It was a rough day if you are a Real Madrid supporter as Los Blancos were shutout 3-0 at home to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semifinals. Barcelona will now go on to play in the Final while Real Madrid are on pace to not win a single trophy in 2019. Ivan Rakitić and Luka Modrić payed the full match for their respective clubs while the above picture went viral on the internet after the game. It was a rough day at the office as Team Messi had a field day at Luka’s expense – SportsBible reports.
Unless Real Madrid and Barcelona are drawn together later this season in Champions League, this week could be the very last time we see Luka Modrić and Ivan Rakitić go toe-to-toe in El Clasico.
The two Croatian legends have been battling it out on Spain’s grandest stage ever since Rakitić came over to Barcelona from Sevilla in the summer of 2014. Now, the 5-year saga between the Croatians could be coming to an end with an amazing two El Clasico matches in a 72-hour span.
Wednesday night in Madrid, Real will host their hated rivals in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals. After a 1-1 draw in Barcelona on February 6th, all is left to play for in the Spanish capital as the winner of this tie is expected to lift the Copa del Rey. Real Betis and Valencia are playing in the other semifinal.
On Saturday, the two Spanish giants will lace up the boots again in their final La Liga match of the season. Barca crushed Real Madrid 5-1 in October and have led La Liga the entire season. Luka Modrić may not start this match as Real Madrid currently sit nine points behind leaders Barcelona with Los Blancos hosting Dutch club Ajax three days later in Champions League.
Even with a victory, Real Madrid would need to run the table and have Barcelona falter to make it a race in La Liga.
Rumors have it this will be Rakitić’s last season with Barca and a move to Inter Milan could very well happen in the summer. At 33 years old, even the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner isn’t safe to stay in Madrid the way their season had gone this year.
It has been an incredible run for Croatian football the past decade.
-knocked England out of Euro 2008 qualifying
-a Croatian has lifted the Champions League trophy six years in a row
-Modrić and Rakitić battle it out in El Clasico for five years
-Croatia plays in the World Cup Final
We are living in a true golden age of Croatian football. And although the Vatreni are stacked with young, promising talent all across Europe, we must soak in games like these between Raketa and Modrić, because we don’t know when it will happen again.
Raz, With guys like Pasalic starting after our greats retire, it would even be worse than an icy winter in our darkest year. Plugging a guy like Pasalic in now, is not a big deal cause our talent would cover his weaknesses…but after Rakitic and Modric retire, a starting Pasalic, would make us wish Sammir was back! jk on that extreme
I like Pasalic, and might even say I’d take him over a guy like Bradaric right now, but that isn’t saying much.
^^^ That is our player development infrastructure was in tatters in the early to mid 90s because of War. The after affects were only felt in the early to mid 2000s in the crop of talent that came to fruition.
@ BZ
So what you’re basically saying is winter is coming….
Well, I’m of the camp that believes we will continue to be competitive and a force to be reckoned with!
And that we will NOT return to the DARK years of the early 2000’s (an anomaly due to our player development infrastructure being in tatters because of War).
CroatiaU14- I like your optimism, but i will gladly bet (croatiansports merit points) that in 6 to 8 years the top end talent will be significantly worse than what we had this past summer or even Euro 2016. The proof will be in the results.
That said, this is one of those topics that I’d love to be on the wrong side of history.
Regarding Pasalic, his game is pedestrian, and by that I mean…with guys like him starting in place of Rakitic/Modric or even Kova/Brozo, we will be even worse than our dark years of the early 2000’s.
@Razbijač
Yeah that’s true…a larger pool of players only works for the better…and hopefully Dalić will give Vuković a chance! It’d be great to see how he does in international play
And I don’t think Rakitic is a TRUE Razbijač. We haven’t had one of those in long time…
@ CroatiaU14
TRUE we got talents up and coming…but not all of them will pan out. This Vukovic guy is actually proving himself NOW, in a Top league. He’s a late bloomer at 26, but worth a look.
The thing is I would like us to have as many prospects as possible. I love hearing about the new talent. But the reality is only a portion of that subset of talent will make it to a higher level.
So the wider the pool of talent, the more chance we have of producing a coupla good players.
@Razbijač
We’ve got quite a few young guys that play defensive midfielder that are coming up…Moro and Ivanušeć (who are both on UEFA’s Top 50 young guys to watch out for this year) and Palaversa, the 18 year on loan from Man City…remember, Rakitić still has a few years left. I wouldn’t be too worried right now about that position in the future.
Is the conversation about our DEFENSE???
Well, given our problems in defense at the moment, we need a real Razbijač in midfield to shield the back line….
So move over Kova, ’cause there’s a new cowboy in town! His name is Josip Vukovic and he plays for Maritimo in Portugal.
And he’s been outstanding in the defensive midfield role the club. So much so, that he’s been linked with Chelsea, and the big Portugese clubs.
This guy is definitely worth a look. Him and Brozovic in the center and Vlasic at the top of the midfield triangle could be deadly in the years to come.
Jedvaj is a liability defensively,there is a reason he hardly sees the field,and when he does he generally screws up.
We have all become smitten with him over his 2 goals vs. Spain but England’s 2 goals the very next game were a result of his blunders.
Even his start this previous Sunday against Dortmund he was at fault for one goal and another he misjudged his leap in the 6 yard box to clear the ball and it led to another .
Goals come from mistakes and this kid makes far too many!
We need more shut down solid defenders not a guy who might score 4 or 5 more goals yet be responsible for 30
Corluka was my guy…slow ,awkward but NEVER screwed up and was never out of position.He played with his head even if it was bandaged up half the time.
Umm, I am pretty sure Jedvaj is cool with Srna coming in as RB. Tin would get a chance to lock up his LB spot vs cupcakes in Euro qualifying. The guy scored 2 more goals for us at LB than Strinic /Pivaric/Milic/Barisic/Pranjic did in a long ass time.
Jedvaj is a better talent than all of them (albeit not great.) Sadly, this is true, even when playing out of position.
As you guys know, I am in favor of putting in a solid talent at LB as opposed to our best available natural lefty.
Worried Srna might have dropped the doping after his last suspension. His strength/recovery will have fallen off a cliff at his age w/o the doping.
Bruno petkovic looks great atm
Strinic is not out anymore. He just hasn’t been playing. He’s been on the bench because Ricardo Rodriguez is miles better than him. I say give Borna Sosa a shot against Azerbaijan and if he performs, keep him there for Hungary. If not, Barisic, Strinic (if he can at least plays a couple minutes for Milan by then), Jedvaj, or Vida can play there. Some might argue Sosa doesn’t deserve the call up, but truly which LB have we called up in recent years that was good enough to be playing for us. Strinic played out of his skin in some of the World Cup games and then got exposed in others.
Also, I mentioned before that we do not really have many good talents coming up at RB. It could end up being our new weak spot after Vrsajlko considering we have at least 3 LB youngsters that are going to potentially be decent players in Borna Sosa, Domagoj Bradaric, and David Colina. The only true young RB that I know of is Jedvaj and it’s not even really his main position. The only half-decent ones I know about are Fran Karacic (who is currently committed to Australia but not capped), Fran Tudor, Karlo Bartolec, and Josip Juranovic. None of them are really super impressive either in my opinion.
Borna has slumped
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/02/28/do-really-poor-rangers-fans-react-to-borna-barisics-performance/
Maybe a thought for our defense:
Use Marin Marin Pongračić from Red Bull Salzburg as CD alongside Ćaleta-Car. They played together at Salzburg last year. When Ćaleta-Car was sold, they didn’t use the money to buy a replacement since they reckoned that Pongračić was good enough to replace Ćaleta-Car. And he’s doing very well at Salzburg this season. Pongračić is 22, Ćaleta-Car 23. So they could be our future. (lets not forget Benkovic)
Then you could put Vida as LB and Jedvaj as RB. I think you just can’t leave Jedvaj out of team after his two goals against Spain.
I think we should be fine with this defense. It’s not like we have to play against Brazil. It’s Azerbaijan and Hungary.
Maminjo,
Milic isn’t doing well at Anderlecht at all. They desperately want to get rid of him.
Caleta-Car is doing great in France. He had a difficult start for Marseille but somehow he managed to get into their starting 11. Now he has become important for them. He should take the spot of Lovren in the first game (Lovren will be suspended the first game).
Barisic plays for Glasgow Rangers… but not always. I personally like him but I don’t know if he’s ready for international football.
Borna Sosa is probably a huge talent but he barely plays for Stuttgart.
We also have Rog as an option 😀
Seems i got check mated
If Srna comes back, then all this great young endless talent you all write about is just bullshit.
There is no continuous pipeline…and our lack of talent with players from 24-28 years of age is going to start affecting us, just as predicted here on this site by a few contributors.
Actually, I just checked…both Borna Sosa and Borna Barisic are match fit, and have been playing for their clubs this past month.
It’s really just Vrsaljko that is out, along with (maybe) Lovren, which is causing a problem.
I’d honestly just stick with Jedvaj at RB, with Vida possibly moving over to play spot minutes in case there’s a problem.
We’ve got Caleta-Car and Benkovic as CB options…and LB is covered well with Sosa, Barisic, and Milic.
@Goku
Yea, but Jedvaj plays as a fullback for Leverkusen. I don’t think he’s played CB for years.
Would be strange to put him as a starting CB ahead of some of the other options at CB. Caleta-Car should be capable of playing there for one game. Filip Benkovic has been having a monster season for Celtic too. Both are probably better options at CB than Jedvaj.
We’ve got Milic who is in form right now and can play LB for us, since both Bornas (Barisic and Sosa) are injured. Strinic and Pivaric probably shouldn’t be on the team anyway. Vida can play spot minutes there in case Milic chokes out there, but he looked good against England in our last game.
At RB we really should be looking at Jedvaj right now. He was good against Spain (scoring two goals) and screwed up against England (allowing them the winner). Vida can even play spot minutes there too if Jedvaj stinks it up (or we can do the Marko Rog experiment there again, lol). Even Bartolec, Tudor, or some other U21 player would be an option to have on the bench.
Jedvaj is still part of our future and it’s Azerbaijan we are playing here. We should be partly developing chemistry between the players who will be taking part in Euro2020 (and not calling up old washed up relics).
I think we’re okay in defense without having to call up Srna.
Real was the better team today, Vinny Jr. should have bagged a couple (at least) in the first half. His touch in front of goal isn’t great (but he’s 18 years old etc. etc.).
Barca has had Madrid’s number the last 10 years. Losing 3-0 at home in no small thing for a club of Madrid’s magnitude. Modric had a good match but Madrid missing an elite goal scorer proved itself today. Also I don’t understand Solari’s decision emitting Bale from the squad. Highly likely Real is going trophyless this season.
BTW Barca beats Real 3-0 in Madrid to knock them out of the Copa Del Rey. Come on Madrid…
Edit: Lovren might be match fit by then
Jedvaj might be our CB. We will be missing Strinic, Pivaric, Barisic for LB. Lovren for CB. And Vrsaljko for RB. Alot of defenders out
I wonder how Jedvaj feels about this?
There’s no point to calling up Srna, unless you plan on using him at the Euro2020. That’s what we should be building toward.
Srna will be dead by then.
This Srna news is a joke! Srna is a croatian Legend! But 36-year-old Srna? This is Cro Cop fighting bad.
Agreed with mam, he was starting early in the season, now srna is coming off the bench late in the game. There has to be a better choice!
No Srna please.
————kramaric————-
perisic——modric——rebic
——brozo———rakitic——
strinic—vida—lovren—srna
————–kalinic————–
Pašalić with a goal for Atalanta…he’s been playing more and much better latelt
I forgot Srna went to Italy
He never gets an update anymore!
I don’t mind him coming in for a stop gap
Dang, Srna playing for our squad again would be awesome! He is most likely still in game-shape, he plays for a Serie A team.
@Ante, I like how you said that, even though we have a very promising future, we have to soak in these final great match-ups between some of our older guys. I say in about 6 to 8 years, Dalic (or whoever else is managing) will have a bigger and even better selection than today.
Pretty sure Sevilla has led La Liga this season.
Huh ?
https://www.croatiaweek.com/darijo-srna-set-to-come-out-of-international-retirement-for-croatia/