You may look at the scoreline and be worried. Don’t be.
The Vatreni could have easily scored six on Armenia today in Velika Gorica but it looked as they were more interested in playing a FIFA-esque style of play rather than being clinical with the ball. Perišić headed home a Modrić corner in the 1st half but he could have easily added another. Pašalić hit the post with a bicycle kick. Vlašić let one rip past the right post. Both Kramarić and Rebić mistimed shot in front of the goal that carried over the crossbar.
Then in the 2nd half, Croatia got totally cute in front of the net and made extra passes galore in front of the net. All in all a solid friendly only with Brekalo coming off in the 1st half with a not-so-serious looking foot injury. Ice was needed.
Ivan Perišić scores in his 100th cap for Croatia. He is now the ninth Croatian to reach the century mark and now only sits one goal behind Eduardo da Silva for third place in all-time Croatia goals.
Škorić had a the roughest of games as he gave the ball away that led to Armenia’s goal – an absolute ripper from 30 yards out. He also missed an open header on goal.
HRVATSKA: Livaković – Vrsaljko, Ćaleta-Car, Vida, Barišić – Modrić, Brozović – Brekalo, Vlašić, Perišić – Kramarić
Croatia kickoff the first of two friendlies this week on Tuesday against Armenia at 12PM (ET) from Velika Gorica. It should be a relatively easy walkthrough for the Vatreni before they take on Belgium Sunday in their final friendly before EURO 2021 kicks off.
I wouldn’t expect more than a half played by the superstars: Modrić, Perišić, Kramarić with most of the bench being used up. Official lineup will be posted closer to kick off.
I watched the whole match and Can’t remember the last time I saw so much unfinished business in one game. Blown Chance after chance to score…. but hey it really was as about important as watching some random dudes playing at the local park. It was a win in my book because no one got seriously injured God forbid!!! Can’t wait to see how we do this Euro. My Overall impression was Modric looked tuned and ready to go. My prediction for first game:
Croatia 2
England 0
Good Luck
@CROMAGNUM MAN
Bro I want that to happen more than anything but are you on cheap drugs? We’d be lucky if we got a draw in the opener.
Status of Vlasic anyone know?
Came off early.
It was Brekalo who came off early.
Vlasic came off at the half, along with several others. Vlasic is fine. Brekalo I dont know.
We play to the occasion.
Once the tournament starts we’ll hang with anyone
Literally not even worried.
We got this!
Didn’t we lose against Peru in a friendly before the last WC ? I think we did pretty good after that… let’s not worry too much about a friendly game that is almost like a training … I think we will go pretty far
Since watching pretty much ever hrvati game since euro 96, and goin in to a tourney I say I’m most worried about this one as I’m not confident in the least bit and pray we don’t get humiliated by England first game. God I hope I’m wrong but something tells me we’re in for a disaster of a campaign. God I hope I’m wrong really and hate being a pessimist but can’t help and see the forest for the trees. If we had mandzo still at his peak I would say that would influence my decision making as we will leak goals as usual this campaign we’re having a harder time scoring them. Again I hope I’m wrong come 2 weeks from now.
Za Dom spremni !!
Hilarious how the English never learn.
They talked down to us before the Game at Wembley and before the semifinals in Russia.
I watched some of the game. We could have easily scored 5 or 6 but seemed disinterested. Can’t blame them really. No one wants to get injured and therefore you can get a result like this. People are overreacting to this.
Most important thing is to I’m healthy.
Yawn…who cares? The English media is already pointing out our ‘shocking!’ draw. Idiots. It’s called rope-a-dope (boxing reference).
Budimir will be our ace in the hole.
A classic #9 striker who can score with the head. He’ll probably play a half v. Belgia.
With him and Krama up front we will beat or tie the chirpers in Wembley!
Ajmo dečki!!!
Napred Hrvati!!!
@Stari I saw that too and couldn’t agree more. Friendlies aren’t important and just put in place for form, tactics and chemistry. The English media are bias and will be cocky as always. I call them the qualifying champs. That’s all they can do. Big tournaments they never show up.
Let’s see what we have against Belgium- I’m torn on friendlies- hard to read but the hope is we see more passion going into early June than they showed today-
To all you guys in panic mode…reeeeelax.
1. I hate friendlies and I always will. I’m happy when none of our players get injured (re: Pjaca)
2. Many of you throughout the year were rooting for Real Madrid NOT to make the CL Final so Luka could rest. Now you want him going balls to the wall in a friendly vs. Armenia. Come on.
3. Go into panic mode like I did in 2017 when Croatia lost to Iceland, Turkey, and drew Finland…ALL IN WC QUALIFIERS! That’s when you’re allowed to panic.
Not in friendlies. You’re not allowed to panic in friendlies or Nations League games. Am I frustrated when they don’t play well in those games? Yes.
But no panic. These guys tried to toy waaaay too much with Armenia today. Should have easily had 3 goals and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Watched the first half, and couldn’t catch the second. Lots of chances, but finishing them at the same very low rate. Same as always.
Unfortunately, it’s too late to make changes and test out new formations. Dalić had THREE YEARS to do this, and chose not to do anything other than just play whatever players he had available (regardless of their natural position) and just slotted them into the same standard formation we always play.
We just have to hope that the heightened competition will force us to defend and counter more, creating better chances for us than our possession game has.
Brozović and Modrić are great defenders, and guys like Perišić, Rebić and Brekalo are great on counters.
Unlike the Nations League, we will have most of our key players playing… So having Broz and Modrić manage our defense and spring the attack will be better.
The Czech and Scotland games might be a bit painful to watch though, as it could be the same story with us dominating possession but struggling to find the net.
We’re fine guys…it’s not the end of the world. It’s a preparation match – literally a training. Mile Skoric costed us the 1-0 lead…that won’t happen in euro. Our players played relaxed and flashy in front of goal for FUN with 50% or less effort…that won’t happen in Euro. It’d be stupid to assume our players are willing to risk their fatigue and health in a FRIENDLY TRAINING PREPARATION match against Armenians. Especially noted that we have England, Belgium, Czech Republic, and Scotland on our schedule. Relaaaaaaaaaaaaax. Jebiga, we didn’t even lose.
It’s a different story if this game was just a bump in the road during a string of good performances. But that’s definitely not the case. We’re struggling to see games all the way through consistently, which is definitely worrying going into a major tournament. Not being able to beat Armenia, not matter how many chances we had, is bad news.
Unacceptable. It doesn’t matter that we had 1000 chances on goal. We can’t finish. And if we can’t finish against England, Scotland and Czech we are completely and utterly screwed. Modric is the only one with passion. Everyone else sucked today. Livakovic literally had one shot and it was impossible to stop. Vrsaljko is rusty, Juranovic is lively. Skoric was decent until he fucked up that goal. Vida better than usual, still not skilled or good enough for our NT, Caleta-Car worst game in a Cro shirt, fell on his ass and almost gave up a breakaway. Barisic is absolute ass. Perisic scored a nice header then missed 7 other chances. He should’ve made it 4-0 himself but no finishing. Rebic looked unmotivated and had a horrible first touch. Vlasic + Krama= invisible. Brekalo was decent. Petkovic was invisible. Brozovic was back passing like his life depended on it and Badelj did jack shit. Dalic once again with the same fucking lineup, same fucking tactics and same fucking formation. Nothing different. At this point every single team knows exactly what to expect. Dalic just shoves on the most skilled players and says “Go play” and then this fiasco happens. This isn’t the typical “Croatia underperforms against bad teams” and then shows up at the tournament. This is different. Haven’t seen the Vatreni perform this badly in my entire life time. It’s time for a complete revamp. From the president down to the players. Suker out Dalic out all the old fucks bar Modric out. Replace that entire back line with the U21s. I’m convinced our U19 team would have destroyed this Armenian team.
agree 100% _O)
dALIC shiit will cause Croatia out –
with the shitty format of euro that allow 3rd place to advance
I think your looking way too much into this. I watched the highlights and Croatia created many opportunities. The formation wasn’t off, it was the fact we can’t finish. Perisic missed an empty net, a post or two and lots of control. It’s a FRIENDLY. They know it’s not worth it to go 100 percent and risk an injury. The only things that matter is formation, chemistry and the team is developing plays. They haven’t played a match together since last November. That’s five months of not playing as a unit and it’s inevitable that they come out rusty. 2018 World Cup exhibition games were losses against Brazil, Peru and a cheap win vs Mexico. If they come out of the next two games in the tournament with anything less than 4 points then let’s talk about rebuilding the squad and management. The team will be blown after regardless of the outcome. Modric, Perisic, Vida, Lovren may not even make it that much longer.
Note that a number of players haven’t been at training yet, so this was played with the guys who were there. We should see a few others against Belgium
Once Luka left, no one stepped up (as is always the case0. They could have played another 5 hours and still wouldn’t have scored.
wrong, first 15 mins of the second half we were the most dangerous and could have scored 3 goals but no one could finish. as soon as we took perisic out and put in badelj we collapsed.
Rebić should have stayed home
Horrible finishing from Croatia. Skoric misplays ball for Armenia goal
Lazy pass by Rebic leads to an Armenia goal.
Getting way too cute with the back and forth and setting others up…. we should be up 3-0 at this point. ajde
2nd half, 4-1-4-1:
……………………Petkovic……………………
Perisic…….Pasalic….Kramaric…Rebic
……………………..Brozo……………………..
Barisic……….DCC…..Skoric………….JJ
……………………….Liva………………………
THIS is when its worth watching…. Triple change after HT. Lets see what happens when Modric, Perisic, Vlasic, etc. are out and what we can do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy2I1njn3UM
I am just listening here | for the game –
because I haven’t found a good channel to stream >
< > any free | channel < >
1st half, first 15 mins we misplaced alot of passes. perisic scores a header off a corner in the 24th min, brekalo got injured in the 25th min. modric is still amazing. instead of turning and shooting kramaric passed to perisic who missed a sitter 6 yards out from goal. barisic is our worst starting player. vrsaljko still rusty. vida is still fast. too many central players and it feels congested. pasalic almost scored a bicycle but hit the post. we were looking really dangerous at the end of the half
Not sure I’d take too much from this friendly… Curious to see what we do now with a bunch of subs in. Will be much more interested when we go against Belgium.
Even when you consider the competition, this is clearly their best all-around game since the World Cup.
He’s goal is good for streaming
Armenia has not yet faced Germany or Sweden in their qualifiers. They’ve beaten Lichtenstein and struggling Iceland so far.
thank Jo! not many options from Canada
Anytime!
Armenia is a decent team and could make Qatar.
They’ve been great in qualifying so far. Germany will top the group but they can do some damage in the playoffs.
Sportsbay.org for high quality streams 👌
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then you must to give your credit number }{
For those wondering, it’s on ESPN3.com starting at 11:55 a.m. Don’t know how to rig it so that I can watch it on HRTV.
Its on NOVA TV in Croatia…I stream it on SAAN TV, but its a paid service.
Not sure why people don’t just sign up for SAAN.tv
It’s literally 14 kuna a month, and it’s pay as you go. Just buy for the games, and you get everything in Croatian (along with pre and post game analysis, and other HRT channels if you want to watch them)
I assume you can’t get ArenaSport on that? I’d love to get legit streams to HNL games vs. going through YT, HesGoal, etc. Not sure why ArenaSport doesn’t just have a stream only package? I’d pay for it in a heartbeat.
………………………..Budimir………………
…………………Kramaric……………………
Orsic…………………………………Brekalo
……………Brozo………..Badelj…………..
Barisic……Caleta….Vida….Juranovic
……………………….Liva…………………….