What went wrong against Spain and what changes does Dalić need to make for the Albania match June 19th?
Kvartuč, Zorić, Pete Novaković and Markus discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly from Croatia’s 3-0 Euro 2024 loss to Spain:
Croatia vs. Spain Post-Game Show: What Went Wrong?
By 37 Comments
This isn’t that complicated.
Stanisic passing and giving away the ball all game was the main reason we lost. The guy looked like a space cadet most of the game. He can sit for the rest of the tournament as far as I’m concerned. Move Gvardiol to cb and perisic to lb and the game would have been better for us.
Time to move on and score 6 against the Chptars
Dalic took a huge risk playing Pongracic who has only 8 caps for Croatia.
I watched Dalic post match interview, and when he was asked if he would move Gvadiol back into the center he pretty much said “we had lots of issues in this part of the defence but until now it was good, so I hope this was a bad day, we wont undo all the things we have done, we played well before”
it is on optus sport australia
0 corners – don’t win often like that
if we bring Orsic, but Dalic is so stupid shit.
even, He will not think of a 5 -3 – 2 formation
. . . . . . . . Orsic . . . . . . . Kramaric . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Majer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Modrić . . . . . . . Kovacic. . . . . . . . . .
Perisic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Juranovic
. . . . . Gvardiol – Šutalo – Stanisic. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .Livakovic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I’ll break down very quickly what the Spanish team did to us tactically to destroy us… we played the first 10-15 minutes Spain killed us in POSSESSION… but they could not score… we were compact to compact for there liking…. well how do you make it easier for yourself to score then they ask themselves? hmmmm..? well give Croatia POSSESSION and they will self destruct against us as we can read them like a grade school story…. Boys we are to predictable to them. We have played them to many times with not much if any real success where it matters… we played a tight game against them in Nations league and probably our best game that we could do so and it’s simply playing with grit will and tactically sticking to a composed style team who mostly defends together and attacks if the opportunity arises.. today they really played with our PSYCHE.. loured us into self destruction.. We became lazy minded during our possessional play which I believe they allowed us to do and they let us make those lazy passes which they read and took us to school.. we handed them the deck of cards the day we played what the media and many thought was a huge success beating Portugal in that friendly.. We have issues..
1- Huge wake up call for players and staff
(Goal differential hurts may haunt us at the end) didn’t utilize Marco Pašalić on RW nor Ivanusec/Pjaca.. had to play not to concede any more goals which I can somewhat understand just sucks for these guys and team…
2- No number 9 since Mandzo agian exposed out tru weakness
3- Perisic is still good but unfortunately just recovering and does not have many games under his belt either and never mind he is like 35 too (still our most dangerous winger attacker even if 70% today) sais a-lot about our offensive well being
4- I like Pongracic..did not have his best game though.. poor awareness cost us the 3rd goal(game over). But feel bad for him.. I just think the transition was to fast and late to expect much more from him as he should have been incorporated in team earlier.. he is solid but no Gvardiol and we need to take that into consideration as well.. *the giveaways especially towards the centre of the pitch were horrific and caused our defence to collapse especially on first goal..
5- Kovacic was best midfielder today and that sais a lot as he was offensively SRA.. I just don’t understand how you can’t put a decent shot on net.. it’s either blown away or seems like my 7 year old son can hit a ball better.. it’s not the first time many years of hitting my head on the wall cause of this.
6- Our Goalie short pass possession play after we regain the ball in dead play or not is a horrific approach.. it cost us making many mistakes
7- If we decided to play Budimir up top then we should play players that aid to this press upfront which I believe is the only reason he got the nod in the first place.. Majer to slow on wing as well as Kramaric.. Budimir press did ???? cause the others beside him cant do it over majority of game and be effective.. need to bring in true wingers here that can play like this to hope for any success.
8- Modrić needs to make foul edge of box if could not cop.. agree we were not compact far from there players..
9- Better to be exposed this early on…maybe we can shuffle things up and be unpredictable again.. young gunz need to step in now..
Ebi ga It’s all go no show from now on or go home!
I personally think like others here there is room for Sucic to start in mid and Gvardiol ti revert back into CB role..
Albania will play with heart attack all game and we need to keep up.. Realistically I always thought this would the decisive game for us anyways.. clean slate now regroup and move on and try to get that result.. will be tough but we have been this route before.. AJMO!
We need to throw a curve ball need young quick players make the difference here.. want to see inclusion of Sucic/Baturina and Marko Pašalić if need be..
Maybe being a bit harsh here. ????
Rest.. Krama Budimir
bench Petkovic(missed penalty-potential life line goal in game and group)
Starting.
———–—Ivanusec———Pašalić——————
—————————-Majer———————————
————–Modrić ———–Kovacic——————
Sosa———————————————Juranovic
———Gvardiol—-Šutalo—Stanisic—————
Potential Subs.
————-—Pjaca—————Vlasic——————
—————————Baturina—————————
————–Sucic——————Brozovic————
Perisic———————————————Pašalić
———-—Pograncic-Erlic—Vida———————
Only team who played and without a goal so far. Hopefully dont get knocked out without a goal and point.
Nowadays football has evolved. Not only u need technical quality, u need young and speedy players (powerful too) to win the game..good technique is never good enough these days. look at my midfield and attackers..majer is only one below 30 years ago. And we are still relying on perisic to turn around the game.
Regardless i really hope the back four can change a bit. Stanisic can play at LB, which he does at bayern. He is more defensive than sosa. Juranovic play at RB. Centre back, we need a leader in gvardiol. Not sure of erlic is off form, but at least he is a no nonsense defender. Attacker wise, we can put young pasalic or ivanusec to provide more flair to the team. Budimir is alright if current attackers are not effective.
The main problem is up front, petkovic is not a world class player, he’s punchin above his weight being in the hns, the guy is trash, only good thing he’s ever done was that fluke against Brazil, n that was a deflection, dalic should have brought in the youth, marin ljubucic would have been a better option, petkovic i have 0 faith in, 0% chance of having a good tournament
The first goal is NOT the CBs fault
They were 4 vs. 2, before Ruiz released the pass
U know whose fault it was ?
Bambi Budimir deciding to win his first aerial duel and flick it on blindly when nobody was behind him except Cucurella
Gvardiol not reacting fast enough and getting back
And MKB all three trying to swarm Rodri in his pass back to Ruiz (while Broz or Kova should have dropped back to help cover as a back three – in fact Kova was already in a back 3 with Sutalo and Pongracic when Pongracic played it fwd – so he should have stayed back as soon as he saw Cucurella got the ball from Bambi Budimir’s flick)
Point being – with Gvardiol and Stanisic playing so high up the pitch and kissing the bi-line most of the game – that left our two CBs massively exposed in any quick counter-attack
Very good analysis
Immediately after first goal – the Kova run / shot attempt
Why didn’t Gvardiol yell for the ball on LHS – he was completely open – and could have gotten a good shot away with his right foot
How things could have been different….
Good tactical analysis overview
When u look at it from this neutral party non-emotional eyes it wasn’t that bad
***.youtube.com/watch?v=3MrG91wIa1E
The root cause is the HNS is cheap and doesn’t want to spend money on a decent coach.
Since the beginning.
A combination of lack of effort, and poor vision of what our starting lineup should actually be.
Forget about what positions they play at club level – it doesn’t work for us.
Livakovic – Stanisic, Gvardiol, Erlic, Sosa – Kovacic, Majer, Sucic – Pjaca, Pasalic, Perisic
Modric off the bench to start second half.
Pasalic is the best option we have as striker. He shoots well and knows how to position himself in the box.
This lineup is our best bet.
It does not appear that Fox will be showing the game vs Albania as I don’t see it on the TV listing.
Am I mistaken?
Croatia-Albania will be shown on Fox Sports 1. The first two games tomorrow (Sunday) as well.
Thanks Lovro.
We need to be honest and say that Spain was too good today, they killed us in the first half. To beat them you need the whole team to play at their optimum or close to it. Kovacic was our best player today with Majer, Gvardiol and Stanisic also on par however the rest of the starting 11 were below par especially in the first half.
Dalic did the right thing by subbing Kovacic and Modric and preserving them for Albania and Italy, we were 3 – 0 down at the time and the match was lost. We had 3 or 4 chances but could not score while Spain was clinical in front of goal converting 3 of their chances. Yes, our two CB’s went great but neither was our midfield apart from Kovacic and Kramaric was also nowhere to be seen.
First goal you have to blame Sutalo for being too high up the field and out of position. Same as Gvardiol at the WC v Argentina first goal or Turkey goal in Osijek. Second goal the guy went past Modric and then Brozovic before shooting through the legs of Sutalo with Livakovic being unsighted. Third goal poor marking by Pongracic on the near post.
Still in our hands, need to beat Albania and get a point against Italy and hope that it will be enough to get us to the knockout stage?
Good post Mart.
Sums it up well for today. Going forward though I would rather win the next two games and you are in.
1) Zlatko admitted this lineup was already selected long ago. It’s not a secret that Luka is influential on which players are selected onto the team. Did he know the starting lineup as well and if so, why would he “sign-off” on the slow footed duo we had on defense today? Someone like Olić is obviously not going to pipe in.
2) About 10 of the guys played in the same position they did in the Portugal friendly. Did we give Spain great scouting footage to shred our defense?
Generally, the last friendly before a major event, you don’t see the same exact starting lineup. I am trying to explain how a quality team like Portugal couldn’t do the same as Spain did to us today.
Chemistry between Pongracic and Sutalo was the problem.
Too many random mistakes between the two of them.
Throw Gvardiol at CB instead of Pongracic (who Sutalo is more familiar with) and it’s a different game.
If we make this one change against Italy, we will be fine.
It would have to be more than one change.
I think we all should agree that they can’t start Kramarić again at LW.
The Portugal game a week ago was fool’s gold. In front of 50-60000 croat fans and pull off a dud, something happened in those 168 hours.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the post-game autopsy.
I keep reminding myself that Argentina lost their game in WC 2022 against Saudi Arabia, and then went on to win it all (albeit with tons of help from FIFA),
Today was an embarrassment. Croatia need to find a way for a huge GF/GA because ira going to be close if Croatia haven’t already called it quits.
Modric deserves at least one trophy.
Different situation.
Qatar paid FIFA a boatload of money for the World Cup. Qatar and Saudi Arabia paid Lionel Messi a boatload of money to promote their countries’ global ambitions and their tourism industry. Qatari Sports Investments (QSi) who owns Paris St-Germain paid to have Messi transferred to them and paid his salary.
FIFA, in turn, heavily promoted Messi as being an all time great that needs to win a World Cup (to confirm his standing among the greats) and did whatever they could to ensure Argentina’s progression (handing Messi some key PKs when needed, and seeding them in the best possible group and progression path).
I completely agree with everything you wrote.
We all saw it. Croatia would have made it to the 2022 Finals if that penalty wasn’t awarded (which it never should have been).
I could come out here and say i told you so and ask if you all want to revise your finals predictions
But i won’t do that
Croatia actually played a sneakily decent game
Croatia out possessed Spain ending Spains 136 game streak since 2008 of winning possession. Before yamil was born
Additionally, Croatia had 2.58 expected goals vs Spains 1.98.
At the end of the day, the cb pairing just made some fatal flaws and Spain capitalized more than usual . Croatia converted less than expected. And we get a blow out loss
There is some humor for this site constantly slamming the playing of vida and in two tournaments ago lovren, but it makes us wonder if dalic knows what he was doing
Really there isn’t much need for Croatia to revolutionize things next game. Stay the course and hope for better luck
I think Dalic’s ego got in the way there in the second half.
The CB pair made too many mistakes, and it was probably best to slide Gvardiol there in the second half and sub out Pongracic.
Gvardiol and Sutalo have chemistry. Pongracic is relatively new to the spot, so it made more sense to take him out. We could have easily put in Sosa or Perisic at LB.
But this was a change that needed to be made at the 46-minute mark.
Instead, Dalic kept things the same…the problems persisted, then he decided to throw in the towel at around the 60-minute mark and subbed out his veterans to keep them fresh for the next game.
This could become a grave mistake for us if we need to progress with goal differential. We created chances and were very unlucky in this game.
It actually could have very easily been a 3-2 game with still quite a bit of time on the clock, but all those random subs really messed our flow there.
https://x.com/darrenwontmiss/status/1802035103356301475?s=46
Dear Dalić,
After the first game of Euro 2024, CroatianSports.com would simply like to say:
EFF YOU
(for giving up so early in the second half).
Frustrating game. Frustrating result. We couldn’t finish for shit today in front of the net. You already know where I stand on the MKB trident. Time to sit Broz vs. Albania IMO.
Dalic got out coached today. 100%. The dude still serves a statue in Croatia regardless of what happens in Germany.
We had ours chances this game, but we just couldn’t finish them.
Our main issue was that we made no attempt to fix the CB situation that was succumbing to Spain’s pressure.
Our second issue is that Dalić gave up with about 30 minutes left in the game, where he made several subs simply to give game time to some players (rather than address the issues and try to close the goal gap).
The guy who said kovacic should be benched doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Yes he has a weak shot but he was far our best overall midfielder today. Time and time again Kova was breaking the press from deep in our own end or in the middle of the park. I thought both Luka and Broz were crap today with Broz being the worst by far.
Yes, I thought Kova was good today.
His two shots were very bad. One was too weak and the other was just a blast from outside the box, way off target. Krama did the same thing too. These are bad judgements made by our two veteran players (who should know better).
We had guys in the box and we were building up a good chance. Foolish of Kova and Krama to prematurely throw those two chances away.
Either way, Kova shouldn’t be benched because of it.
We only have two players that start and finish most games in the top 5 leagues. They are both wing backs. Except for Kova, we have an old and tiring midfield. We play Majer up front because we have a weak front line. I would like to see the younger Pasalic come in and carry the ball with some speed. Same with Vlasic (who at least has an outside shot) or Ivanusec. Perisic is still dangerous but complains too much when he doesn’t get fed the cross. Yet he doesn’t cross either.
When you consider how few of our players are starting in Europe…
Maybe we are just not that good and Dalic is getting the most out of a mediocre group. (Not today.) we will beat both Albania and Italy.
Idemo Hrvati
Two players? Ok relax there, ha ha.
Kramaric, Kovacic, Stanisic, Gvardiol, Budimir, Pogracic, Erlic, Vlasic, Majer all start in top-5 leagues.
We don’t have to go all hyperbole now.
Almost every single one of our players starts on their teams in Europe.
All Croatians are down today. But let’s get ready for Albania. We forget that Spain has been Zlatko’s kryptonite. We win on Tuesday and we control our destiny.Viva Zlatko!
Well said tbh. I can’t stand Spain, but it comes down to the next 2 matches. Have to prove ourselves and score.