The Croatian U21 will have to go through Georgia in order to book their ticket to the Euro 2025 tournament in Slovakia next summer. The Mladi Vatreni defeated Greece 3-2 Tuesday to finish second in group; Portugal had already locked up top spot for automatic qualification. However, the win was not enough to get Croatia into the top-3 2nd place teams (goal differential), which would have prevented a playoff tie.
The Mladi Vateni will now play Georgia November 14th and 19th in a 2-legged tie. Winner goes to the 16-team tournament next summer. Loser stays home. This Croatia team now has the services of 17 year-old CB Luka Vušković, who has been on a tear for Westerlo in Belgium. He scored the game winner vs. Greece this week following a corner and is expected to have a promising football career, already being purchased by Tottenham Hotspur. Vušković is 6’4″ and great in the air with his head. He will be a monster on the backline for the senior squad alongside Gvardiol once he is called up. Croatia is expected to make Euro 2025 next year and get past Georgia in this tie. Should they qualify, this will be a great test not only for Vušković, but other Croatian young guns who could get called up to the senior squad like Marin Ljubičić, Gabriel Vidović, Dion Drena Beljo and Lovro Zvonarek, to name a few.
https://youtu.be/-Mp43eekK4Y?si=KznVl8i3t67LbW-3
This guy talking up vidovic like he is something else
I know he has skill but can we expect him to be a guy for the repka??
Whose ivanovic? He looked pretty dangerous out there
Vidovic looked to play some nice balls as well
Speaking of young Croatian prospects, is there any news about the Croat via Brazil, Belinho? I know he was with Dinamo youth, but has he moved to another team?
He moved from Vinodolski to Dinamo Youth…but since he’s like 14 or 15 years old, you’re not going to get any stats on him from any site.
Transfermarkt and SofaScore don’t have him on their sites yet.
I assume once he moves to Dinamo’s U17 team, then they will start tracking value and statistics on him.
Until then, all you’re gonna get are hype videos of lil’ Rafael Gomez Cirino Belinho.
Appreciated.
Good draw obviously. How much do people care about these youth tourneys:? I guess it’s more about it being a sign of things to come ay
Not even.
Lots of U21 eligible players are on the senior team for us (as well as other countries). So, it’s not a reflection at all about how good your team will be.
We’ve seen teams like Serbia, Israel, and Ukraine do well in these youth tournaments yet the senior teams are always abysmal.
Ps the best way to look think about – look at U21 squads from England, France, major countries – and check how many of those players actually not only make but become regulars for the senior team
As eg I think foden James Maddison and TAA were on same team when England u21 won it – but look at the whole squad – only these 3 made it – the rest of the players you’ve never heard about again
Was thinking of 2019
Romania was top of group
England 3rd
Croatia 4th
Now look at England squad – how many are strong / elite players today including on bench – more than half are on NT today
Now look at Romania – you might recognize 1 player – the rest you’ve never heard of
But at u21 they beat everyone
They are important as gives opportunity for players to get more exposure (esp those still playing domestically) – as the final tournament will b followed by scouts, etc
For us it’s players on the fringe currently who aren’t good enough for senior team but might be in future – the point is to get them to better clubs
So scouts see players – hopefully there are moves to better clubs following the tournament
Performing at Better clubs = closer to getting on senior NT
But it’s a weird one – eg Mikey Moore 17 is playing for Spurs w some starts already in PL – but still only playing at U19 level for England (not bc he’s not good enough for U21 but bc that’s how they want to manage players)
Seems like it’s time soon for our quality scouts here to do a little update on our 17-20 year old potentials ?!
Hint hint;)
Call it homer glasses for the youth or something;)
Ha.
According to our online scouts, Gvardiol should be in the injury reserve list for the past two years and Luka Vuskovic would be 7 feet tall by now and obsolete as a footballer.
He has moved onto handball or something by now
Man I sure hope luka becomes the real deal.
Kid is a specimen and if him and gvardi team up on cb they could put fear into many forwards
Passing and speed , these kids look good. Can Dalic be the waterboy for U 21?
Can any of these kids play D? Get Sutalo out of the big team. He played so bad that he should be given to the Serbs as a starter.
A bit of a strong statement, Sutalo is still young. I wouldn’t write him of just yet. It wasn’t long ago that Duje had a bad tournament and he has definitely turned things around in this one
I think that we need to see Dalic cap some of these kids like Vuskovic soon so that they are not picked up by England or other countries. We cannot afford to lose these options for the senior team, otherwise it will be his doing that puts Croatia on the back foot.
This is weird to me, because in the last Nations League tournament the Erlic and Sutalo duo did a fantastic job. But somehow in this tournament our defence is problematic with those two. Not sure what to say here I think Dalic was not counting on this happening so it is creating issues for him and it seems like he is finding it hard to resolve this.
Maybe it was a mistake for Dalic to hang on to Vida/Lovren for so long as it didn’t give any of these younger players time to play together. Maybe those decisions to hold onto these older guys is now hurting Dalic in the end. Either way I wouldn’t put the blame on the youth, I don’t think it’s entirely their fault.
Perisic also shouldn’t have been called up this tournament despite his contributions. From what I’m hearing he is not his old self. In either case, it could have affected us much more if the competition was harder to face. You have to remember that Perisic didn’t play versus Portugal till the end.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next two games.
Not sure they’ll take him / have space – Vidic’s 17 yo son Luka about to break thru
Vidic’s son is not a CB, and he’s also pretty crap if Crvena Zvezda got rid of him.
He’ll follow in the footsteps of the child star footballers like Lorenzo Prso and Boris Rapaic.
Wow!, U21 Hrvatska team reminded me of Argentina against NH team in 2022 WC.
So many great counter attacks. Beautiful. Pretty impressive considering so many players already have moved up to national team.
I only just saw all our goals now.
Sosas of course was a bomb
But that work up play and quality with sucic and baturina was delightful
The future looks bright friends
As long as health is there, their quality showing by those goals is very apparent
To think kova is not there and also a very capable and I believe still on the upswing majer not around either
Dinamo’s 17 yo Branko Pavic came on last game last c.15 min (he jumped to u19 for September, now u21 for October) – anyone know him ?
Haven’t really heard him mentioned here (like durdov and noa mikic)
Think ties are 15th and 19th per uefa website
Would b funny if we stacked the team w Igor, 2x sucic and Baturina for these 2 games
I keep hearing about Pavic more and more.
I haven’t seen him play.
At the same time, I’m hearing less about Noa Mikic being a sure thing.
Durdov, however, is looking like the real deal.
Well at a minimum
We know his dad has and will be heavily involved every step of the way
Here’s 6 y.o. Branko playing w/ his dad (Tomislav) watching on and giving Branko instructions for his every action in the game
So good !
***.youtube.com/watch?v=cCcMq3-3eJU
Most recent compilation can find
***.youtube.com/watch?v=m4FXZmqHZHk
But go through the same channel – as e.g. there at least two half Brazilian/half Croatian (mother) players
Elisandro Kožina Aranha Pinheiro (2009)
Raul Evian da Costa (2011)
I’ve seen Pavic play in the preaseason and got one start for Dinamo in the HNL can’t remember against who. Reads the play well good on the ball good passer. Reminds me a lot of Badelj. Jakirovic was high on him so he was the only junior to stay with Dinamo
He posted on an IG story today of him training for first team (Petar sucic in background)
Maybe he’ll b on the bench for Istra
Another reason to sell sucic and baturina is to open spots for others / younger players coming up
Rinse and repeat
Based on latest performance won’t b shocked if p sucic goes for higher than baturina – let’s see
I like P Sucic. Kind of reminds me of Brozo vs. Kovacic. Kovacic was always the flashier player, but arguments came be made that Brozo was more valuable. I think the same might be said about Sucic and Baturina.