After beating Scotland 3-1 in the final match of the group stage, Croatia’s team spirit appears to be at its best since 2018. The Vatreni will be hoping to continue their convincing offensive form against Spain; another European powerhouse struggling to find consistency. Dejan Lovren will be missing the Round of 16 match due a yellow card accumulation, and will likely be replaced by Duje Ćaleta-Car, which is good news for most Croatian fans.
Although Spain finished their group stage with a 5-0 victory over a weak Slovakian side, the squad has experienced plenty of trouble in the final third in recent times. Spanish striker Alvaro Morata will most likely start against Croatia – a player known for his horrendous finishing abilities. Although I am shocked that Spain can’t find a better player for the position at the moment, I trust that our backline can lock up Spain’s attack.
Spain’s most dangerous players will most likely be Aymeric Laporte (center-back, Manchester City), Marcos Llorente (right back, Athletico Madrid), and Pedri (center-midfielder, Barcelona). Most casual football fans won’t know these names. Spain isn’t the same beast that they were a decade ago – when they won three straight tournaments from 2008-2012 – and I feel that, in good form, this Croatian side is one of the best the nation has ever produced on paper.
After Bruno Petković’s average performances in the group stage, I predict that Ante Budimir will get the start against Spain. Budimir also stands at 6’3 and scores a lot of goals with his head. He also plays for Osasuna in La Liga and has seen many of these Spanish players before. Since the retirement of Mario Mandžukić, Croatia has struggled to find a true target man to fill his spot. In my opinion, Budimir is the best option at the moment. With Perišić out with COVID, my gut instinct tells me that Dinamo’s Mislav Oršić gets the nod on the left wing instead of Ante Rebić, who has struggled out of position this tournament.
I predict a 2-1 victory over Spain. I don’t see any hype in this Spanish side, and I believe that we will advance to the quarterfinals if we maintain good team morale and an offensive mindset.
Seriously, what type of Acid are you doing ?LakNOT
Before the Perisic thing i thought we had a puncher’s chance but i think its less likely now just cos of how well he fits the game style vs them. If we are to win it requires us to see something we haven’t seen yet from our attacking players ie Rebic etc and then it may be possible. Maybe Brekalo can get a chance? But hey u never know Czechs beat Holland 2-0, didnt expect that either.
Iggy, if you think we’ll lose, we’ll be fine😂
because one of their player :L
wants to celebrate it with LGBT symbol (_oI this is why!!
Call me crazy, but I think Rebic will have his best game of the tournament.
Wouldn’t take much for that to be true
If Rebic can step up and play how we know he can we will be fine.
Sadly Perisic was playing well and our biggest attacking threat.
He will be missed but next man up….I still feel we win this game.
Fortunately we have some good options at left wing….Brekalo, Orsic.
I still believe that we’ll win. “If” Rebic shows up, he can be as good if not better than Perisic. I know it’s a big “if”, but anything is possible. I don’t understand how so many people here believe that we can’t win. Sometimes teams actually use this kind of misfortune as motivation. We shall see. 2-1 Croatia in extra time.
Rebic can be better than Perisic? No. Perisic has been a beast in the last three major tournaments. Rebic had a nice World Cup, but he scored one goal, and that was a donation by the Argentina goalie. I like Rebic, and think we can still win, but it’s tougher without Perisic.
I agree Mile
ok, let’s see what Rebic can do- next man up is all we can do- Ante is a good kid and when playing his position he can do it for us- he’s a grinder and that’s what we need-
Maybe right place- right time for Ante
Budimir starting would be cool. He’s had all this Euro time to get into top shape following the season, and we’re most likely to be counterattacking down the wings, so we need someone who can get to the ball on the run.
Rebić – Budimir – Vlasić
Kovacić – Brozović – Modrić
Gvardiol – Duje – Vida – Vrsaljko
Screw it all Dinamo up top
Orsic petko ivanusec
I know it’s not sexy and would never happen but just could work
They took down Tottenham they can take Spain
Let’s not forget who scored against Spain in earthshaking fashion last time and is literally on fire this tournament: Perisic. This comes a very close second to the Pussy Riot group storming security and coming on the field against France second half. BS.
The good news. If we can win without Perisic, we can win against every team once he is back. I second putting Rebic back in his natural position on the flanks. His speed and aggression was downright troublesome for Argentina. I cant imagine he would be any less effective with Spain.
this is the time for Rebic to step up. Kramaric needs to step up. He killed it in Germany. They can be Spain in 90 minutes if they play like. team. They must fight and give it 100 percent. If it comes down to a shoot out, its all mental. They must believe that they can win. Pick a spot! don’t try to trick the goalie,! run and blast it . At Russia they prevailed. I think it helps a lot that they won in those shoot outs. Its a moral boost that we did this before . Dalic should practice penalties. Dom needs to be ready . I also feel since our guys are familiar with Spain that Modric Kova and Sime can give Dom insight in how to defend a penalty.
Modric is 18 for 21 in his career at penalties. He’s missed one in 12 years, against Denmark in the World Cup. So he is excellent at pk’s. I wouldn’t worry about him if it goes to penalties. You don’t have one of the best and skilled players in the world not take penalties. That would be insane. And if they lose in penalties without Modric taking one, the outrage would be huge. Kramaric is also really good, 40 for 45 for his career, so he would obviously be included. He didn’t take a penalty against Russia because he was subbed off. But in this upcoming game he could come on late for penalty purposes. Petkovic is pretty good (25 for 29). The only two other guys with a lot of pk experience are Budimir (12 for 14) and Vlasic (9 for 14).
why don’t they use VAR – to get an assessment for a diving player | give them for yellow/red 0i- for cheating-0i (so you can report for a player that suspected of diving)
this is ridiculous )I_ because the FAIR PLAY needs to be enforced!
I wonder what the punishment will be for getting to the quarterfinals?
They’ll probably use VAR to challenge the COVID status of our players.
Are we forgetting how Brekalo was the savior in the last nations league match with Spain?!
Drove me crazy watching our team high five and hug Scottish players after the game. With Gilmour going down you know a few Scots had been exposed.
Most young Croats i know who got Covid were asymptomatic, and only knew they had the disease bc a teammate had a confirmed case. In these situations, youth teams and schools mandated testing. And yes many had covid (PCR confirmed), but with zero symptoms. Funny thing is, many didn’t even develop antibodies. This is due to things like a strong innate immune system and memory t cells etc etc
Bottomline, we will miss Perisic, and yes it is possible he spread a small viral load, so let’s just hope Modric doesn’t get suspended also. We were fucked in this game bc Dalic wasn’t going to start both Perisic and Rebic on the wings anyway.
Ps- even if Perisic had been previously infected, or vaccinated, or both…doesn’t mean he cannot contract the virus, it just means he will likely not become sick as his system destroys the virus quickly before it replicates. And the insanity of it all, is that Perisic’s PCR test can just be finding destroyed pieces of virus, which are completely inactive, but still show up as Covid positive.
Rebic, Petko, and Vlasic can probably be just as effective in front of Modric Kova and Brozo (which Dalic was likely going to start anyway.)
If I see brekalo or Kramaric starting i might go ape shit.
And to chime in on the penalty kick conversation, let’s not trust the fakenews about Modric sucking at pks. He has a better success ratio than Kramaric in his professional career. Sorry Maminjo, your whole diatribe was wrong again, but you are used to that, iam sure.
Lol. I’m guessing you didn’t watch the World Cup.
So you’ve formed your opinion from the world cup only?
Your opinion is wrong, just accept that others have enlightened you.