a national team call up would help his career massively for transfers while Ivanovic improves at club level and develops more, I understand he’s younger than Franjo but considering Franjo hasn’t impressed completely yet, a change wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially for zuzic who’s been great lately in HNS and youth squad for Croatia and has lots of potential too, if we could have 27 players Franjo would easily be there still, maybe Bilic can unlock a new role for Franjo and help him evolve but zuzic should get a chance too considering he fits better on the left for our setup.)
Jakić -> Filip Pavić (Honestly either or with this one since Jakic is still alright and probably more ready than Filip, but having him as a backup to train with senior team would be very beneficial to his development even as a backup +he’s already got UCL and Bayern senior team experience and will probably start playing for them this year or next year, another obvious future star for Croatia and I know they don’t like to rush things, but the way our squad has been, he will probably gain as much as a backup for senior team as playing for u19 or u21, can obviously rotate which squad he’s playing for at a time. It’s obvious that this spot in the 26 man squad will be his in the next couple years anyways. Plus this spot never gets used since Jakic almost never plays anyways for some reason).
Kotarski – Toni Silić (Just a backup 3rd keeper, but potential future option and should get started early training with senior team like Livakovic did in 2018 in big tournaments like the upcoming euros).
Budimir -> Majer (Only need 3 strikers and Majer is in good form recently, he’s a great chance creator and our 3 strikers have all been playing better for us, could be budimir, Majer, Fruk or Franjo Ivanovic’s slot in the 26 man squad, but only one of them. Just at the end of the day whoever’s gonna put in a shift off the bench, you can argue Ivanović
other than Majer just because we have so many creative midfielders though, but Majer is also effective going forward and much better at passing, just not quick or as hard working, Ivanovic’s pressing and pace might have a better niche to fill that isn’t quite fulfilled by other players, but I may argue Stojkovic also having a good workrate but better creativity, it’s a toss up which requires the recent club performances and form to decide).
Can’t argue with any of this. Well done.
A good post from Guest.
Lots of detail and insight here . . .
What is this crap with our players sucking up to guys in Spain – what is Croatia becoming ? Next thing you know HNS is going to Taylor Swift concert. OMG, someone get the shovels and give some of these players a Lika intervention. Shot to the head and an icepack.
Fun fact:
Our record is now 2W-4L-1D when Pongracic and Sutalo start together.
Pongracic alone has a 5W-6L-1D record whenever he plays (whether it is with Sutalo or not).
To put things into perspective, every single one of our other defenders have an extremely high winning record for us (despite having their records brought down by Pongracic) at roughly 65% or more.
Nobody has a losing record except for Pongracic (who is under 50%).
The five wins that Pongracic played in, were against Faroe Islands, Gibraltar (twice), Panama and Ghana. So, really, it’s just teams that are ranked well outside the top-70.
So essentially, if you see Pongracic in the lineup and it’s against a team that is ranked within the top-70…
it’s a good bet that we are not going to win and you could make yourself a lot of money gambling on this.
Pongracic is a huge liability.
I don’t care to defend pong as yes he’s definitely not a starter moving forward but cmon Maminjo those aren’t fare comparisons.
2 of the 4 losses for pong and Šutalo is against the best team in the world last 2 years in Spain another is Portugal.
Bilic needs to figure out back line and stick to it. I do not like Perišić as a defender there fore I have no one else to put but gvardiol.
Stanisic. Sutalo. Vuskovic. Gvardiol
That is the line I would move forward and stick with for a while and let it gel.
Sure, but these were still multi-goal losses with some very poor defensive displays.
Are we simply no longer expected to beat good teams or at least keep the scorelines close in a loss?
This was moreso about Pongracic, and honestly, whenever we play him we pretty much lose.
Some games were baffling, like the 3-0 loss we had at home against Austria in Nations League 2022 or the 2-1 loss to Sweden before that in Nations League 2020.
I’m not sure what it is, but it’s pretty much bordering on something supernatural with him.
There were a couple of times in the game, maybe 2-3 in the first half, when Sutalo came forward with great anticipation and intercepted the ball or at least broke up plays. His ability to do that ranks with any defender around.
(This is what he used to do at Ajax during his one good year there. He could intercept, and then with quality passing upfield, he could initiate a fast Ajax counterattack. I watched him many times that year.)
Unfortunately, he gave the ball up to Spain cheaply on a few occasions.
Right now I would go with Gvardiol-Vuskovic-Sutalo-Stani as my best four on our best day. Agree with Vlad on that.
But as Maminjo says, more options are on the way.
Today’s game shouldn’t be counted for the simple fact Coach Bilić had a disjointed lineup- Sutalo at MF?? Misic first start against Spain?? Smolcic has barely been playing. We were set up to lose before the game started. The next two games will be better measuring sticks.
Šutalo was not in midfield, the broadcaster put the lineup wrong, sutalo was cb and pong was cb, Gvardiol was Lb and Perisic was LW, Mišić, Petar Sučić and Kovačić were the midfield.
That being said sutalo did nothing, horrible in possession, gives the ball away cheaply everytime and cannot play any quality pass, only forces his teammates to figure out build up for him and gives them the ball in horrible positions where they have the fight pressure for him. On corners he’s just taking up space and chances from our better aerial threats, the guy has not scored a goal in years. Pace wise he’s quite slow, his lack of reading of the game or anticipation makes his reaction time and speed even worse. Defensively he’s invisible, lets every player shoot or pass into the box with 0 effort to try and stop it. Genuinely 3/4 goals vs Spain are all sutalos fault and it’s nothing new, first goal he lets the ball slip and doesn’t challenge a player with the ball despite the player driving the ball right next to him, he then lets the pass go through our entire box which leads to Lamine in an open position when the ball shouldn’t even have reached him in the first place, 2nd goal completely loses the aerial duel cheaply, 4th goal 1v1 vs Nico Williams and does absolutely nothing but let him gets a free shot and goal with no pressure, it’s not like he even makes up for it in possession or attack like other players, he adds nothing but stays back and stands there, not even the bare minimum.
I don’t like to blame players but the guy keeps proving he’s not a reliable call up in the slightest, he’s just not at the level of other players we have simply. I simply cannot see why he is rated so highly and had such a high market value and how he is even called up anymore, he’s bad even for club and has been the primary reason for our defensive problems since the euros 2024. There will be no reason to call up sutalo if Mario Vuskovic performs well after returning from his 4 year ban. Our defence was bad when Gvardiol was out, our defence was bad when Vuskovic was out, our defence was bad when Pongracic was out even, the only constant for all our major defensive errors for the past 2 years has been Šutalo, he was always there somehow evading any blame. I have no idea why Gvardiol is getting all the blame when it’s just sutalo, one of the main reason’s we beat Czech was because sutalo didn’t play, they had 3 chances the whole game and 1 was offside, otherwise our defence did great that game overall with minor mistakes, Czech goal is prevented if either sucic’s tracked back, today almost every goal Spain scored was preventable, just needed a cb who could actually do something.
There’s no excuse for sutalo at this point, he had all the defensive support he could have possible in his favored position RCB with a dm in front of him, defensive fullbacks and wingers who tracked back and he still failed, I think he’s just been getting called up because all the better options are young players like and the selectors valued experience and age even though that means nothing when he lets in 3 easy goals like nothing consistently.
Until he gets into a better form through his new club lazio, he shouldn’t even be called up, at least until other backup options are tried in his place, if they don’t do better then it is what it is, but many new names have very good potential and much more to gain by testing them like Mario Vuskovic, Branimir Mlacic and Filip pavic among others.
And also whoever considers a back 4 of LB Gvardiol lcb Vuskovic, RCB sutalo, rb stanisic needs to know this will never work, ever. Sutalo ruins that backline. Genuinely, Perišić is a better defender than Šutalo, at least Perisic at LB has tactical advantages, if Kovacic just man marked Lamine using the same setup we had vs Czech (except Baturina starting instead of Ivanovic), then we could have competed for real today and Lamine would have stayed a bit more quiet. Instead we force Gvardiol to duel Lamine which he did well, Lamine only competed 1/9 dribbles, problem was when Lamine recieved the ball in the box and our cb’s had to step up, they (Šutalo) couldn’t.
Stjepan Stanic…
Do you not watch the games?
Have you been just cheerleading for Dalic all this time without ever watching the games?
Sutalo at no point played midfield today, nor would he ever (even if the displayed lineup may have showed him on there by accident).
I watch them- when they are in TV! I have been watching since ‘98. Yes, I appreciated Mr. Dalic as he did something no other Croatian coach did. He may have had his faults but he accomplished much. He took a beating on this site, but in 10 years he will be cherished and fondly remembered. Viva Zlatko. Go Slaven Bilic- except don’t pull a 2008 Turkey on us!
Dalic deserves respect, nothing but respect.
The one decision I will never understand is his choice of Pong over Vuskovic at World Cup 2026, when Vuskovic had been rated one of the very best defenders in the Bundesliga over a full season.
But that does not change anything for me. I also have to accept that Dalic knows more than I, and there might have been a reason for his decision that I just cannot see.
I have nothing but respect for the man.
Why is Sutalo still playing for the national team there must be someone better somewhere.
It’s only because he has been starting at Lazio recently.
All our other backup options are not starting regularly for their clubs.
Maybe this changes as we have some youngsters coming up over the next couple of years, plus we have a wildcard player in Mario Vuskovic coming off his suspension in 6 weeks from now.
The tv commentators did lavish sparring with effusive praise the whole way from start to finish
They gave Croatia no chance of competing with them
They were shocked for a moment when it was only 2-1
It kind of annoyed me but turned out they were spot on
Why would you?
We are embarrassing to the world
The tv commentator on DAZN was brutal.
Just brutal.
Constantly confusing Croatian players, or butchering Croatian names. I don’t think he could tell Petar Sucic and Marco Pasalic apart. It’s not that tough.
What we need is a good audio feed from two decent Croatian radio announcers or web announcers, then we can just shut off the television audio and crank up the radio/web. Problem solved.
Modric confirmed today he’s sticking around for Euros
See video – they ask him a couple of times and he replies “Si”
https://x.com/salmodric/status/2105071011842371973?s=46
Cool
Sure as hell not watching 44 yo
Fuck him
Jesus, take it easy lol.
If he’s going to accept a bench role where he gives us a spark off the bench, then it’s perfect.
I just wish they put him on instead of Mario Pasalic today.
The game was still 2-1 and we took out our most effective defensive player of the game, and then made a very poor sub by swapping him out for our most defensively ineffective midfielder in Mario Pasalic.
We experimented too much with our weak CB pairing, then added three new faces in the lineup in Beljo, Misic and Smolcic.
I actually though those three played okay. Our CB pairing was bad. We were still holding on, but the wheels were always eventually going to come off if we didn’t make the right subs (and we didn’t).
Maybe Bilic didn’t care to use Modric, Baturina, Matanovic and is just saving them for England.
Wow get a grip man
LMAO
🚨 Lamine Yamal on what Ivan Perišić told him at halftime before swapping shirts:
“Perišić came to me at halftime and said, ‘Normally, I’m supposed to wait until the end of the match to ask for your shirt… but I need to do it now.’
I looked at him like, ‘Why now?’ and he said, ‘Because after the performance you’ve just had, everyone is going to want this shirt at full time.’
I started laughing because I wasn’t expecting that at all.
He told me, ‘Trust me, I’m getting mine now because I know there will be a queue after the match.’
Honestly, that was a really nice moment for me. Perišić is a player I’ve watched for a long time, so hearing that from him was special.
I gave him my shirt, and he gave me his.
But then he said, ‘Now go out there and try not to make me regret giving you mine!’
That made me laugh even more.
It was a great moment, especially coming from a player like Perišić.”
Perisic is shit
Yeah the one guy who assisted a goal for us was shit. The one guy who drives our attack when noone else can is shit. What planet are you from?
The problem has always been that we have to rely on him too.mich because there is never anyone else. The only good thing up front we have now is Baturina. But many of the other players never step up the same way Perisic does. If he wasn’t there the game would have been 4-0.
Some comments aren’t worth reading.
We have to show more respect to Perisic and Modric.
They are not only legends of Croatian soccer, they are international soccer legends . . . They can provide stability and continuity as a new generation of Croatian star players emerge.
They are both still great players.
Those who watch Serie A will know that Modric has been one of the best midfielders in that league since he went to Milan last season.
If they are gradually prepared to accept a reduced roll, their leadership and experience will be valuable to the younger players going forward towards Euro 2028. They love the NT, and they love Croatia. They’ll always do the right thing.
Right now, they are not hurting us. They are helping. They know it, and Bilic knows it. It is not in their nature or character to put themselves ahead of team or country.
Well put Tin.
Man did you wake up on the wrong side of Ivan man
Not a good showing. We came out with a weak starting XI and paid the price for it.
Misic, Pongracic, a good amount of our players; they obviously can’t hang with Spain. Very few NT’s can. They’re realistically at a much higher level. Croatia can take on anyone on their day and this wasn’t one of them. Onwards and upwards, just one to forget
Wise words from Jo.
We can take on anyone when at our best. This was not our day.
We were up against the world champions and we were resting some of our key players.
Sometimes you have to forget a loss and move on . . .
We equalise and 2minutes later they score, you have to give yourself some kind of chance, do whatever you have to do kick the ball out ,stop play,foul break the initial momentum( thats what they do),take a potential card but dont think a pack of diving bitchy talented players like Spain are going to let you sit on ur score they won’t.
Imagine if their big boys came…
Fucking embarrassing
LMAO
Perisic swapping shirts with Yamal and HT and Josko congratulating Yamal for scoring against him
Unreal
https://x.com/goalsxtra/status/2105028805211668887?s=46
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
Pro-tip; Never watch the American feed if you can help it. Lalas is a laughingstock and brings zero to the table other than incredibly dumb hot takes. Take anything that moron says with a mountain-sized grain of salt.
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
great teams like spain make good teams like croatia look worse. the hold the ball. when they lose ball then pressure is put on ball. they win ball back.
we can play spain 10 times. we will lose 7 times, two draws and maybe 1 win. spain is that good.
Hard to disagree with Davor here. Spain is a great side.
But it is also a country roughly 12x larger than ours by population.
Pound for pound, we are much better than Spain.
The key is this: we can draw them when we play well, and with our best team performance we can beat them on a good day. Davor says so himself. Lets hope we get that result in Split.
The observations made by Crnkovic are spot on, as usual. They are provided by someone who knows, who speaks from experience on the soccer pitch. Sometimes you have to absorb losses, even many losses from time to time, as you build something.
Things take time.
Bilic is just getting started. He’s a smart guy. He has a plan. Let’s give him some benefit of the doubt.
He has only been the coach for two games, folks.
The team is transitioning and building something under our new head coach.
Takes time.
As Crnkovic says: “We’ll be okay.”
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!
Need retirements badly
New identity requiresd
Agree with this but Croatia is still a top 20 nation who on there day can beat top countries expect for Spain and France. To much quality there.
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.
It’s infuriating to see Cucurella play so dirty and flop so hard, while never receiving a card (yet our team receives four)
Agreed.
Cucurella should have had a yellow.
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
Vuskovic and Gvardiol playing together makes sense.
Josko Gvardiol is the most expensive defender of all time (at £76.6m), and Vuskovic is up there (at £46m plus bonuses).
Vuskovic probably surpasses Gvardiol on his next transfer.
Even though Gvardiol is playing poorly, and Vuskovic is not playing to his potential…there is still the benefit of going through this growing pain with them due to their insane potential.
You don’t throw this away for Pongracic and Sutalo who have a LOSING record for our National Team when they start for us (2 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw).
Misic and Smolcic played well today. No issues there. They were never going to be the ones who score. But they played their roles well.
I agree with your England comment. At any point in the second half (when we were only down a goal), Bilic could have thrown in Baturina, Matanovic, Modric…and it would have made a HUGE difference…but he didn’t. What’s worse, he took out Kovacic (in an attempt to reduce his minutes) and replaced him with Mario Pasalic who cannot do what Kova does (which hurt us badly).
Bilic deprioritized today’s game to ensure we have our strongest eleven for the England game.
Agree with Slavonac that Bilic was holding back a little for England.
Aside from playing the Czechs, beating England at home is our best opportunity for points in these first four games.
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!
Nobody wants him back. Everyone here is just joking.
Dalic would have played for the 0-0 draw in Prague, and he would have lost by three goals just the same today.
Bilic is the coach now. Don’t blame it on anyone but the coach then. He makes the decisions. He knows the temperature of the team. Although I would like it, he will not accomplish what Mr Dalic accomplished. Go Croatia!
Dude y’all should be praising Croatia efforts they scored a goal against a team that gave up one goal in 8 WC games and allowed 10 total shots in those 8 games and didn’t allow Argentina a shot in 90 minutes of regulation time y’all should give Croatia efforts as a plus man
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.
Nejasmic deserves an opportunity.
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.
I don’t think anyone was expecting a W, especially with that starting lineup. A draw would be a realistic target.
“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.
Sucic didn’t pressure Yamal for the second goal; let him cross the ball in with miles of space.
Sucic was given a weak yellow earlier in the game, despite degenerates like Cucurella flopping and bodychecking every player all game long.
Sucic was probably playing cautiously as this ref seemed to be very freely handing out cards to Croatian players today.
True.
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
Relax 1W, 1L. A team hasn’t played yet.
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.
Kova is world class.
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
Pong was worse player in first half, pasalic wasn’t much better.
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.
Smolcic played very well for Como last season. He defended well for club, he is a courageous and fearless defender. He also would join the attack.
He has had less playing time this year, not sure why.
But he is solid in Serie A. No question about it.
Ariel, what you see against Spain is typical Smolcic. A steady, solid, defender.
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!