A lot to unpack from this match, but at the end of the day, a win on the road in an incredibly tough environment is all that matters. With the victory, Croatia rectify their last second Welsh blunder to take four points from their first two EURO 2024 qualifying matches; which is more than fine. The Vatreni are now tied atop the table with Wales. Turkey trail both by a point. Top two nations automatically qualify for EURO 2024 in Germany.
This match was a tale of the first 15 minutes…and everything else. Turkey absolutely dominated the first quarter hour of the match and should have been up 2-0 if it wasn’t for two amazing saves by Dinamo Zagreb goalkeeper Dominik Livaković. Even with Kovačić scoring both goals this game, Livaković is my MOTM as he saved the day for Croatia. If both of those goals go in and Turkey is up 2-0 in the 10th minute at home, forget about it. Maybe we’re sitting here playing the blame game with each other while Croatia sit on one point through 25% of their qualifying campaign.
I’ve never been a fan of Livaković. His box presence and aerial ability scare the shit out of me. However, maybe the guy is finally maturing into the goalkeeper we all thought he would be. He was lights out at the World Cup and he singlehandedly bailed out Croatia’s poor start in Turkey Tuesday night.
Kovačić is the offensive hero of the night, deservedly so. He came out of nowhere on both goals to score his fourth and fifth all time goals for Croatia. In a time where the Croatian strike force has been anemic, especially looking at the #9 role, we know that goals will have to come from elswhere. And that was Mateo Kovačić on the night. Mario Pašalić missed an absolute sitter in the 2nd half which would have sealed the game. Unfortunately, he deflected the ball right at the Turkish goalie from point-blank range.
Now, let’s get to the criticism. This was far from a good game in terms of Croatian play and Dalić tactics.
As mentioned above, without super saves from Livaković, Turkey would have easily been up 2-0 before the seats ever got warm in Bursa. The team was in absolute shambles once the match started. I’ve never seen our midfield make so many bad passes. The 1st half was the worst half of midfield passing I have ever seen from Modrić and Brozović. They handed the ball to Turkish players multiple times in dangerous positions. So unlike them.
Why is Pašalić starting ahead of Juranović on the right wing? Pašalić is a liability defensively and has been out of form (injury) with Atalanta this season. Juranović has now been playing right wing for Union Berlin in a 3-5-2 formation like an absolute superstar the past three months. That was the obvious decision for me.
Borna Barišić got the start at left-back for Croatia in lieu of Sosa. Maybe this is a wake up call for Sosa but Barišić is a standard international defender in my opinion and a solid back-up at best. He can defend well but doesn’t have much speed up the sidelines. I’ll take this as a wake up call from Dalić to Sosa. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Finally, when will Dalić learn you can’t play Kramarić in the #9 role? Straight up or false 9. He needs room on the field to run and dribble. He’s not a hold-up striker. The reason he scored against Wales on Saturday is because he was playing the right wing, not striker. Livaja was. Krama didn’t see the ball in the 1st half against Turkey. It’s almost a wasted spot in the starting XI to put him there. I understand Dalić doesn’t have many striker options at his disposal, but use new guy Musa because Krama will always be wasted there. That’s a foregone conclusion.
The next time we see Croatia in EURO 2024 qualifying will be September when they take on Armenia and Latvia. The Vatreni will take the month of June off from qualifying as they will take part in the UEFA Nations League semifinals (and hopefully) final instead.
Hopefully Mario Vuskovic can prove himself innocent or at least get a reduced sentence. It all seems a bit fishy considering I kept seeing that he would be banned for 10 years and then all of the sudden it turned into 2 after they tried to offer him a shorter ban and he declined. It really does just seem like the German FA is trying to cover for the anti-doping agencies.
Speaking of Vuskovic, it seems like his ‘little’ (he’s like 6’3 at 16 years old) brother is being chased by some of the big clubs such as City, PSG, Madrid, United, and Tottenham. I truly hope that he stays in Croatia for another year AT THE VERY LEAST. I think he needs another 2 years at Hajduk then get sold for 20 million+. I don’t care how good he is, he definitely should avoid a huge club this early. All it turns into is 5 years of inconsistent loan moves.
Also, I know we talk about this a lot on here, but we have sooo many promising young center backs. Gvardiol and Josip Sutalo are already starting for us, Mario Vuskovic is still young regardless of if his ban stands or not. I still think he will be a solid player at the very least. Luka Vuskovic looks like a huge talent right now. We’ve got Nikola Soldo and Hrvoje Smolcic (unfortunately just got hurt with the u21s) playing regularly in the Bundesliga. Erlic is still pretty young. Hajduk also has Dominik Prpic who was doing pretty well when he got a few chances with the senior team. Dinamo just bought Mauro Petkovic from Istra They also still have Bosko Sutalo slowly coming back from injury along with Mauro Petkovic, Moreno Zivkovic, and Sven Sopic in their youth teams. And apparently Barca, Bayern, and Dortmund are interested in Ljubo Puljic, a 15 year old from Osijek. That’s just scratching the surface. Of course they have to develop, but we only really need a few to turn out to be great.
I think this is probably what may cause the switch to a 3 at the back formation. I don’t really know of too many very promising full backs either. And most of our attacking talent coming up plays centrally. So we’ll have to see how things play out over the next few years.
Thanks for the update on young products nikola
I feel JJ could fill that role on the right side in the 5 man midfield
Is Sosa good enough for the left side??
Apparently Madrid saying to extend Luka’s contract he has to leave Croatia
Any one else hear this?
I feel he would leave if push came to shove
They were saying this before, apparently from some of the media outlets in Spain. It’s not confirmed but could be likely that Real want Modric to retire from international.
I don’t think he wants to do this though, I am hoping that somehow Real can pull off another Champions League victory and title. This would hopefully give Modric what he needs to argue against this idea, should the noise turnout to be true.
Those clubs have zero plan for him.
They just want to secure his rights and loan him off and hope for the best. Man City did this with Pasalic and Palaversa. Pasalic turned out okay, but Palaversa hasn’t really progressed much.
Neither got any support from Man City, and Pasalic has a good agent and team around him who made sure to reject any loan move where he wasn’t a guaranteed starter.
It will be the same with Luka Vuskovic.
It’s best that he stay at Hajduk for 3-4 more years, the same way Nikola Vlasic did after he was being dangled to teams as a young 17 year-old (but then ended up making a big money move a few years later instead).
Hopefully the Vuskovic family aren’t starving for money, and they can tell the Hajduk brass to eff off.
Well now that his big bro can’t make any money … one never knows
I wish we had a can’t leave Croatia till 19-20 rule
The competition is stiff enough and can only benefit staying closer to home.
Pretty much if we watch most of all the successful Croats the baby stay at home steps have been best
They only have to see luka playing in Bosnia to know
Blocking people from leaving is too commie (Yugo had similar rules) but at the same time Croatia has a lot of rules that really hurt the clubs and favor the players (which is even more pro-player than teams in Western Europe now).
For the past ten years, Croatian players can void any of their existing contracts at age 18 and leave their clubs for free. You’re allowed to sign teens who are under 18 to professional contracts, but they have the right to void it once they turn 18. It seems reasonable, but it’s actually pretty crazy for clubs as it prevents them from investing in their youth if their youth can just bail for free.
I think this all stemmed from the Robert Muric fiasco where he claimed he didn’t have an agreement with Dinamo (when he was 18) and since the anti-Mamic sentiment was high, a rule was passed in the HNL that allowed for any youth player to void any contract at age 18.
I think David Čolina did the same thing to Hajduk when he left their youth team at age 18 so he could sit on the bench at Monaco’s youth team, before he came crawling back.
It makes it tougher now for teams like Hajduk to hold onto their talent because they cannot lock their players into contracts.
So, in short, Luka Vuskovic can leave for free in two years.
Does Hajduk think he may bail for free? Maybe. So they may try to cash in now.
Hopefully the Vuskovic family are serious about football and not quick cash, then they would realize that having their son play first team football for the next 3-4 years is the best option for him.
Looks like Livakovic might be joining Galatasaray if media reports are correct.
Dinamo to get 10 million euros.
Is this all because of the win against Turkey on Tuesday? lol
Funny how a lot of teams just buy a player they’re following after they attend a game.
It might be a good move for him. Villareal is also still interested. Their current keeper signed for Ajax next season, and they apparently have Livakovic as their top target.
I dunno that a move to the Turkish team is the best move really, you may as well stay in Dinamo in my view.
Vida made that move and look what happened, he never moved anywhere from there. Mind you it’s Vida but still.
Turkish league is better than HNL. but not it is not too good of a league that teams can afford to bench a 10 million Euro player (in case the player has a bad spell).
What’s most important is that he just continues to play first team football. We don’t really need a team to develop him any more than what he is already doing over these past two years.
I was glad to see him run out of his six yard box last game to challenge some high balls. His confidence is growing and he seems to be progressing fine with the National Team. Don’t really want him in a top-5 league to be honest, unless it is with a smaller mid-table team (maybe Villareal would be okay too) because the worst thing for us would be for him to be benched and lose confidence or fitness.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqa4WjZoVRK/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Kovacic says that Modric has one more Euros in him and maybe one more World Cup.
Orsic still has that joker ability and it’s a bloody shame he and us may lose out on this
I wish Dinamo would just buy him back somehow
He set up the Brazil goal and scored the bronze medal winning goal.
Ya that’s what I mean
I hope he doesn’t miss out on best time of career in England
Read an article his agent said he would have never gone there if they had not promised him more
Never trust the English’!
I know I have harped on the guy in the past but I hope that this can be a good turning point for Kovacic. He hasn’t always been consistent with the National Squad. But maybe things can start to change. I am not writing this in relation to the goals scored, that isn’t necessarily a huge part of his game. I am more so thinking with regards to other stats…give aways for example. He didn’t have the strongest Nation’s League last season he had plenty of giveaways and mistakes not that this couldn’t happen as easily for other players it just seems out of place based on the potential this guy could have.
Certainly quite the display of potential for him in this game. I hope he can continue this trend in the Nations League, he has showed that he is an important facet of our team,hopefully he can keep it going.
It also great to see Livakovic proving himself once again. Another trend I hope continues.
I hope I continue to eat my words on livakovic
I know there is holes in his game but how no one has taken a chance at 10 mill or whatever Dinamo wanted is still odd
Oh well maybe it’s better for him
Keep his confidence up and still play some big Europe games
I think all of us crapped on Livakovic and Kovacic over the years.
It’s great to see Livakovic play with more confidence. He’s always been an excellent shot stopper.
Kovacic has all the tools but his play was a bit timid at times. He’s been much better the last few years and he’s coming out of Luka’s shadow given that Luka’s nearing the end of his career.
Stanisic was impressive. His attacking play was great last game and he’s a solid defender. Hopefully Dalic goes either the Stanisic RB, Juranovic RW combo.
We really needed this win…as ugly as it was.
Shame on all of you for crapping on Livakovic
🙂
I’m not sure if there is anyone here of not being guilty harping on kova.
We know there is more in there and he has been proving it
He was very instrumental in Qatar
Has been up swinging generally since that game against Portugal a couple years back now I feel
He’s not Luka, but again we are talking about one of the best to ever touch a football
His runs when he makes them are pretty special
Remember Luka didn’t really start scoring for Madrid till about kovas age now
One never knows as he showed good scoring potential back in the inter days
But just his ability to open up teams with his runs is such a potent weapon that will hopefully lead to more goals going forth for us
That’s it, Mario Vuskovic has been sentenced to no professional football for two years by the DFB, what a shame.
Very weird situation.
They tried to negotiate a settlement with him of less than one year, and he rejected it.
Strange that they would try to settle, and strange that he would reject it (if he was guilty of taking it).
I guess he can always maintain that it was an accident (or that there must be a mistake) but it cost him a bigger ban which could ruin his career.
He will just have turned 23 when the ban is complete,he has an entire playing career still ahead of him!
Not sure how his career will be ruined if he stays fit and disciplined.
Look at this like a major rehabilitation from a major injury without the injury.
He could’ve taken the fall for less than a year considering they weren’t allowing him to produce another example of if he showed a positive result for EPO.
But in saying that, it would’ve shown that he did do it.
itll end up going to the Court of Arbitration of Sport. He will appeal, will it be successful? Maybe, maybe not, the court usually gives a reduced sentence.
I heard that there were several irregularities / reasons for concern. Such as, the sample chain of custody – may have been compromised, and that it is not a stretch to think that they messed up and obtained a false positive- follow up tests were negative. Furthermore, they searched his place and his phone, but they found no supporting evidence that he did anything wrong. I hope the court finds him innocent.
No kidding
Seems a little extreme there is a thread over on Reddit with some more stuff on it
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/126jczl/dfb_bans_mario_vuskovic_for_2_years_for_doping/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
He’s gonna come back and lead the back line with his brother in 2026;)
He should go to like a US college or something on some bullshit international student visa and play for two years(if it’s allowed)
Better then nothing
Or just sign a contract in the Russian Premier League. 😉
Is it not considered professional anymore? Or is it basically it’s own entity
Pretty sure lovren left a vacant spot over at the zenit
Two years seems pretty extreme to me
I can see a season…. But I guess he is claiming his innocence so good for him then
Stick to your guns
Baturina is starting to look really interesting… think he might even surpass Sucic (who is sadly quite injury-prone).
Didn’t Sucic only have the one injury?? Not sure how that is injury prone??
He’s not injury prone. It was the one injury. Unfortunately it was his knee, but we’ll have to wait and see how it affects his development. Kacavenda too (who has recently started playing again after a long time off).
One great free kick does not make for a sucic replacement I hope?
That is not his only achievement. If you follow him closely you will see his distinct style and skill. The free kick threw him in the limelight but people have been talking about him for a while now…
In regards to seeding for EURO 2024, I have read that FIFA rankings will NOT be used to determine which teams go into Pot 1, 2 , 3 & 4.
There will be six groups and Germany as the hosts will be in Pot 1. The other 5 teams in Pot 1 will be the best 5 winners from the 10 the qualifying groups i.e. teams with most points gained. We need to win our group as coming second in the group will mean that we end up in Pot 3.
To be in Pot 1, I figure that we need to win our group with 20 points ? meaning that we need another 5 wins and a draw from our remaining 6 matches.
Well that sucks.
The good news is that we have an easier group than most, but unfortunately there are teams like Serbia and Switzerland who are in very weak groups and could end up as top seeds as a result.
This would mean that teams like Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Netherlands end up as Pot 2 teams.
Let’s see where it all lands.
I guess we’ll see at the end of qualifying in November.
I think that Spain and Denmark will win their groups despite losing their last qualifiers, so they will end up in Pot 1 or 2. Italy and the Dutch in all probability will end as runners up to England and France resp., meaning that they will end up in Pot 3 or Pot 4 depending on how many points they get.
Pot 1 – will include Germany as host plus 5 best group winners.
Pot 2 – will include remaining 5 group winners and best runner up.
Pot 3 – will include next 6 best runners up.
Pot 4 – will include 3 remaining runners up and 3 play off winners.
Livakovic now wins big games for us with world class saves!!
Kovačić ready to become a leader?
I wonder if Kramaric lays it off to him in the second half does Mateo bag a hat trick?
Real should get Kovačić back to Madrid this summer.
Kroos is done.
New crop does not have his qualities to connect defense to offense.
Modrić passes the baton to Kovačić at both club and country.
Long live the nogometaš !!
I agree
Kova should go back to Madrid
I guess luka was right about him all along…
Very important away win. Can breathe easier now heading to Nations League…are back on track.
Whenever our backs are against the wall, we come through.
PS loved, absolutely LOVED Kova doing the Sign of the Cross after scoring in front of those wild turks….
https://youtu.be/0TYYq5GkCoE
Smaller but doesn’t play small. Kovaesque running and dribbles
Obviously highlights are just that but looks pretty tenacious on D
Since kova is looking to take over at king of midfield, who will fill sort of his heir apparent role? Majer, seems to be having an off season
That baturina goal was world class yesterday
Is this kid gonna be the real deal??
Or will it be like the bradaric free kick tease from a couple years back?(tho I know the kid has been trending up recently)
Baturina still very young, but it’s great to see anyway.
Hoping that Kacavenda and Sucic can recover from those knee injuries. We can’t keep losing prospects like this.
We need to focus on 18 to 22 age in all positions
To build the team around Gvardiol
So they can have a run of tournaments together
Majer already 25 – Jakic turning 26 soon – they might miss their chance – as when Kovacic and Brozovic ready to retire (in 3+ yrs – after WC 26) – they will be too old to than become starters
n.b. in Euro 2008 Modric, Manzukic, Rakitic, Corluka were all 20 to 22 – Srna was 26 – Lovren and Perisic come on board next couple of yrs – all these folks remained starters WC 2018 (save Srna who retired the yr before) – that’s 7-ish starters playing together for 10+ yrs (5+ tournaments)
Also – look at Euro 1996 and WC 1998 squad
7 starters same age – Asanović 2 yrs older – Stanic & Vlaovic – 4 yrs younger
That’s the blueprint
Meaning – there’s zero reason to have random players 25-26+ in the squad – if they aren’t starting now – and waiting for Kovacic and Brozovic to retire – they will miss their chance
That’s life
When Modric retires – we need to add a 20 yrs. to replace him in midfield – and learn from Kova / Broz – whoever the best we have at that age is
I hope majer will be a good fill in piece till another midfield prodigy comes in
I thought I heard kacavenda name last week in the u21 friendly
So it’s good he is back….
Checking the live FIFA rankings…
We gained points and almost surpassed The Netherlands for fourth place in Europe (only one point separates us).
France, England, and Belgium all gained from their wins, but Italy and Spain (who were the next two teams below us) dropped a lot of points with their losses (which is good for us, as we’ll remain a top seed at Euro2024).
A lot of ground can be gained or lost in the Nations League. We are due for a first place finish in my mind, and that would likely guarantee we remain a top seed.
To me, being a top seed at Euro 2024 is of a little overrated value.
For the majority of groups, even the 3rd place team will advance. So really the trick is to not get a very tough 3rd or 4th seed in your group…..which is luck of the draw. Sure, would help a little to get top seed, but it’s not an earth-moving advantage (if all you care about then is being one of the 16 teams out of 24 to get out of the group).
On the other hand, being a top seed will be VERY important once WC 2026 qualification starts. Even with the expanded tourney, qualifying out of Europe still won’t be a given. So you def want to be a top seed there. However, the results from Euro 2024 will have a much larger impact on rankings then than euro qualifying games played in early 2023.
That being said, every little point helps. And yes, it’s much better to feel like we’re a juggernaut rather than like a team that just scraps by, there is a psychological advantage there.
Anything can happen in a tournament, and being a top seed can help if you happen to have one bad game.
Look at Argentina in this past World Cup.
They lost the first game to the Pot 4 team in their group (Saudi Arabia), but they advanced thanks to their wins against the worst Pot 2 and 3 teams (Mexico and Poland) in the tournament.
What if they drew Croatia and Morocco as their Pot 2 and 3 teams instead?
There would be no World Cup gold for Argentina.
But, yes, I agree that the advantage increases significantly with WC 2026 qualification and seeding…and it’s easier to maintain a top rank than trying to claw your way back up there.
I hear you. I guess my point is even in your example, you used the current WC system. So yes, being top seed did help Arg in that system.
My point is, if it was instead like the euros, ARG could still have finished even 3rd and still advanced. So they could have dropped points to either Mexico or Poland also and still advanced. So the importance of top seed is lessened with the euro structure. But yeah, we of course def want to just get as many good results as we can, and there is still an advantage to being #1.
As a broader point, I think we’ll find our FIFA points will continue to increase, over the next year especially. Spain dropped points not just because their recent loss, but also because their results from 3-4 years ago are now either given less weight, or no longer part of the equation at all. As we all know, our 1st year after the 2018 WC was pretty poor. As those results slowly start being excluded from the FIFA rankings, we’ll start “catching up” more to teams that had good results in 2018-2019 (I think they look at the most recent 4 years only?)
True, but even in the new system, finishing third and progressing will likely pair you with a top contender.
I would rather not fall into Pot 2 then have to deal with a risky Euro2024 opening round where could be grouped with France, Serbia and Norway…finish 2nd or 3rd, then have to play a team like Portugal in the Round of 16. I’d prefer to have some wiggle room in case we botch a game (like Argentina did) and it make no difference to our opening round and R16 knockout.
Good point on the cumulative FIFA points from three years ago disappearing. Thanks to this critical away win, we should be able to hold onto a top-6 European spot from now until end of November (which is when qualifications are done and the draw begins).
Yesterday’s away win against Turkey was our 8th in a row. Better away record than at home in recent years.
Slovakia v Cro 0 -1
Cyp v Cro 0 -3
Malta v Cro 1 – 7
Den v Cro 0 -1
Fra v Cro 0 – 1
Austria v Cro 1 – 3
Saudi Ara v Croatia 0 – 1
Turk v Cro 0 – 2
I guess picking a starting eleven based on the city each player is born in, is a bad strategy after all?
That being said…this away record is very impressive.
We can call it the ‘gasterbeiter’ strategy.
Stanisic was great but fewer passes back to the goalie would be nice. One almost ended up in a Turkey goal. The knee-jerk reactions here are something. As some sports handicapper used to say: “You’re never as good as you looked last game …… and never as bad as you looked that other game either.” Take the three points.
You know what is hilarious about Elon Musk being a hugely pathetic cuntrash who is so desperate for the affirmation of yes men he’ll do anything to get their praise, LOL at looking at ANY twitter post about soccer or anything now, i didn’t realise how much of a cesspool it has become.
The first Twitter link above to a Liva save, let’s see who the immediate retweeters are:
Adorable porn, thighs are my demise, premium chicks, thick white girls, big dick hentai et al.
There are only one or two actual posters LOL. Hilarious. I don’t really use twitter but i did notice it’s all porn now since he removed all moderation staff.
I’m always fascinated as to why people suddenly hate Elon Musk. It was like someone flipped a switch, and the media just started telling the population to hate him.
None of us know the guy, and he’s probably no different than any other billionaire (other than the fact that his inventions are actually pretty positive for the World)…yet he’s hated by so many, simply because they are parroting what they are told.
Same here
But I don’t follow it all
Sometimes it’s just easy to get on any bandwagon
Look at some of us here
We are often willing to throw the whole team under the bus
We go into one of the most hostile environments in the world
Shit pitch. Ya our keeper saves our ass at the start but that’s what the keeper is for
Many great keepers have stolen games. I still don’t know if liva is world class but he is most definitely capable of coming up with some world class saves
We slowly get our minds into it capitalize well on our chances and back to the top of group
I must remind everyone in times like this. Italy missed the cup twice With a euro cup win between It’s not like it was back in the day where Italy would come up against a northern Macedonia and it’s an auto 5-0 type win… the low end teams can give many trouble these days.
Our overall form is one of the best in the world over the past four years and we should be able to keep it going
We would be blowing this place up if we lost 2-0 to Scotland like Spain did last night
What did he invent?
Musk has made a lot of enemies with his disruptive technologies.
At the forefront of vehicle electrification ,
All without “ car Dealerships “
He has his own space program, better at it than anybody else in the world and can launch his own car into orbit. And anything else.
His own satellite Internet business.
Leading edge of cybernetic medicine.
His own AI
Gets invited to orgies by Depps Ex.
Started PayPal.
Now owns twitter with the sim of turning it into an all in one platform such as WeChat
Just off the top of my head.
Yup.
I don’t know the guy, but it doesn’t seem like he’s been a net negative on society, but the amount of hate and vitrol that people have for him is strange to me.
again. What did elon musk INVENT? Answer: nothing. Buying things isn’t inventing. If my dad was a rich diamond mogul and I bought your house maminjo, would that mean that I had built your house? Or invented houses?
elon musk, apart from his complete waste of time space program, builds shitty cars and is pushing the agenda of AI human interface within the human brain through implants. You going to volunteer to have a mini computer inserted into your brain through surgery so you can use facebook while having sex with your wife without her knowing? And so corporations can monitor your thoughts and sell you crap!?
What next?
Seriously, do you think? Or just talk
Right now the bottleneck is our fingers and voice which we use to control computers.
There are already Muskless implementations of computers imbedded into us, Pace makers, hearing aids, many things. It will happen and it is the next step of our evolution. It will be a medical evolution but I suppose you can use it for social media if you cannot think of anything better. Some will steer clear and some will embrace it.
Crnkovic. Let me ask you this.. Would you really give a crap if the government can keep tabs on you if your implant can eliminate or limit a disease like Parkinson’s, Dementia etc.?
Everyone here know the answer to that question..
Did Musk buy PayPal or was it his development. Musk has vision and does things people say cannot be done. I’m not a particular fan of the guy but I respect what he has accomplished
If I ever hear anyone criticize Livakovic again, I’m going to lose it. He’s bailed us out so many times and especially against Turkey. It could’ve been a nightmarish night if it wasn’t for him. He was there for us throughout every game of the World Cup. Besides him, Stanisic, Modric, and Kovacic were top notch. Barisic, Sutalo, and Kramaric were pitiful. If we wanna make impact this year. Win the nations league finals and win the rest of the remaining games. Beat the Dutch in June then hopefully play the final against a struggling Italia.
ZDS
To add on to this..Livakovic is better than Subasic. Don’t @ me
Give me Ivo
Regarding Musa, he plays for a very competitive Portuguese division and all of his goals this season for Benefica have come from very good passes. He now looks as lost as the other guys upfront mostly due to lack of service.
Yeah, Petković is a stiff, Livaja is not the most skilled and Kramarić can’t hit the broad side of a barn. However, I’m beginning to think even Šuker and Boksić in their prime would somewhat struggle with THIS midfield since they cannot create any legitimate opportunities (not including Luka).
You can’t help but walk away from what we’ve now seen from croatia for about 2 years and conclude this is a very good team. I would still not place them as favorites against the best, although as we saw they have a punchers chance and their ability to keep the game close allows for that.
To me, stanisic may be better than Juranovic. I haven’t seen a lot of him, but every time I’ve seen stanisic lately he seems to grow on me for his defensive speed down that wing and today he showed some decent offense with both a great run and one shot in the box.
I will once again say Musa was invisible. We don’t give Kramaric the alibi for no service ever, why should we give Musa. How about he runs around a bit and wins a ball. He was invisible and very disappointing to see as the great hope.
Perisic continues to get a bit more worrisome and we could find we are holding on too long there, but there aren’t a lot of good other options. I don’t get though why Dalic waits so long to sub.
Modric may show some more up down performance but he’s still good. Despite some messy passes, he also put in some good balls, particularly the sitter for Pasalic.
We can’t complain about Pasalic.. He was involved in both goals and almost netted a 3rd on if not for a great save.
Today I determined that Livakovic is simply a frail guy and this may be what stops him from ever becoming a presence in the box. After he had that good save and jumped back up to catch the ball, he collapsed as he ran into the Turkish players
So these last two games are our warm up games for the UEFA Nations League semis and finals. Many say it’s not a big deal, but I would like to see us take it very seriously (it does not appear to me that we did so in these past two qualifiers). Furthermore, as we can all see well from the outcomes of the two Euro Qualifiers, we will need to bring the quality and have some luck. No reason we can’t win though, because the same thing is true for all the other teams involved.
Certainly I would prefer for us to become the champs of the Euro. First things first though- it would be nice to see Modric and Perisic (in particular) as champs wearing the checkers as soon as possible.
Turkey pressed really well all game, but the ref also allowed Turkey to essentially bodycheck each of our players at all times and throw their cleats up on every 50/50 challenge. Lots of dangerous challenges by Turkey. Stanisic even got clipped in the head, yet it was Gvardiol that gets a yellow, lol.
Glad to see the ref not call that Sutalo contact as a PK. It wouldn’t be fair that Turkey gets all this contact allowed and no cards, but then we get called for a weak penalty.
Gvardiol and Brozovic had bad games. Brozovic should have been substituted at the half.
Modric had a subpar game too. He was better in the second half, but he made a lot of mistakes in the first. It seemed like everyone (except Stanisic) was making lazy passes in the first half that were too close to the pressing Turks.
Sutalo was okay. He was also guilty of lazy passing early the game, but he’s also so skilled it changes how we play and you can see his teammates are confident passing to him when he’s under pressure. It’s nice to see that. Lovren would have cracked in this game.
I don’t like Barisic. He’s just not good enough talentwise (even though he tries). Krama was Krama, pretty decent but he doesn’t thrive in games with contact (he avoids it too much).
Pasalic at RW provides no width or crossing. He’s just a guy who is good at crashing the net, but is only capable of scoring with his head (missing point blank chances with his feet). Pointless to have guys like Pasalic or Musa out there if you don’t have Sosa or Juranovic swinging crosses to them.
Kovacic, Stanisic and Livakovic were our best players.
The great news about this game (other than the result) is that Stanisic likely secured himself a starting role as RB. I think Juranovic ahead of him (at RM) is the right choice and they looked good there on that right side at the same time.
Dalic concerns me with his in-game subs. Our players were gassed and we should have made earlier subs. Majer should have come on for Broz (and we could have slid Modric back in Broz’s role). Perisic was gassed and wanted to come out (we should have subbed him out far earlier and we actually had a lot of guys to replace him in Sosa, Ivanusec, Orsic, or even Vlasic). I would have taken out both Barisic and Perisic on that left side. Not sure what Majer and Musa are expected to do as 84th minute subs (and Ivanusec in injury time). We need to stop giving rest to younger players like Sosa, but expect guys like Perisic, Broz and Modric to play 90+ minutes every game (especially when it seems like Broz still hasn’t become fully fit from his injury back in Nov).
It would have been a soft penalty against Sutalo, but we have seen them given in the past in similar situations. Agree with your comments about Brozovic, since that hamstring injury against Austria in the NL match he has not been the same player. He has lost his starting 11 position at Inter and it is showing in his performances.
Gvardiol was terrible today and if his surname was Lovren this site would have gone into meltdown. Gvardiol and Sutalo are young defenders and are still learning their trade and I disagree with your comment about Lovren as we could have done with his experience in the first 15 minutes when we looked awful in defence and midfield. I don’t think that Lovren would have been any worse than what we saw on display from Gvardiol and Sutalo in the first 15 minutes.
Dalic was spot on in playing Lovren alongside Gvardiol at the WC and I’m sure had he not retired he would have started in this difficult away match because of his experience.
In regards to Barisic, you keep on bagging the guy. The guy is a LB and I thought he had a solid defensive game today. His job is defence first and anything going forward is a bonus. Our both fullbacks were solid defensively today and that is what was needed for a tough away match in Turkey. Sosa was not rested but replaced with Barisic because Barisic is physically stronger in defence and better in the air than Sosa. Dalic was spot on tactically for benching Sosa and Juranovic for this match.
Lovren would have turned the ball over far worse with this Turkish pressing.
Guys like Gvardiol and Broz were quick and skilled enough to recover when their passes were deflected. Lovren would have given up a clean break to the opposition, and is far too slow to recover.
He also doesn’t do well in these physical games.
Similar to the Euro2020 match against Czech (which was also physical), it would’ve only been a matter of time until he drew a PK.
We all have opinions and I disagree with yours on this. Lovren did not play so we can only speculate on what he would have done,
but there were so many mistakes that I don’t think that he would have been any worse than what was on display.
We can only comment on what we saw during the match from those players that participated. Some of our defenders and midfielders in the first 15 minutes were irresponsible with their misdirected passes around our penalty box and we were lucky that Livakovic was able to make a few good saves.
As a player you have to know your limitations on when to pass the ball around the box and when to boot it up the field. Not sure if you noticed? when Dalic in anger motioned with his outstretched arms to our defenders to boot the ball up field instead of creating chances for the Turks by playing around the back.
The defense has released the pressure for Kovacic to move forward it seems. The confidence the midfield must have now to release the “kraken” may be in play. The ace of spades that may save us as we do not have the forward line desired may that the game plan is to move forward deeper to the goal “a la Kovacic” now! lol He looked like Lampard there with his perfect runs. I cannot wait till the next games to see if this is part of Dalic’s new attack strategy!
Funny how all the nervous nellies have now calmed down after the wales game.
An awful playing surface benefits the least talented team,and it looks like the Turks over watered the field or sprayed it with olive oil it sure looked slick.
Stanisic is impressing me with his offensive repertoire,I had no idea he had it in him.
Kotarski looked fabulous for our young lads I don’t even fault him for the PK.I’ll take an aggressive keeper with no fear any day.
Belo has nice touch on the ball for such a tall guy he just needs to be more cut throat around goal he should of had 2 other then The PK
No olive oil, according to Nova TV they had a couple of days of heavy rain hence the wet playing field. Agree about Kotarski that was a tremendous performance.
as I can see many amateur statements here in general,
I am not convinced by the strategy – really vulnerable ~
thanks to the referee for not giving a penalty [‘sutalo]
once again luck saved us =0
they could bag a goal [1st 1/2]
so luck + referee []
Thats the game. We played a better game against wales but lost points. That’s why I love this game
Maybe it’s really time to put Perisic more striker role? He can still press and he can still find the net
My back 4 of
Gvardiol/erlic/sutalo/stanisic
Sosa. And JJ on wings
The usual three in the midfield
Perisic up front
Something in this realm….It’s not the dumbest lineup ever posted on here
Garbage article along with a bunch here like Maminjo and others. Cro won, get over it. So many know it all on this site. You all know jack!!!t. Always critizing. You all couldn’t run a field without getting a heart attack.
Have a beer and enjoy. 😂😂😂😂😂
Kvartuc isn’t the greatest soccer mind I’ll have you know. This is a guy that said Kovacic and Kramaric should be benched against Canada at the World Cup. Kramaric scored a hat trick that game, (one offside).
Kramaric scores against low table teams. This is his problem. Did he score against Brazil, Belgium, Morocco, Japan, or Argentina??? Canada again is a low-mid table team. Even again against Turkey did he score???
People keep saying where is the service?? Look as a striker sometimes, albeit it cannot happen all the time, you need to create something out of nothing. Kramaric isn’t good enough to do this on his own the way Suker or Eduardo were able to. Especially not in the form he is in currently with next to no goals scored, practically, for Hoffenheim.
Look, I routed for Kramaric and was hoping he would be the next big thing, but he is not. Is he scoring like Ronaldo?? If you wanna be as selfish of player as he is on the field you need to justify it with an obscene amount of goals. Or maybe there is a second option…. PASS THE FFFING BALL ONCE IN A WHILE… lol. Had to put in caps for a dramatic effect.
Livakovic maturing big time in front of our eyes, carry over WC, Kova great today, Sosa totally overated, Not sold on Barisic. Luka and Perisic showing age
Ya no kidding
I think a few of us thought this could have been Livakovićs 15 mins of fame at the World Cup
He ain’t neuer with his feet but he’s getting better
Shot stopping is definitely one of the better ones in the world
So happy for kova especially when he did the sign of the cross when scoring
Bravo legenda
In Constantinople too
Absolutely love that. Kovacic is pure Class. Respectful, humble but true to himself. He and Luka represent Croatia so well.
Just watched the highlights U21 England V Croatia 1 – 2.
Baturina with a great free kick for 1 – 0 and Beljo 2 – 0 from the penalty spot.
However, MOTM performance goes to our goalkeeper Kotarski despite being responsible for the England penalty, Kotarski during the match made a handful of tremendous saves to keep England at bay.
Do we have goalkeeping all of the sudden??!!
This game was fine. Croatia proved itself a solid team yet again in an extremely tough environment and was able to shake off the pressure.
Once again, the game was won through grinding the opponent despite a strange number of errant passes.
Once again, Musa was a joke. I love how Ante calls to start him after he showed absolutely nothing in 2 matches and with zero hustle.
Once again, Croatia fans see some shiny object that they fantasize about. Like the calls for Musa all this time, or budimir, or even colak. Then these guys get put in and you quickly realize why they were never there before.
Hey, it was worth a shot.
Or maybe Musa was just sandbagging it because he felt mixed allegiances playing against turkey.
As usual, I worry about Gvardiol’s injury proneness. It looked like he hurt himself for a bit there at the end. For goodness sakes, the guy has a wrapped hand. Who hurts there hand playing soccer!? The injury prone guys
Musa was given less than 15 minutes against Turkey and was given 0 service against Wales, tf is he supposed to do?
Really, I feel like truth would have the same argument even if Musa was on for like 5 mins. Players need to have time to score, give Musa the start with 60 minutes to play then we will have this conversation.
What people don’t seem to understand is the age difference. Kramaric is 31, and quite frankly, is having an abysmal season with Hoffenheim. 2 shitty season to be exact.
Musa is 24 and has what, 5 goals already this season plus quite a few assists.
There really shouldn’t be a comparison here. Musa stature alone sets him apart from Kramaric, we need that tall presence in the box it’s what worked for us in 2018 with Mandzukic.
@Mate1
Also to add onto your point, Musa has been a bench player for Benfica this whole season.
He has one of the highest scoring frequencies in the league despite only starting twice and also averaging less than half and hour of game time.
Markus I agree with you.
This should be enough information for Dalic to give Musa the nod for a start, at the very least as a trial. Regardless of the outcome. Yes everyone wants a win here, Dalic included. The problem is you can’t always go with the safe option as a coach. Especially here because the option with Krama, (along with the other two strikers of Petko and Livaja) are tried, tested and not so true. The past tournaments which have largely remained goalless aside from the game with Canada, which frankly doesn’t count, and Petko’s good fortune against Brazil and I still say Broz should have scored first by all accounts. These 3 strikers are not providing our team with what is necessary and anyone should be able to see it by now.
There will be moments that our defence will struggle. I have mentioned this already that it is due to their age. It is to be expected. But when they are struggling the offence has to pick up the slack and with who we have it’s not an option even when it’s needed.
The problem here is Dalic is afraid of the flack he will get for taking risks in choosing to play the youth. But both Livaja and Petko being injured and unable to do it should provide him with the opportunity now, and the excuse, to play the younger players. The team cannot progress this way and achieve higher outcomes, especially in the future to come where aot of the players that are older start to retire.
Dalic has to plan for the future here, not just the present.
I watch the under 22 game some nice players potential A on that team if the turn from prospect to player not flops.
As for these two games over all B- for me since 2018 same problem no number 9 and true right wing and also perisic is losing his pace and ability like when he was younger you can tell on tv and live thats imo. He is 34 so what do you expect.
My ratings out of 5
Livi 4.5 his leg play is awful.
Barišić 2.5 got job done.
Gvardiol 2 im being generous
Sutalo 3 ok nothing special
Stanisic 4 good game very smart player.
Kovačić 5 no jusg beacuse two goals je was everywhere on the pitch.
Brozovic 2 sloppy game
Modric 3 sloppy game aswel maybe pitch was bad gave away ball too many times.
Pasalic 2.5 assit and coukd have had a goal good on D
Perisic 2 good on D not so much going foward.
Kramaric 2 Krama is Krama
Subs no grade for me.
Musa imo is just a young copy of Budimir nothing special
Dalic vise srice nego pameti. Agter second and bronze hard to criticize him for me because he is the best coach we have ever had
Musa has been given 0 service from this team so far and had less than 15 minutes of game time against Turkey.
Hard to really judge where he’s at now with the National Team.
Musa at 25 years of age is better than Livaja, but I do not see him as our savior up front. If I was Dalic I would start calling up younger forwards into the squad such as Beljo and Ljubicic who are much better prospects than Musa.
I’d do the same, Musa is sort of a stop gap until we find someone like a Beljo, Ljubicic and Simic in which if they excel, Musa would end up being a squad player. It would be a good plan imo.
I agree, for that department the only player I would keep is Perisic, everyone else would be a younger player from Simic, Ljubicic, Beljo and Musa. Here is where Dalic has to take risks unfortunately despite flack from the public.
Stanisic is a must start against Holland the way he is going
I feel like sutalo was sloppy back there
Hopefully him and gvardi really start to mesh soon
Want to see some more of erlic….
18 shots by Turkey.
Granted that only 5 were on target but Lovren’s experience would have been helpful today.
Based on the comments it looks like we could’ve had a stronger and more organized game. I did see both goals and Kovacic reads plays so well. The first was off a rebound and it was a beautiful long ball from Sutalo that caused it. Stanisic got involved too. The second goal was all Turkey mistakes and another rebound in the box. All that matters is getting a vital away. Rest up for two months and prepare for Netherlands in June. Dalic knows this team than any coach previously.
Spain lost to Scotland 2-0
Played at Hampden Park, the score is not a surprise to me. Scotland have improved a lot in the last couple of years.
A few thoughts:
1) Poor passing, yes, but did you look at the state of the field? A ball that normally would have bounced out for a goal kick literally bounced horizontally back away from the end line off a pile of clay. It’s entirely possible that some of those misplaced passes were because of the topography of the field. As soon as Musa came on, he looked like he was learning to ice skate for the first time. Not what these elite players are used to, so it’s normal that they would play more sloppy than usual.
2) About the lineup, Dalić read the match well. He knew that this was going to be a physical test, so he put in the right players for the situation. Barisić may be less skilled than Sosa, but he is a much more physical and tenacious player, and he plays in Scotland where the field conditions can also be slippery and unpredictable. I think he played very well at left back, and I don’t think Sosa would have been the right player for this match. Stanisić at right back was also a great decision. His performance should earn him the starting role going forward. He was great all around. Pasalić was also instrumental in the win. He’s a tank who can win the ball back or hold the ball up. Good choice by Dalić, and it led to two goals. Kramarić drew defenders away into spaces that then created openings for Pasalić, Kovačić, and Stanisić. He was close to scoring the third goal, and he did a great job of alternating defensive duties with Pasalić. Without him, Turkey had a lot more possession.
3) We got what we wished for: Juranović at RW, Musa at CF, and Stanisić at RB all on at the same time. Juranović looked good in combination with Stanisić, and Dalić should keep that combination. Musa still looks like a younger, less imposing version of Budimir so far. No wonder Kramarić and Livaja are still ahead of him in the ranks.
4) Livaković played like a world class keeper. Good for him.
Not an elegant match by any means, but it was a deserved win using strategy and intelligence to get three points on difficult terrain when it mattered.
Interesting assessment.
By the way, Croatia U21s beat England U21s 2-1. Dion Drena Beljo scored on a penalty kick in the 53rd minute to make it 2-0. England scored on a penalty kick with 3 minutes left.
geez i see we only had 27% possession? wow
Iggy,
According to Flashscore, we had 51% possession.
Not sure then, Google says 27 so beats me
That was hard to watch.
Livakovic – still makes me nervous as hell, but made 2 huge saves
Barisic – did adequately
Gvardiol – terrible first half, much better 2nd
Sutalo – adequate
Stanisic – excellent
Modric – not very good
Brozovic – not very good
Kovacic – saved us
Perisic – ok
Kramaric – invisible
Pasalic – slow as molasses
Dalic – no tactics, how do you wait until the 84th minute to make your 2nd sub?
Juranovic – not enough sample size at RW, but this is promising
Subs – no comments for 10 minutes of action
Fair assessment, however we have to give credit to Dalic for bringing in Stanisic and Barisic. Both are better defenders than Juranovic and Sosa.
Our defence with two of them looks a lot stronger. Both had solid defensive displays unlike our central defenders especially Gvardiol who was poor today and did not excel against Wales either. I hope that Stanisic from now on keeps his starting position at RB.
In regards to subs, when leading 2 – 0 you don’t make too many unnecessary subs. His subs in Split against Wales were poor.
Better second half defensively. Gvardiol was poor today, one of our worst players.
Livakovic, Kovacic and Stanisic our best players.
Back on track, 4 points from two matches is acceptable. Next EURO matches are in September against Latvia and Armenia.
Look at those Turkish players pretending they somehow were cheated by the referee. Sure, it was the last play of the match, but it was also two full minutes after the end of stoppage time. And no way was that Barisić block a handball ! Of course it was the right call!
Worst and sloppiest game we’ve played in a long time. What an awkward 90 minutes. Take the 3 pts and run.
We knew it would be a dirty choppy game against the Turks away from home
There were some good pieces
We should have won Saturday,tied today
It’s all good we are in good shape going forward now
Are short corners used to kill time?
If anyone needs me I’ll be eating my words I said against livakovic all this time
However to be fair he was “playing like a bust”;)
My god I can’t watch our useless crosses anymore.
Kovacic channelling his Boban darting runs in the box (today and vs. Wales)
Gvardiol channeling his Bilic at West Ham
I don’t know what’s more annoying today…our poor passing or this useless shirt corner tactic that amounts to nothing.
Shirt or short – same Result- LOL
lol i thought he meant shit corner tactic but short makes more sense
the way HNS is playing today it could be shit shirt and short
Meant short but probably could have gone with shit. Lol
Mario! Gotta bury that.
We now figured out the team – play like total crap and mistake your way to a 2-0 lead – genius Dalic again
The first goal represents our scoring situation. The two players involved before Kovacic scoring just passed between each other in front of goal. They seemed nervous to shoot?
We really needed that late second goal. Turkey was really pressing hard. This is unsustainable. They now have no choice but to continue pressing. Hopefully we catch them on a break and end the game.
HT U21 England v Croatia 0 – 1. Baturina from a free kick.
Can’t watch as it is being played at the same time as the seniors.
How lucky are we ? I have never seen us make so many mistakes at the back with poor passing in dangerous areas. Brozovic, Sutalo, Gvardiol twice and Modric. We can thank Livakovic for a couple of great saves. Never seen Modric
before with so many misdirected passes.
Livakovic, Stanisic, Barisic and Kovacic our best players.
Kova going for the Haaland hat trick!!
He was all over the goal last week
Sick flick by luka on that play
But kind of started a bit before with the pressure and energy he put on their keeper
Can’t remember who but someone made the comment after the Wales game we played well and didnt win but one time we will win without playing well so maybe this is the karma square up
A few of us probably
It’s how it goes…
If we play hard and do our thing we will get our bounces
Yeah Ante, Kovacic can’t play with Modric. Get him off the field.
Brozovic is absolute garbage. Gvardiol is extremely overrated.
Sloppy passing and nobody moving off the ball.
As often as they were back passing to him, Livakovic was our best goalie, defender and midfielder in the first half.
Bruh, Gvardiol has one bad game and now he’s overrated? Lol.
You don’t watch Leipzig games, do you?
Yes, he is the MOTM most of the time. You’re trippin Lovro
Kova again! And a cow just flew over the moon.
He has been the only other player aside from Stanisic who’s showed any kid of bite.
Don’t think I’ve ever recalled us being outchanced like this yet being up 2-0. Incredibly luck not to be done 2-3.
Man was hoping stanisic would have had a rip on that run!
But the first goal he had a vital touch
Big game guy
After that goal on Saturday I was kind of thinking did we get the old liva back(I know it wasn’t his fault)
But man did he make some big saves!
It’s the saves we need a big game guy to make sometimes… and he sure as shit made them
Second half. Hopefully we can keep our possession and play tight and organized
Agreed Danny. Stanisic should have had a go. Liva saved our ass with those saves. He’s always been a good shot stopper…thankfully!
I was about to type that Modrić looks like a 55th minute sub and then he springs free Pasalić leading to the goal. 😁
Haha 2-0
omg as soon as i say that it’s 2-0 lmao
lol no no, you are right, we are playing terrible, worse than we played against wales
We’re playing pretty crappily today
Modric really off tonight. Kovacic our best player so far.
Çalhanoğlu coming off
Luck on our side so far
he never plays well on NT anyway, morally it’s a big loss if at all
Stanisic is a big game guy
Love him
We have to find a way to keep him on rb and JJ up
Hear me out
Gvardiol. Sutalo erlic stanisic
Stanisic is having a game so far. Looks really good going forward as well.
My mistake…looks like the Turkish player passes it to Kova for the goal.
Wow Kovacic finally belting one in lol
No better feeling than an undeserved goal
Hopefully we can WAKE up now. I worry Turkey will equalize.
Lol. Was going to say…go figure. We play like garbage and are up luckily 1-0. I wonder if Kramaric would have made that pass to Kovacic? 😁
Isuse bože. I’ve never seen us pass the ball so poorly. Giveaway after giveaway.
Agreed. WTF.
Modric not having the best game either
Agree – more giveaways in 1st half – than last 10 games
We’re getting killed on the backline as well.
Someone with Lovren’s experience would come in handy in this game.
As expected conservative lineup and more defensive. These horrible passes will catch up to us. Livakovic bails is out twice already with two excellent saves.
We better wake up.
We are playing shockingly.
You play for the draw, and you’ll get a loss
They look like shit, sloppy lazy passing, giveaways, should be 2-0 already
Terrible passing all around
Turkey should be up 1-0.
Luka loses 3 balls and Brožović with a lazy pass that should have led to a goal.
Awful start.
Turkey will come out full of energy and emotion. We’ll have to weather that storm. After that, we should be ok. I watched good chunks of the Turkey/Armenia match. Turkey was not very good and were fortunate to win.
Yea, he’s playing it safe and going with experience over fit.
I think the lack of width from this lineup will hurt us, but we’re probably just going to rely on individual talent yet again.
I am just hoping we can tire them out and not concede a goal. I hope they can’t sustain this forever.
Did Modric let Dalic pick the line-up this time?
Pasalic starting is just appalling to me. Madness…. It should be either Kramaric or Juranovic in that spot.
dalic is real big on the concept of rotating guys and keeping fresh legs. he’s done it consistently before. he even did it in the 3rd place morroco game
Everyone relax re: starting line-up
Modric picks who he thinks gives them the best chance of winning the game
No need to 2nd guess, etc – it’s just silly
Starting Pašalić makes no sense. He did nothing coming off the bench in the last game.
Karamarić upfront is dissapointing. The only change I agree with is Barišić.
Barisic is absolutely woeful player, would rather Sosa with an ACL.
Turkey will win 3-0
then we hire a hitman
to assassinate Dalic ~
Suck my curac
Looks like Pasalic is starting over Musa
Turkey lost to Faroe Islands in September, 2022. We better win this!
They struggled a bit with Armenia too, but they pulled through (since Armenia has far less talent).
This will be our toughest qualifying match, so hopefully we come out and play.
What kits are the Vatreni wearing? Winless in two with the blue.
•
AJMO!!
•
Betting line, pinnacle.com:
Turkey +256
Draw +229
Croatia +125
I think we won some warm up game or two in blue before the world cup, one might’ve been against Saudi Arabia or something? I seem to recall Krama getting a goal
You are good. As soon as I hit submit I thought — maybe they wore them before the WC? I even watched that game but for some reason when they played Argentina at the WC it struck me as my first time seeing them wearing those. Maybe it was the gravity of the occasion.
We defeated Austria 3-1 in Austria in blue in the Nations League.
I need to lay off the rakija.
The wales game was very representative of what this croatian team now is.
It is a team that can control possession against almost any team in the world except for spain.
Combined with an improved back line, you get a team that can really grind away at you.
Croatia did that excellent against wales and played a great game. they dominated.
But once again, Croatia has no speed or dribbling to breakdown and bend defenses or a big threat in the box. As a result, despite a domination of the tempo, it seems unlikely that croatia will be able to really pull away from opponents by that much.
Just look to the world cup where croatia had 4 ties, 1 win by 1 goal, and one win against canada by 3.
I was pretty appalled with what I saw from Musa in the Wales game. I have never really seen him play so I’ll hope for better going forward. But what struck me was what an incredibly low motor he had. It was like Petkovic just put on a skinny suit and gave himself Turkish ancestry for a game.
You would think on his first cap ever, Musa would err on the side of overrunning. But he walked all over the place and his press was pathetic. Tall and lanky like a mandzukic but clearly far away from that
Some games you dominate and lose points
Sometimes it’s the other way
Like it or not we have a Mark on our back
Everyone is going to step up a bit more against us now
That’s ok
Today is fresh
Maybe a little luck comes on our side and we can get a good bounce for a couple goals(see petko Brazil;)
Keep sticking to our game cause everyone here saw that first half against wales and loved it
We just needed that extra kill goal like we had against Canada but it just didn’t finish
Kova needs to find his finishing touch cause those runs that he can do are top of the mark!
New day new challenge. Vi bi ok boys and girls!
I’m not worried about qualification. It’s more about our seeding for me.
We’re currently the 5th ranked team in Europe behind France, Belgium, England and Netherlands.
There are 6 groups at Euro2024 and I want us to be a top seed.
Italy, Portugal and Spain are next in the rankings and you know that Spain and Portugal will rack up a lot of point and clean sweep their qualifying groups and possibly pass us by next summer.
I don’t want us losing points to low-ranked teams like Wales, Turkey and Armenia…and we drop down to the 10-15 range in the FIFA rankings (like we always do before a tournament) making it harder on ourselves.
The “you gotta beat the best to be the best” talk is not actually true and you can’t underrate how much an easier preliminary group phase does for teams (like Argentina this past World Cup).
I think it’s must-win in the sense of regaining the team’s balance after what was essentially a lucky bounce (and poor marking from Juranović) in an otherwise dominant performance against Wales. While that draw should not be interpreted as the course of qualification, much as our loss to Slovenia wasn’t in the WC2022 cycle, it’s necessary for the team to get a win against Turkey to go top of the group and stay there.
Not a must win game by any stretch, can’t see BOTH of Wales and Turkey finishing above us and eliminating us, but we want to avoid defeat at least for sure. Such a shame abotu the Wales goal.