🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷 CROATIA CLINCHES NATIONS LEAGUE SEMIFINAL BERTH WITH LATE 2ND HALF SURGE VS. AUSTRIA!!!
Livaja and Lovren headers win it 3-1 for Croatia against Austria in Vienna. The Vatreni will now enter the Nations League semifinals in June. Opponents TBD. Modrić scored inside seven minutes but Austria would equalize moments later through a Stanišić giveaway in Croatia’s zone. The match went into halftime with the Vatreni running out of gas and looking like the winning goal would not happen. But a Perišić cross would find the head of sub Marko Livaja in the 69′ and Dejan Lovren would seal the deal with his own header straight into the ground and into the back of the net three minutes later. Croatia win 3-1 and have now won four straight matches in a row including two over Denmark and one over France. Netherlands have also qualified for the semifinals in June after beating Belgium 1-0 Sunday night.
Things that stuck out in this match:
Livaković had a good game and a great save on the Aurnatovic shot. He was not at fault for the goal but looked shaky coming out on the play that got the wind knocked out of him temporarily. He needs to be confident on those plays during the World Cup. Livaković has yet to impress me on his box presence.
Barišić did not look good as left-back. We all know this position is cemented by Borna Sosa but he did not earn any additional points versus Austria Sunday night.
Lovren only got the start because Šutalo picked up a knock. We shouldn’t expect Lovren to be a starter at the World Cup which is great for the team on an all around note. He was shaky defensively even though he of course (eyeroll) scored a nice header to add some insurance for Croatia late in the 2nd half.
Stanišić had an opportunity to move closer in the depth chart to Juranović for right-back, but it was his error that lead to Austria’s lone goal as he gave the ball away. Juranović isn’t the best option Croatia has had in their history, but he’s a much more mature selection than Stanišić.
Budimir didn’t get much service in this rare start for the Vatreni, but he also didn’t do much with his few touches. He could have been awarded a penalty but the ref didn’t fall for it in the 2nd half as it looked like Budimir started slipping before contact was made. Livaja came on for Budimir and scored immediately. Also not a good sign for Budimir in the Croatian depth chart.
This week was the week of super subs! Majer scored the winner against Denmark and Livaja bagged the winner versus Austria. Both in the 2nd half. This is a fantastic sign going into the World Cup knowing that Croatia will have playmakers coming off the bench that can impact the game.
Dalic will be in attendance at Uruguay 🇺🇾 Canada 🇨🇦 game tomorrow!
And he already scouted Canada 🇨🇦 vs Qatar earlier last week
Regarding the uniforms…
Up-close, the home jersey looks ok. On TV you can’t even see the checkers any longer.
From a distance, they look almost entirely white. In other words, we look bland like everyone else. Our identity is gone.
The road jersey is ok but better suited to be a warm-up shirt.
I don’t get the hatred for Lovren (and guys like Vida). They were heroes in the World Cup. While the younger guys we have now are slightly better, it doesn’t mean they should be shitted on. I’m happy he got the insurance goal. 👍🇭🇷
Livaković finally made 2 huge saves that saved the match. He never makes a big time save. Will we see this in Quatar???
Well said. I think we can all criticize players for their performances, but some of the comments about Lovren, Vida and even Dalic are way over the top. I think we all collectively need to show some respect for what these people have done for Croatian Football over the years. Yes, they are not as good as they were, and I personally would not take Vida to the WC.
Dalic should have brought him on towards the end of the match against Austria to give him his 100 cap.
Having five CB in the squad (Gvardiol, Sutalo, Erlic, Lovren and Vida) is too many and you would be better off taking an additional forward or midfielder. However, I’m certain that Dalic will take Vida to the WC barring injuries, as a reward for past services and we have to respect that decision.
the Lovren goal was a set play and you have to give kudos to the play call and the execution by Majer.
You can tell they’ve been working on set plays.
Hopefully they have a few more tricks ready for the world cup.
right on- that one worked perfect -the guy that was covering Lovren clearly looks like he knew he was dooped – check the look on his face. -It’s priceless
Moj Ivane- Perisic was on, man. The guy does it all.
How bad is broz injury???
Croatian and Italian portals are all speculating that he’ll be out a minimum of 3-4 weeks.
Early thoughts are that he should be ready for the World Cup.
The World Cup is exactly 8 weeks away.
The bigger concern for me is re-injury.
Inter’s season is not going as well as expected, and they are heavily reliant on Brozovic (just as we are).
They will try to push him to get back on the field within 2-3 weeks.
I hope he just takes his time with it, and uses early November to get back into form for us.
He said he didn’t want rush coming back as the world cup was important to him. So I don’t think they will rush it.
Inter has lost one good Croatian and regrets it, they cannot afford to lose two.
I didn’t get to watch the game
But catching up now with extended highlights
I was driving for Uber eats this Sunday;) awesome comment btw
Keep making me eat my words liva.
Just as we need a hot striker for a month. If livakovic can get hot for a month who knows what can happen
My first thought when I saw lovren scored before knowing anything more about what happened was like oh God here we go with lovren starting and talking about why he needs to play and so forth
Good goal for sure, the dive tho… priceless
Love to see erlic like others have said.
He may be that solid dude we need back there with another more dynamic cb
What are the chances it’s gonna be vida and someone or lovren and someone?
Like it’s dalic compromise of balancing the vets and youth
Sosa is a stud
Barisic was on his game relatively well during that sosa nonsense But sosa was playing lights out then if i remember correct and needed to be looked at
Isn’t barisic dad someone saying some super hooked up gangster?? I wonder if even at those levels influence like that can make a difference
Perisic and modric when they are really on their game it’s like they toy with kids
I hope stanisic can really find his consistent game and not be a tin jedvaj 2.0
Musa should really get a look in the next friendlies. Should have played in these last two games. I get he is not playing much now, but he still has the best tools for the position of striker. He can hold up play, distribute, poacher and he hustles.
Probably too late now.
Dalic needed to call him up back in June, and give him substitute minutes to properly evaluate.
Glad we are playing well, but we still don’t know our ideal RW and Striker options.
Dalic took too long to try things out, and played too many of those “let’s just clear the bench” formations in the first half of the first Denmark game and yesterday’s Austria game.
I do expect guys like Sucic and Colak to get called up for the next friendlies, and be given a shot. But I also fully expect those friendlies to be a “let’s just play every random backup player at the same time” kind of game. So, we’re not going to learn anything about what any new guys are capable of doing with our main squad.
Sosa is a revelation at LB.
Of note he was half way to meinshaft when FIFA rejected his petition.
Rebić says some dum Splićanin dvi tri riči and he is banished for life?
Out of respect to Modrić and Perišić last World Cup, call back Rebić and give us the best chance to win.
On a different note.
Our depth is illmatic.
Brozovic goes down in 20th minute and we are able to bring on Majer.
Kovačić has been solid during this run and his slalom runs are coming back.
Still terrified to score for some reason?
Modrić looks better than ever at 37!!
I hope Ancelotti plays the young guns at Real these next two months.
Sosa going to Germany was so funny and stupid.
He was capped like 20 times for our U21 team and never had German citizenship. FIFA updated their rules, specifically to prevent this exact situation. Not sure what he and Bierhoff were thinking.
There was no chance, under any circumstance, that he could play for them.
The kid is just a dumb jock.
Glad he is great at football, but he’s not a decision maker and is surrounded by sketchy agents and incompetent German FA reps. Maybe his agents knew all this and did it anyway, in order to get him noticed and capped because Dalic was hellbent on rolling with a Barisic/Meljnak combo.
I forget why Dalic took so long to cap him
Loaning him to Biscan?? Or injuries??
For the same reason it always takes Dalic a long time to cap or play a new player.
In his own words, he says “it takes a long time to make the team, and a long time to be removed from the team”.
He’s just a slow reactive coach who doesn’t want to upset current players (like Lovren) and he needed extra validation before making any changes (when the whole World sees it a mile away).
Borna was playing extremely well in the Bundesliga, but I guess Dalic wanted to wait another year or so before calling him up to take any of Borna Barisic’s minutes, lol.
I’m sure Biscan played a small part in this, but it was mostly Dalic being Dalic.
Dalic is doing the same thing with Sucic right now. But at least we’re very stacked at midfield, so I’m not worried.
However, it is pretty stupid that we haven’t tried Sucic at RW. The guy may be left-footed but he’s pretty good offensively. He might have surprised us there, but we’ll never know now. Maybe in a year or two when Dalic comes around.
I’m not defending Dalic with this comment so cool your jets. I do remember this situation and Sosa was playing 2nd division in Germany then a lengthy injury…right up until we started playing games with the National Team. In fairness to Dalic, that Sosa wasn’t this Sosa and most coaches wouldn’t have taken a player from the German 2nd division…and then while just getting off an injury!
As of right now, Sosa is probably my 3rd favourite National team player and I can’t imagine anyone else playing left back other than him. He’s way ahead of anyone else!
Just got me a Sosa jersey 🤩😍
[…] CroatianSports also offered a damning review, simply stating Barisic “did not look good at left-back”. They added: “We all know this position is cemented by Borna Sosa but he did not earn any additional points versus Austria Sunday night.” […]
On a sour note, there was trouble at the match. Fighting among Croatian supporters. There was a group of approx. 20 supporters, dressed in black and wearing hoodies over their heads chanting HNS Pederi and also singing some inappropriate songs. Every time they did this large number of Croatian supporters would try to stop them by whistling. In the end a fight broke out and Police had to intervene (footage available on social media). In all probability members of Torcida ? blaming HNS for the fact that Dinamo is so far ahead in the HNL.
Nothing new…they’ve blamed everyone but themselves since the beginning of time!
Brozovic tears mcl ligament. Unlikely for World Cup
https://www.espn.com/croatia-brozovic-likely-to-miss-world-cup
Lovren=Legendo
Dove like Henrik Larson or Van Persie. Start him in Qatar. 🙂
Alright guys, I just watched the Austrian goal and here’s my thoughts.
The primary mistake was that it was a terrible clearance from Stanisic and then the secondary mistake was Lovren turning his back to the play and not being in position to see what had developed! Lovren really should have been more alert and I’m kinda shocked he walked lackadaisically and didn’t pay more attention to the ball! Make no mistake though, that play is a really bad rookie mistake on Stanisic…he should have lifted and cleared that ball but his attempt was pretty bad! We can say what we want but all in all it was Stanisic….Lovren is an idiot for behaving so lazy!
Nice run and pass to Modric on our first goal but I’m not a fan of Vlasic on the wing! At least he went direct towards the Austrian goal, I can’t stand when I see some of our better dribblers turn backwards.
I still value Vlasic, but I don’t like him on the wing either.
It’s a shame that we have some many quality CAM players, but haven’t found any who can replicate that quality at RW.
We have like 10 guys who can play CAM at a very good-to-elite level.
In addition to Modric, Brozovic and Kovacic (who could all play there) we also have Majer, Kramaric, Pasalic, Vlasic, Sucic, and Livaja who can all play well at CAM but struggle at RW.
..and no, Rebic is not the answer at RW. Messes up our possession game too much. Good as a late sub though.
Did we ever try Orsic at RW? I forget.
Yes, we did and he was no good.
If Livaja can prove to step up and give a lot of energy and fight, I’d have him as my striker at this point…we have nothing to lose and he’s built like a tank and can hold off defenders. Otherwise, I’d say Petkovic in his prime makes everyone around him 20% better and I think he’s our false 9 attacker! He’s better than what we currently have and in his worst enemy when he’s lazy…but he’s very good lately!
Agree with your comments. Stanisic should have done better with the clearance and Lovren should have never turned his back thinking that the ball was out of play.
Sutalo made two similar mistakes with his distribution/passing against Denmark, and it also cost us a goal. Against top notch teams, gifting cheap goals like that will be costly and difficult to come back from.
As far as Vlasic is concerned, I agree that his not ideal on the RW but from all the players that we have at the moment he in my opinion is the best option.
I feel Majer is our best right wing option at the moment, he’s a good creator of chances and he shoots well. Vlasic has been so on and off (more off in that position) and I find him lost most of the time!
Majer at right wing to me is a no brainer.
Dalic is absolutely blind
and will start Lovren over Sutalo and Elric on the backline!
this gonna be a disaster for Croatia -> vs Marocco
As much as I fear Dalic starting Lovren, I think he’ll only get the Ćorluka 2018 treatment. He’ll start if we have a 2-0 lead in the group stage and a late game substitution if we need to lock down a game that we’re leading (not that it would do any good).
You’re probably right.
I get the vibe that Dalic really likes Erlic and Sutalo.
He started both of them in the critical games against France and Denmark, and we won those games.
Erlic was injured this round, otherwise he probably plays today. Sutalo started in the critical game against Denmark on Thursday, but was not at 100 percent today so that’s why he didn’t play.
Plus, I think Dalic has a soft spot for Sutalo because he’s from Capljina. Little Herceg-Bosna connection between the two of them, lol.
I watched the reply of the Austrian goal a few times and was amazed at what I saw. When Stanisic attempted to clear the ball the first time, it hit the Austrian player and came back to him. Well at this point Lovren turned his back on play thinking that the ball was out of play and was walking towards and facing Livakovic. As we know it was not out and by the time, he turned around the cross was already coming in and he was out of position.
What’s that saying that they teach kids “Play the whistle” and always face the ball while in play.
Did anyone get a good look at the potential offside before the goal. I was screaming at my TV from the onset of the play. They never showed a good replay. Also, the Budimir potential penalty (even though it wasn’t an outrageous foul) would have been given against us if it were the other way around.
I also thought initially that it was offside, but VAR gave it the green light. In regard to Budimir incident, I agree it could have been given because there was contact. Had the ref given it I don’t think that VAR would have overturned it? I thought that the ref was slightly favoring the home team.
Awesome win and amazing to head into the WC with these 4 straight wins!! The two wins vs Denmark are truly impressive. They were quietly one of the top teams in Europe the last few years.
As long as the Brozo injury isn’t a serious one we will be fine. He plays so much that having him rested could be a blessing. I wouldn’t worry about his form if he’s out for a bit. He’s irreplaceable for us.
Whether we like it or not Liva is our no.1. He was excellent today and MOTM. I truly hope this is a turning point for him.
Barisic is so ineffective. Hopefully his roster spot is taken by someone else. Sosa needs to play every game.
Stanisic had that bad pass but I felt it was more Lovren’s fault. Honestly I would think Dalic knows Lovren is a backup to Erlic/Gvardiol/Sutalo. It is nice to have some experience if we have an injury.
Majer was poor today. Lots of bad touches but still think he’s going to be a great player.
Budimir had zero service and it looks like Livaja is our best option up front. I do like the Orsic/Petkovic combo off the bench given their chemistry.
Vlasic again playing RW and drifting in the middle which gave us no width on the right. Play Majer on the right if we are going to play someone out of position. Even the U21 team doesn’t have a RW…Sucic played RW against Denmark earlier this week. I really wish Rebic would kiss and make up…would be our best RW option as his pressing would make up for his lack of technical skill.
Perisic…what can you say. Comes us big for us over and over again. So underrated for so long. One of my all time favourite players.
Lastly, even thought we are missing a few pieces, I love our depth. When was the last time we had this much? I’d say never.
Once Austria opened up we took over. We can counter with the best of them. We need a healthy Brozo & Modric to make us tick.
Please queue the abuse .. but after me and Stari were celebrating our first place UNL finish .. I was thinking about our lack of explosive striker options.
Then of course I was thinking about my main man Ante “robo” Rebić !!
You can’t tell me that he would not be able to support this crew with his explosive running.
Apparently it’s 3 to 4 weeks for brozo
I will take that however Inter might push for an earlier return
Most of you didn’t rate this competition but I always said if there’s a trophy at the end of it then why not win it and put something in the empty trophy cabinet.
If we won this no one here will be as excited as I will be! I will love it, while y’all will be trying to pretend it mattered to you all along.
I think it’s great that the semis are after the world cup because if we don’t do as well as I expect us to there we will be all in to win this thing!
I think we’re winning something soon guys!
I’ve always said that winning games matters, no matter what type of game it is. Learning to get the results is an art and the better teams learn to win when they’re with a full roster or not!
Going into the World Cup on a high and (hopefully for Brozović) healthy and in form
I agreed from the beginning I still thinks it’s worth winning a tournament like Nations League to bolster their confidence especially. Now they will.have a little confidence under their belt walking into it.
A lot of people including me don’t like the New kits especially the home..
well it’s a World Cup year and let me tell you something.. when the players are on the field and they have their number in the blank square in the center I actually like them now!!!! It’s a World Cup year and I ordered mine today. Order yours and show support for Croatia and Croatia Jersey sales. Ante said forget about Nike, change the manufacturer? Nike is the best manufacturer of all brands. They put out 2018 away probably the best soccer Jersey ever produced for any team.For years and years they produce the best Croatia n98 jackets ever. I know they messed up on the untouchable checkers this year but like I said when you see it with the number in the front it’s looks fine. Nike and Croatia is solid, don’t change.
If you did, what adidas? No thanks.
Lotto? Love 1998 Jersey but they don’t have the quality, capacity, money, selection, distribution, etc that Nike has. Not even 1%
Trust me Nike is the best for Croatia jerseys and this kit is fine.
The Lotto kits were actually made in Italy.
Nike kits are made of sweatshop-quality Chinese plastic.
Nike may pull off a good design here and there, but you never choose “name recognition” over quality materials and manufacturing.
Those new kits bite , Id rather Adidas all day for football kits you must still be eating sarmas in mommas basement , =U=
Adidas stripes on top of the checkers would be too much.
Adidas and Nike value their brand and their standard templates more than the checkers.
If Portugal and Italy win their groups, Croatia may have a 50-50% chance to host the Nations League semis and final in June. Portugal and Italy hosted the first two tournaments. UEFA will likely then give it to the Netherlands.
No, we won’t, because we don’t have the stadia. I read somewhere that you need two stadiums with minimum capacity of 40,000.
Correct. We’re not allowed to host it.
I think the Netherlands are the only remaining team that were interested.
I read somewhere that they were going to pick one of Netherlands, Belgium, Poland or Wales.
Pretty much the winner of that group was going to host it.
To be fair to Stanišić, the chemistry between him and Lovren was terrible.
Lovren was entirely at fault for the first goal because he slipped and fell as the opposing player ran toward him. Stanišić covered the area until Lovren could get back, but for some reason Lovren still left his man wide open for the goal.
I laughed near the beginning of the game when Lovren had the ball, but was running toward Stanišić as the defender was pressing Lovren (with Stanišić waiting for a pass all confused).
Stanišić tried to create as much space as possible between himself and Lovren to receive a nice open long pass, but Lovren kept running toward Stanišić…drawing the opposing forward with him, then “hot potatoed” Stanišić with a short pass with the opposing forward like two feet away from them haha.
All poor Stanišić could do was immediately clear it, which became a lost possession, and the commentators commenting how Stanišić made a bad clearance.
Lovren is garbage and simply cannot play in a skilled backline, and I hope Dalić realizes this.
Unfortunately everyone he is letting Lovren off the hook with his performance due to the goal he scored. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beauty of a goal, but your job is defence my friend and this game for me proved that he cannot make the cut. Dalic has to see this.
Lovren is a sub at best.
Keep in mind that the goal came from no Austrians marking the back post.
Currently, he’s Croatia’s cheerleader at best going into Qatar.
We won which was the main objective. Once Brozovic got injured, we were poor in the first half and lucky not be down a goal or two. First goal, mistake by Stanisic and also Lovren who should have been there to intercept that cross or be closer to the attacking player, made amends with the header for 3 – 1. Livakovic again had an excellent match and has cemented his spot as our number 1.
Apart from that initial mistake, I thought that Stanisic played Ok for the rest of the match. Barisic was poor and Majer did not impress today. Budimir in my opinion is a bench player, someone who comes on in the second half. Once Dalic made the changes in the second half things turned around and Livaja if I’m not mistaken scored with his first touch? Would have liked to see Petkovic come on instead of Kramaric.
Our biggest concern is the hamstring injury to Brozovic. Once he went off, we were awful. The way he was limping off the pitch it looks like 4 – 6 weeks.
With WC only 7 weeks away, this is bad news as we really do not have a suitable replacement.
Going on today’s results it is certain that two out of the three big guns (England, France or Italy) will be in Pot 2 for Euro 2024 qualifying draw. Italy can avoid this if they can escape defeat in Hungary.
I think the mask has to be impacted Maher’s peripheral. I don’t think it’s him.
I will go back and watch the game, I only saw the second half! From what I did see….Livakovic was pretty good, Barisic has always amused me. I’ve never liked his style nor play and I didn’t think he was effective today. Gvardiol was solid, Lovren was ok (nice goal) but I feel bad that Stanisic had an underwhelming game. This is what I mean about our non stop comments on certain players and then they get into the lineup and surprise us with a below average performance. Modric and Kovacic were good and I can see how Majer can feel out of place. I think his better position is in right wing but today he filled in for Brozovic and that’s not an easy task…he needs time to understand his role between Modric and Kovacic.
Vlasic in my opinion is just a total waste of a player. He’s super ineffective and I can barely stomach to watch him play. Budimir is a work horse but also looks like he’s struggling. Perisic is the king…I love the guy!
I was happy to see Livaja score today, I’m starting to think he’s possibly better than anyone else we have at striker. If he’s constantly gonna get good service then my bet is he will do better than Krama, Budimir and anyone else!
What? Vlasic set up the first goal and had several other good runs.
Torino’s best player right now.
Saw Grdovic and Bebek in Toronto last night- good show- wine and song was great – now for HNS- we’re in a new domain now- haven’t seen an Croatian team leading into WC tournament with so many player choices- and as hot . Don’t know if it’s good or bad but let’s see what it means. Not a Dalic fan at all so I hope Modric calls the shots on who plays- let’s keep him a figure head and have Modric run the team- messy D today but man we can score
Other than an unwelcomed Rebic, Livaja is the only striker with a nose for goal that we have now.
In fact, how about that all- Hajduk forward line of Perisic, Livaja, and Vlasic in the second half? Pasalic came on as well.
Barisic and Lovren suck – clumsy and slow. Kramaric and Budimir should be dropped. Enough is enough.
Sosa is so smooth- such a difference maker. Still think Gvardiol is a bit overrated, but, good.
Midfield one of the best in the World.
Best game I’ve seen Livakovic play – he’s coming out with confidence now – even took one n the ribs and kept playing well.
Need to see some more of Luka Sucic.
So it’s Hungary, Netherlands, Croatia and the winner of Portugal-Spain in the final 4.
Final on June 18, 2023 for automatic birth to Euros.
Italy plays Hungary for first place in Hungary.
I wouldn’t write them off. I could see them pulling off the win and taking the group.
Ah, thought play in that group was over.
Livakovic – played well enough, made some good saves. Although the goal was definitely out of reach, I didn’t like that he stood frozen in place. He should have at least tried.
Barisic – terrible
Gvardiol – satisfactory
Lovren – kiks machine, his goal hopefully changes nothing
Stanisic – poor game
Kovacic – played mostly well, some sloppy mistakes
Modric – no comment required
Brozovic – hopefully the injury isn’t serious, I actually wouldn’t mind if he missed a month
Perisic – most underrated World Class player around
Budimir – probably his last chance, received no service
Vlasic – ok, at times looked lively, goes missing for long spells, nice assist
Subs –
Majer – awful, what a glorious opportunity he just squandered, nice assist for a little redemption
Sosa – game changer, he must always play
Kramaric – no rating
Pasalic – no rating
Livaja – probably earned himself more playing time (this disappoints me as I don’t really like him)
Dalic – can’t stand him, missed an opportunity to sub out Modric late to let the 20,000 supporters give him a standing ovation.
The game turned because of the Austrian subs more than it did because of ours. What this demonstrates is that we finally do have some quality depth players.
Barisic should never start when sosa is healthy.
For me Goalkeeper i think livi is number one Ivusic number 2 and third keeper if Kalinic grbic.
We dont have a RW
Still dont have a Cf so i guess we will look for whose hot and rotate depending what dalic chooses.
Totally agree- Sosa is showing some special talent we haven’t had before- need him playing
Expect to see some nice football from this team in Qatar, but it will be hard to go far without a #9.
Our last hope is that Rebic regains his form and joins the team. He’s not an ideal #9 either, but far better than what we have now.
Rebic under dalic will not play another game
Gotta admit Liva was good, that was an incredible save from Arnautovic in the first half
Maminjo, Lovren just solidified that he’s the best defender in the world.😂
How about Livakovic? Gotta give it to him today.
I’m willing to take back everything I said about Livaković if he continues to play like this.
Lovren…no.
Lovren sucked today. His overly aggressive diving header changes nothing.
I thought Lovren was at fault for Austria’s goal as he covered no one on the cross and the Austrian, who scored, was nearest to him and unmarked. Livaković was very good today.
Lovren was not good you are right anyone who knows football you can see his over agression gets him caught off guard i feel bad for erlic the guy is a beast in seria A i watched him last year and was thinking why didnt he get call up he still hasnt made a foul in his 5 starts this season
Erlić was there today.
He was supposed to play but they didn’t want to push him because he just recently csme back from injury.
100% agree on both.
Nice goal, but defensivly, he just doesn’t fit in with our back line anymore.
Livi was on fire today. Goaltending is 50% skill and 50% confidence/form. If he keeps this up, we will be OK.
Barisic whould never start again budimir just when we play stronger team.
Lovren just cemented a 11 place hahaha
Fuck man, I hope not.
We’re laughing now, but if he starts at the World Cup for us then it’s a guaranteed early exit for us.
I really hope this doesn’t mean Lovren starts ahead of Šutalo at the World Cup
Hahaha the best defender in the world just scored
Brilliant
Did brozovic injury look bad?
It looked like a pulled muscle in the upper leg. He could still walk off the field though.
Thanks
Fingers crossed that it’s a minor injury because we need him big time
Lovren. Lol. Good for him. Austria opens up and we kill them on the counter. Would love to see them really pour it on here.
The subs changed everything
Fuck yeah, lovely burst from our guys
Lol wtf?
Lovren and Livaković?
What’s going on
Lovren
Happy for him.
He looked like had tears in his eyes when facing the fans.
What a great pass from Perisic!
Livajaaaaaaa!!!
See guys!
Like I’ve been telling you all year…Livaković is a solid keeper! 😁
Let’s go Livaja!
Budimir is awful.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but Livakovic has been very good today and played well last game. Big save and shockingly came out to challenge a high ball.
Barisic is below average…Budimir has had zero service…at least he presses and backtracks. Would love to see Sosa play and see if he can connect with Budimir.
Back line not the same with Lovren. He doesn’t move the ball forward. Obviously a huge loss with Brozo…he’s irreplaceable. After he went down it was all Austria. He’s so vital to our success.
Let’s see if someone cam step up.
U boj!
Not surprised to see us struggling after seeing that typical Dalić lineup.
This backline has no chemistry because they’ve never played together…
The overall lineup has no width with Sosa, Juranović on the bench (and Vlašić at RW doesn’t help)…
Budimir working hard but no wing support…
Problem is now compounded with Brozović’s injury and Denmark likely winning against France.
I think Dalić maybe was hoping France would do the job for us because this lineup had no purpose. Just clearing the bench.
Good to see Livaković having a good game.
Dalić needs to make some immediate subs.
Exactly what im thinking fustrating since 2018 we havent put the same 11 on pitch
Maybe call rakitics wife ask her if ivan can come back if broz is out long term hahaha
Why is Budimir on the pitch?
So…we play one of the best games vs Denmark, then instead of building on that, Dalić decides to change the backline?@!?#$
In my opinion we have no Dm on bench stanisic Barišić are bench players for me stanisic is too young and isnt playing for bayern.
Broz big hit we have no Midfield without him. Stupid dalic gave biscan sucic
All in all if you cant beat austria dont deserve to go to Final four
Livakovic saved something its an early chistmas miracle
Looks like we’re just happy to throw away top place in this group for some reason
Denmark 2- 0 up now
Our D is terrible – stanisic and barisic should not be playing – no rhythm – team looks completely different then days ago regardless of the changes we shouldn’t be playing like this.
Denmark just scored. Theyre top of group at the moment.
Any link??
https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/nations-league-austria-vs-croatia-sep-25-2022-game-boxscore-91321
Anyone have a link to watch the game?
http://weakstreams.com/soccer-streams/uefa-nations-league/austria-vs-croatia/71666/?sport=soccer
Here is Lovren’s chance to prove why he deserves to be on the field, or why in his own words, he is the ” world’s greatest defender or one of the best defenders in the world”? His own words. Big words to fulfill my man I only hope you can manage to stay true to those words.
Good to see Dalić going back to his UNL “randomized lineup” roots.
Glad I didn’t bet money on this game.
https://sportske.jutarnji.hr/sn/nogomet/reprezentacija/uzivo-stigli-su-sastavi-za-veliki-okrsaj-zlatko-dalic-promijenio-pola-pobjednicke-momcadi-s-maksimira-15252576
Sutalo does have a small knock. Erlic doesnt want to take a chance on his recently healed hamstring.
So i get left a little confused
I know we don’t care about nations league but now that we’re at the 1 yard line we might as well score the touchdown
Why does dalic change the defensive backs.
Is he still tinkering with formation? Does he think they need rest?
Sosa in the line up has changed things so i hate to see him off if we’re trying to win
Hrvatski sastav za Austriju: Livaković – Stanišić, Lovren, Gvardiol, Barišić – Modrić, Brozović, Kovačić – Vlašić, Budimir, Perišić.
According to SN
Budimir- probably his last chance- let’s see what he can do-
Get the win revenge for that 3 0 loss its like a home game 20000 plus hrvati at game nice stadium its gonna be like a tournament atmosphere get the W and next year play for nations league title thats nice thing for us i know nations league is shit on alot but hey why not just builds our resume as the best small nation in last 30 years.
Judging by the latest reports and comments from Dalic there will be some changes to the starting 11.
Sutalo apparently got a knock on the ankle and in all probability will not start. This means either Lovren or Erlic ? keeping in mind that Erlic has not played in recent weeks so Lovren will most likely get the nod. The midfield should stay the same, or at least I’m hoping with Modric, Brozovic and Kovacic to start. Up front probably Petkovic in the middle, Perisic on the left and Majer on the right.
There’s one thing we don’t need is injuries! To close for the World Cup ! We came close 2018 with God help we will win the World Cup Go Hrvatska
Looks like game will be on FoxSports app which is free in states with my cable package, looking forward
With the potential of facing Hungary in the Semi Finals, does Dalic rest Modric & Perisic or does he go for it?
Where a draw would suffice, I think he rests Modric/Perisic for at least a half;
Orsic – Petko – Vlasic
Kova – Brozo – Majer
Barisic – Erlic – Sutalo – Stanisic
Ivusic
A tie actually means nothing to us unfortunately. It doesn’t improve our chances in any scenario.
1- we beat Austria = we win the group
2 – we lose or tie Austria = Denmark can win the group if they beat France
What if both games are tied, don’t we win the group?
Yeah.
However if we LOSE and Denmark STILL ties…..then we still win the group (we have the head:head tiebreaker over Denmark).
So for us, a tie does not add anything over a loss
Yes, but if Denmark ties their game against France, then nothing matters and we still finish first (even if we lose to Austria).
Denmark has to win. They can’t tie or lose.
Our result only matters IF Denmark beats France (in which case we need to win against Austria).
Otherwise, we can lose our game if Denmark doesn’t get the full three points against France.
This is why a tie doesn’t matter for us.
I keep forgetting that it’s the h2h and not the goals that are the tie breaker. Regardless, my point is that odds are in our favour so does Dalic risk it or give some other guys a chance. We’ll see today…
The semi finals are next year. Not next week. Why would he rest those players.
the only thing that I will allow Lovren to play…
if Denmark leads by 2 goals vs France::
so we can evaluate Lovren and Vida ;o d
with a win-win solution ..
1) if they can defend it well _o)) we got a bit of luck to qualify
2) if they messed up – Austria wins the game | which means France is relegated
if no 2 happened then .. we have a valid reason for eliminating them! +
I was not able to watch the second half of croatia Austria because of business obligations
I did watch the first half and actually thought croatia was the dominant side and Austrias goal came against the grain of play
Croatia was undoubtedly vulnerable by a questionable back pair
I have enjoyed the feeling in recent games that when the opposition gets on a counter with our defenders in a vulnerable position sprinting back that our defenders have generally been able to subdue the threat. It hasn’t always felt that way
I would say the defense looks great but i can’t help but think 2 20 year olds guiding a team deep in the World Cup has never been done before so odds are against it regardless of how things might look now
I saw sutalo resort to punting the ball away vida style after that goal off his errand pass. Showed his youth and how he lost confidence quickly
Business obligations on a Sunday afternoon?
You drive for Uber eats ?
Starting line up predictions??
Ah i see the Danes are at home to France so they could actually win. We might actually have to also win!
I just don’t see France losing again to Denmark…not with a chance of being relegated. I think we’re in good shape no matter what but would like a win and at least 2 goals from our boys.
Denmark has a pretty insane home record (before their June loss to us).
They’re like us, before Stimac ruined our home unbeaten streak with back-to-back losses in WC2014 qualifying (then Dalic continued the tradition with the multiple home losses in the previous two UNL tournaments, thus ruining our home record reputation).
But if France loses, then they may be relegated if Austria wins.
I could definitely see a draw between them, which would give us first place no matter what happens against Austria.
It would be pretty stupid if we couldn’t avenge that home loss to Austria, and to add insult to injury, Denmark beats France and leapfrogs us to first place.
I think you’re being generous. Denmark is a tricky team, but looking at their best possible lineup, I can’t imagine them going toe to toe with France again, not with relegation on the line.
Croatia finish second regardless. I can’t see them putting much effort . More games means more chances of fatigue and injury
It isn’t more games.
The UNL group winners play two less games during their Euro2024 qualifiers.
When the Euro2024 qualifier draw takes place next month, there will be ten groups (with some having six teams and some having just five).
The four UNL group winners will be seeded into the groups that have only five teams…so when the teams from the six-team groups are playing their extra two Euro2024 qualifying games, the UNL final four are playing their semifinal and final elimination games during that same international break.