Croatia travel to Andorra on Wednesday in what should be an easy walkthrough victory for the ‘Vatreni’. Although this game and all its goals won’t count towards a playoff spot, it can still help Croatia catch England on goal differential. So what will the scoreboard show at the final whistle and how do you think Bilić will mix up this Croatian side?
Darijo (Ukraine), Adrien (Kazakhstan), Joze (Kazakstan) and Ante Kvartuč (Andorra #1) are all tied with one correct game predicted in ‘CroatianSoccerReport.com Fantasy Pick’em’. Winner of the entire qualifying campaign will get something nice from us! (If I missed anyone, let me know.)
I have Croatia in a 5-0 landslide victory with 2 goals by Eduardo, a free kick from Srna, a nice volley by Modrić and a first-ever strike from Kalinić. I believe a lot of new, young players will be on the pitch for Croatia playing at full steam to impress the coaching staff.
CroatianSoccerReport.com will be ‘Twittering’ the Andorra game live on Wednesday, April 1st. For those of you unable to catch the game live or are stuck at work/school, you can follow the match with play-by-play and a bit of commentary by Denis and I. We thought this would be a good game to do a test run for the ‘Twitter Experiment’.
All you have to do is create a free account at Twitter.com. You can find CSR by searching for ‘croatian soccer’ or adding us as a friend at Twitter.com/croatiansoccer.
The game will be available live online at VideoSport.com at the cost of 5 Euros. This is the only site as of right now that will be showing the game 100%. The match kicks off at 2:30 PM (Eastern).
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Well it looks like we don’t have a winner for the Croatia-Andorra prediction. A few of you came close with 3-0 and Anonymous said…
“With all the injuries, I think it will be a 1-0 or 2-0 win at best. They will bunker whole 90 minutes. Srna will score both.”
whoever you are, Gotham needs you err… I mean CSR needs you.. come up with a name, welcome aboard! You would have won a million CSR dollars if you would have had a name and stuck with 2-0 instead of “1-0 or 2-0”
i would like to change my prediction to 2-0
Slovenia aren’t too bad. I think we’d beat them like we did again, but they are getting better. One thing about Slovenia and Bosnia is that they have goals. Novakovic is bagging in goals for fun for Koln and well am sure everyone knows about Edin Dzeko, Misimovic and Ibisevic by now.
Oh yes sadly after many coaches, failed qualifications and player bust ups it seems Serbia has finally got there team together and can’t be the source of fun no more. It used to be fun watching them implode. All the more reason for Croatia to qualify otherwise we’ll be the joke of the Balkans. With Serbia they have a solid spine i.e Vidic/Ivanovic-midfielders like Krasic/Stankovic and Zigic/Sulijmani/Jovanovic. Looks like they’ll have enough to qualify. We need to get our defensive spine back as Robert Kovac and Niko Kovac getting old is really where it went wrong against England plus Eduardo not being there. I’m really hoping Juric will prove to be key to holding our team together. Also after Corluka, Simunic and Krizanac i don’t have much faith in the other centre backs in our squad for a big match.
Regards this match i predict 5-0 with Modric, Rakitic, Srna, Kranjcar, Olic and Eduardo most likely to score. Am sure some of those will be the scorers. In truth though i think the players deserve to give the fans a 8-0 scoreline to give confidence.
My prediction is: Croatia wins 4:0 even if Eduardo only plays 1st half. I just hope Klasnic plays and plays well. I very curious to see how the new younger players handle it with all the injuries/suspensions.
With all the injuries, I think it will be a 1-0 or 2-0 win at best. They will bunker whole 90 minutes. Srna will score both.
Hey all..i’ve still been following all these months even if i havn’t posted
Prediction: 3-0 ..eduardo klasnic rakitic
Pranjic had some kind of sickness or virus. I don’t believe it was a physical knock. He hasn’t been near 100% for the last week so Bilic decided to rest him for Andorra.
Oliver,
Is hnl-latest.com your website?
any idea what is going on with pranjic? is there something i missed?? injury??
3-0 Croatia…Eduardo, Rakitic, Kranjcar
Does anyone know where to watch the game for free?
Not too sure about that site seeing as they’re calling Bilic Mladen.
Squad is named:
Pletikosa – Ćorluka, Križanac, Vejić, Čale – Srna, Jurić, Kranjčar, Rakitić – Eduardo, Klasnić
at least according to http://www.hns-latest.com ;D
whats this with modric being out, one day he there saying he is fine the next he’s out
Croatia 4-0
Dudu (hat trick)
Srna
LUKA MODRIC OUT AGAINST ANDORRA!
http://www.hns-latest.com/
http://www.hnslatest.com
has a pretty good article on andorra and the matchh in general.
Thanks Denis for responding. And yes I agree, we probably won’t beat England..and second place is fine with me.
I guess I am still a bit nervous since Croatia’s loss against Turkey in Euro 2008…(and to make matters worse, I watched the game with some French people and sitting behind us were some Bosnians…and really I have nothing against Bosnians….but it took everything in me not to turn around and tell them not to cheer so loud for the Turkish team…my Croatian heart was broken…;)))
nancy
Anybody have any predctions on the starting 11? With so many injuries to our strikers and injuries and suspensions to our defence, I would like us to test a 3-5-2 formation, especially as we’re playing Andorra.
——-Eduardo–Klasnic——
—-Modric———Kranjcar–
Rakitic—-Vukojevic—–Srna
-Cale—–Krizanac—-Corluka
———-Pletikosa———-
Then let the young blood have a go in the second half. We could even push out Klasnic (don’t like him) to create a 3-4-3 of sorts:
———–Eduardo————-
—-Modric———Kranjcar—-
Rakitic–Juric–Vukojevic–Srna
-Cale—–Krizanac—-Corluka
———-Pletikosa————
But now I’m just letting my imagination run away…
i’m going to go with a safe 3-0. picks for goals are Modric (2), Eduardo (1). putting a lot of faith in modric to really show up for this one!
Croatia 3 – 0
Modric, Kranjcar, Eduardo
5-0 Croatia.
Eduardo 2
Rakitic 1
Modric 2
Nancy
I don’t want to jinx it, I mean “Ante it” but Croatia should qualify depending on the playoff draw. If we stay healthy, we are top 5 in Europe on paper. However, England was top 5 on paper during the last qualifying round and didn’t even make playoffs.
Marko
With Capello on the throne, England is in my opinion top 3 in Europe right now. Even a second place finish isn’t something to be embarrassed about. I’m shooting for second, cause I dont see England slipping the rest of the campaign, meaning even a victory at Wembley won’t get us 1st…. also, do you think England will lose to us at Wembley twice… Again, not bashing our boys, just difficult task for first.
Croatia wins 3-0.
Hmm…it depends if they get business done against Andorra, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. I don’t think we have a chance in catching England, unless we show up in Wembley and destroy them, but they need to snag somewhere along the lines against the other opponents. This is what is difficult about it, they’re playing dominate.
If Croatia get to the playoff it depends on the opponent. I’m not sure if its a draw or based on seeds from pts. We’ll see I guess.
Croatia 4-1 Andorra
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Maybe I am jumping ahead…but what does everyone think of Croatia’s chances for qualifying for South Africa 2010?
nancy
Ante, unfortunately I didn’t get my Kazakhstan prediction right (I had 2-0 not 3-0) so I’m still on null points.
My prediction for the Andorra game is 3-0, I’d like it to be more but I think it will only be three goals for the Vatreni (Eduardo, Modric, Srna)
Marko,
I caught bits and pieces of the US game as well. In my opinion it was lack of effort in part of US for the first 60 minutes. El Salvador has very little talent and was using its quickness to frustrate the Americans. El Salvador couldnt get out of their half in the final 20 minutes of the match, and played long ball most of the match.
El Salvador philosophy = kick the ball up, and outrun the americans. Why CONCACAF has 3.5 spots is mind boggling. Give another spot to Africa at least. Either Togo or Cameroon won’t make the big dance, so Costa Rica or El Salvador or God help me Trinidad makes another appearance…
Say the Concacaf is so boring and bad. I watched the El Salvador game on ESPN2…my God USA has no finesse unless they move it out of the midfield towards Donovan or Beasley. They just can’t move the ball without long volley passes, its terrible. Their defense was so out of place against El Salvador. They were highly exploited because of El Salvador’s speed and quickness, something USA frankly lacks on much of their roster. They were very lucky to pull out a tie.
Marko,
Feel free to comment as much as your heart desires.
Hopefully, Portugal, France, and Turkey fail to make the big dance. If you look at the history of the world cup, there is at least one big European team that stays home..
1994- France, Croatia, Serbia, Portugal, England, Denmark, Czech
1998- Sweden, Czech, Russia, Portugal, Ireland
2002- Holland, Yugo, Bulgaria, Greece
2006- Turkey, Denmark, Russia, Greece, Ireland
2010– could be Portugal, France, Turkey, Sweden, Czech, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Norway…
all of these teams can beat Mexico/USA/Costa Rica in a neutral venue
Sorry for triple post, but what makes the 2nd half of qualifiers so interesting is the chance of huge powerhouses not making the cut. Portugal, France, Czech Republic, and the pesky Turkey. It’s debatable that some of those teams aren’t elite (the last two), but they have been either solid for most of their history or extremely dangerous.
Yea I just noticed it, but still they’re one pt off lol.
Marko,
I think you are mistaking Slovakia for Slovenia… Slovakia went down 4-0 yesterday..
Obviously, Slovenia doesn’t scare me, however, it would be interesting considering the history and current political relations between the two countries.
Slovenia looks so weak to me even if they’re second. They got manhandled by England it was pathetic. We got owned, no doubt, but this was because of the absence of our best scorer and a severely early red card exit by our captain. I’m still impressed with Srna’s effort throughout that game he never gave up.
Marko
I would hate to face Bosna or Israel in a playoff. Hopefully, Bosna can qualify and traveling to Israel would suck… Yes looks like Serbia will top the group…
How about a Slovenia-Croatia playoff. We’ve been sticking it to Slovenia since 98
In Africa no less…lol whoa I see major problems and disaster in 2010.
throw in israel into that mix marko (very possible they will quailfy), and you are looking at some serious security precautions for the wc
I commented on ESPN about their win and said “can you imagine Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia in the WC…riots galore if Serbia is matched up with either in one group.” It really looks like Serbia is going to win their group. They won a convincing match against Romania and France only defeated Lithuania by a score of 1-0. The way Portugal is playing they may not even make the playoff. I hope that’s the case!
I wanna say 3-0…but im going with 4-0
P.S Belgium 2- 4 BOSNA yes indeed Bosna champions of 2010
I know but I can dream can’t I?
I’ll have it at 5-0 Croatia: Modric x2, Rakitic, Eduardo, Vejic
Good luck to everyone.
Picking goalscorers is purely optional. As for Eduardo hitting a hat trick, don’t think that’s going to happen because he should only play the first half.
No way Bilic will play him the entire match with the young strikeforce he is bringing to Andorra.
I got 4-0 Andorra in a major upset… of course it happens to be April 1st, which is April fools here in the States…
4-0 Croatia, with 3 goals coming after the break. (Eduardo, Modric, Eduardo, Klasnic)
I pick 6-0 aswell
Do I need to tell you the goal scorers? I predict 6-0 with Eduardo grabbing a hat trick to show his dominance.