The Mladi Vatreni are back on track to qualify for the U21 EURO 2023 tournament after bottling group stage with poor results down the stretch. They should have easily topped the group and qualified automatically, but instead, gifted Norway 1st place.
Tuesday night in Pula, the Croatian young guns, led by Sučić, Vidović, and Franjić, scored two quick goals in the 1st half to take a commanding lead over the Danes. Bayern Munich’s (on loan at Vitesse) Gabriel Vidović opened the scoring in the 9th minute from the middle of the box with a shot just inside the left post. Osijek’s Dion Drena Beljo doubled the lead with a header from a sharp cross from the sideline. Croatia would go into halftime with a 2-0 lead but reports suggest (I didn’t watch the game) that manager Igor Bišćan decided to bunker with a 2-0 lead instead of going for the jugular. The Danes would capitalize on lazy Croatian defending to cut the lead in half.
The two sides will meet again in Denmark on September 27th. A draw or better for Croatia’s U21 side will see them play at EURO 2023 next summer in in Romania and Georgia. The tournament will consist of 16 total teams.
I have watched all our Under 21 qualifying matches and the main problem is that against better teams in the group i.e. Norway, Austria and Finland we come out strong, score a couple of goals and then simply stop attacking and start playing defensive football. This was also the case against Denmark. I think that Biscan is responsible for this as a coach and even if we qualify, he should be sacked.
Our defence and midfield are unable to hold the ball if pressed by the opposition as was the case against Denmark. Sucic on his own in the middle cannot do it, and for the life of me I cannot understand why Baturina did not play. With two of them on the pitch we surely would have had more possession and control of the midfield. It is going to be tough in the return leg and we are going to need some luck to progress. The good thing from what I can tell, is that the match will be played on grass ? rather than on artificial surface.
Maybe Bišćan wants to be the next Otto Barić.
Players are very talented.
Beljo has a nice accurate header. Hopefully he can become a tall target man one day.
Šego looked good too despite his career going sideways.
Lots of talented players in Roko, Biuk, Sučić, etc on that teams.
Makes me wonder why they don’t play nice football.
Might be a Bišćan issue.
We won because of talent, not because our U21s played well as a team.
Possibly the most memorable young team in recent memory to me was the u17 from a few years ago that beat the usa, Germany, and then lost to a mali team that was probably 25 year olds in the u17 wc
It’s interesting to think from such a great team that very little National team players emerged
I think from there came sosa and brekalo.
To the wayside were lovren, moro, semper, and probably some others that I’m justifiably forgetting
Nice to see
I hope they make it
The more these kids play with each other and grow up together the better we should go down the road with the seniors