It’s never easy being a fan of Croatia. If it’s not last second miracle goals (Turkey) then it’s your own supporters trying to sabotage the match when you’re up and have control of the game. It’s always something. And even though the Vatreni look to be headed to the knockout stage for the first time since 2008, their path may be a difficult one.
It’s that time in the tournament when the knockout rounds begin to start forming. Before Euro 2016 began, it was clear as day to me (if group favorites won) that winning Group D was a priority for Croatia. Sure, that’s tough to ask of anyone with reigning European champions Spain paired with you, but the reason is clear.
Croatia is slated to finish in second place in Group D behind the Spanish unless they can find a way to defeat Spain in Bordeaux Tuesday night.
Why is this important even though it looks as if Croatia are all but assured a spot in the Round of 16?
Let’s take a potential look at the map for the rest of the tournament if Croatia finish in 2nd place in their current group:
Croatia would already know their opponent which would be Italy, who have surprisingly flown under the radar in Euro 2016, coming into the tournament with low expectations but already defeating Belgium 2-0 and Sweden 1-0, respectively. Croatia had Italy in qualifying, with both matches ending in draws. Although Italy has never defeated Croatia in a competitive match, this Azzurri side is playing with house money as their team is compiled from the entire backline of Juventus with new, young faces such as Eder and Giaccherini showing early success.
I’m not saying Croatia can’t beat Italy; it’s just simply a tough Round of 16 matchup. Should Croatia defeat the Italians, they would more than likely find themselves pitted against World Cup champions Germany in the quarterfinals. And if they pass that test, hosts France could await the winners in the semifinals.
Not an easy road for anyone. So to recap: Croatia would get Italy, Germany, France in the knockout rounds if they finish second in group behind Spain.
However, they could avoid all above listed teams if they could beat Spain and take the group outright or somehow slip to third in the group in which they would be drawn into the top portion of the knockout draw 50% of the time.
So if Croatia defeats Spain, they win the group and would play a 3rd place team in the Round of 16; someone along the likes of Slovakia, Sweden or Iceland. A quarterfinal draw would pair the winner of Switzerland/Poland. This already looks much kinder than finishing second.
But the ulterior motive may be tanking the Spain game and praying Czech Republic thrashes Turkey to jump Croatia on goal differential. Finishing third in group would see Croatia play France in the Round of 16 in the bottom half of the draw or Group B winner; most likely England.
The top half of the draw (if everyone holds serve) is where you want to be. But for Croatia, whether they defy the odds without Modrić and beat Spain or lose and get help from the Czechs, it won’t be easy.
My two cents: go into the Spain match with no fear and play for goals. Don’t worry about the result and treat it as a friendly. The only thing that concerns me is both managers agreeing to a light, non-physical match which ends in a draw. We’ve seen it 100 times in the last matches of group stage where both teams go through with a draw.
CroatianSports nation. How do you play this? Go for the win or play it safe and have Croatian players play for the conservative result?
Funny how one year ago i was screaming my lungs out for wanting the coach to buttkick filthy little homo Pranjic the Mentally Challenged Mongrel off the team and bring back superb left back Strinic my homeboy back on the team. Low and behold, Ivan is back on the first 11 and making a damn good job in the back, together with a superb Corluka and Vida. I may be mistaken, but to my eyes when I watch these games, our defense has not been this solid in ages. Could be fooled by the midfield which contributes a lot to holding the fort, but I’m not too concerned about that game against Spain.
Thank God who art in heaven and heard our cries for buttkicking Pranja off the team. Holy be thy name, and may Pranja rot in eternal damnation with four midgets constantly ramming it up his arse. Thank you and good night!
dobro smo prosli
That’s back pocket change for Luka.
HNS just tweeted we will be fined 100k euros
UEFA postpones punishment announcement:
http://gol.dnevnik.hr/clanak/euro-2016/uefa-ina-kazna-hrvatskoj-posljednja-opomena-pred-katastrofu—440835.html
Elvis Stojko, is that you?
For you grammar aficionados out there apologies for the multitude of errors in my above post. Typing on a tablet feels like typing on Chinese typewriter sometimes.
Ah the glory of internet. Anyone that can type can post whatever information or gibberish is in their head. You don’t even have to be who you say you are online. Hell I could be an AI bot and not one of you would know… at least before the advent of the Internet to commit your thoughts to paper and disseminate it to a wide audience took a lot of time and therefore in most cases a well thought out argument or points made that were fact checked before sending off a typed letter lol.
Hrvati or pseudo Hrvati or Balkan for that matter… I would actually find it funny if Cro got disqualified and not because I agree with the defective hooligans or anyone with an itch on their ass from Mami or suker, no I would find it funny and satisfying because that tells me practically every other uefa team fears playing Croatia as there is a high probability they will lose. That is the only motivation I can see in banning a team that honestly had been no.2 after Spain in the Euro until the late udba sabotage-induced collapse. End of story.
Elvis,
Just a question.
Are you mentally challenged?
@elvis I don’t understand your post or assumptions, plz link or explanation to your 3 point deduction
b) we’re in the toughest WC qualifying group? Have you watched the teams in Croatia’s WC qualifying group? They have been awful at the Euro – the only way we don’t qualify is that there are so many points deductions or Croatia has been disqualified.
d) 6 or 7 teams from Europe, uh, no. By that time, there may be 40 teams in the World Cup, so there could be 15 teams from Europe. If FIFA decides to cut UEFA teams to 6 or 7, UEFA will say see you later and just run a Euro every two years. Never going to happen.
That’s a 3 point deduction. Wow the drama the match with Spain will be must win without Luka. Think of the money lost by the HNS by not going to next round. No way be beat Spain without Luka. Don’t mess with the Holligans they can really ruin your day. Homos.
It looks like the government and the Savez did everything to keep in in this tournament. I think and hope that a decision tomorrow would be too late to cancel the game against Spain anyway.
Lets hope we won’t lose point(s). We will have to pay so I suggest we sue those hooligans, sell their houses and take the money from their accounts. We could use that money to pay the Uefa.
Decision about our punishment has been delayed until tomorrow. 24 Sata claims, according to their sources, that the punishment will be severe but we won’t be sent away.
In case anyone has any misconceptions, let me fill you on the future of croatian soccer (spoiler: it is not pretty)
a) Euro 2016; likely to lose to spain. even if they do not kick us for czech game actions, there will be more actions by disruptive fans which will lead to a disqualification
b) World CUP 2018: on top of that, it has reached the point where croatia will be deducted points in world cup qualifying. The point deduction coupled with 2 home games with no crowd and the toughest group will result in croatia missing the world cup in 2018
c) Euro 2020 is likely to happen for croatia
d) World cup 2022 will be very difficult: the european teams will begin to lose qualificaiton spots to Africa/Asia….so likely only 6 to 7 teams will make it from europe
it will be a roster with no modric, rakitic, perisic etc. and you rely on the questionable development of kovacic and halilvoc to do anything. and it is unlikely they will ever become modric who had a hard enough time getting croatia to the world cup before
so the 60th minute looks of the czech game looks like the best feeling from croatia soccer in the next 8 years to come
Agreed, just make sure we win all of our games, 🙂
I’m not too worried about our group either, as these teams would all lose points to each other whereas we’d be the most consistent and capitalize on it.
I think it would take a lot to outright kick us out of the World Cup but a points deduction would be pretty easy for them to do which would be equally effective (especially if it’s 3 points or more)
Maminjo, based on the performance of the teams Croatia will play in WC qualifying, I am not concerned about us not qualifying. Turkey is crap, Ukraine is crap and Iceland has tied both games but have been dominated, even vs. Hungary.
But of course, the sanctions would cause problems. The concern is, if and when more of these actions from hooligans occur, the punishment will increase to the point where Croatia is booted from qualification. I don’t think any of us would be surprised if that happened.
We will know at 5 cro time
Belgium completely outchanced Italy that game.
Italy played them well but the talent gap was still too great to prevent Belgium from creating multiple close opportunities. Belgium’s coach is also an idiot and played right into Italy’s tactics and failed to use his wingers which would’ve opened things up more against Italy’s 3-man defense.
It was a perfect storm of Italy playing their game, an imbecile coaching Belgium, and a LOT of luck.
Also, Sweden is one of the worst teams in the tournament, so I would expect Italy to beat them.
I’m not worried about Italy. I wouldn’t even consider us the underdog against them. If it weren’t for the distractions, I think we beat them with Perišić and Brozović carving up that defensive back line.
Italy withstood the pressure, but the Belgiums had many clear cut chances to score (ie. Lukaku breakaway, Origi free header). Italy’s first goal was a defensive error on an easy long ball that should have been headed away. Unfortunately for Belgium, they had an MLS player playing right back. The second Italian goal was only due to Belgium pushing forward for the tie. So the game I watched was one where Italy was fortunate to win because Belgium couldn’t capitalize on their chances.
Too early to talk about the knockout phase.
If there is another disturbance, none of this matters.
Even if the Spain game finishes without issues, this potential disturbance from the Yugos will continue to loom over player’s heads and kill the mood amongst all of us and all Croatia fans, causing an early exit.
If we get any sort of penalty for World Cup qualifying, then it would be a disaster since we are probably in the toughest group of all time and need as many points as we can get.
We are at our peak with this generation and it will be wasted on a weak attempt to get one man removed from his position. Terrible tradeoff even if it works.
@Mile, dunno what game you were watching but Belgium shit the bed versus Italy. They were an awful tactical mess and the Italians played fairly well that game. Wilmots is a average coach, at best.
I don’t care who our guys play in the round of 16. Lots of quality sides are headed to the knockout phase and any matchup will present its own challenges.
I would love to stick it to the Poles. Some are good but I have known so many Polish Wackos. BTW being gay is not living the Za Dom lifesyle. Just so some of you know.
I get the whole easier path thing, but remember 2008. We beat Germany to get first and got Turkey in the quarters instead of Portugal. We were all thinking it would be easier. It never is with Croatia. And Italy is beatable. They were outplayed by Belgium and did nothing against Sweden until the goal. And Germany is not guaranteed to get first. I think Poland has a chance to win by a few goals and maybe knock Germany to second. Then Croatia’s quarterfinal would be against Poland or a third place team.
^^ your mother is a homo
Yo homos did we get kicked out yet?
Thanks for the clarification on everything. The fact that finishing 3rd in the group gives you the best matchup moving forward shows how stupid this new format is. Personally I like our chances against the Italians and would rather finish 2nd than 3rd to avoid any asterisk if (and daj boze) we make it deep into the tournament. Nothing would be more annoying than hearing pundits talk about how a team wouldn’t have made it as far as they did without the help from the expanded format.
Sorry but tournament ended for us in the 85th minute against Czechs. That’s the bottom line. Even if our players play great again, the powers will do everything they can to send us packing.
Lovre Kalinic in goal.
If 4-4-2:
Vrsaljko, Charlie, Vida, Strinic
Srna, Rakitic, Brozovic, Perisic
Kramaric, Mandza
If 4-3-3: Srna, Corluka, Vida, Strinic
Rakitic, Badelj, Brozovic
Kramaric, Mandza, Perisic
If this is a TRUELY Croatian team in France ,not only on paper with big names .THen I say bring me your best ,bring me your most powerful and Bring them now !
HRVATI Se NIKOGA neboje !!!!!
For me bring on the biggest ,bring on your best HRVATI. Se NIKOGA BOJE ! And if this is a true Croatian team they will beet Spain and who ever comes next like our grandfathers & there grandfathers before them did zivjela NASA HRVATSKA
Hello guys,
They told me a lot of people on this site turned against the BBB. Which is a pity because we’re an honest organization. But you made your point, we will stop our actions now.
But please let me you where the name BBB stands for. As you’ve all probably read about us, most of us are not married and live with the parents. So back in 1992 we had a meeting to find a name for our club: our idea was “The Zagreb Virgins”. But then something terrible happened. Dinamo Zagreb played against Ajax so we went to Amsterdam. One of our members was pulled inside a whorehouse, a woman took all his Kuna’s and practically raped him. The guys is still in shock and it has been 20 years by now. And if that was not enough, we couldn’t use the name “The Zagreb Virgins” anymore.
But then I had an idea. The TV series “Married With Children” was very popular back then. The son of Al Bundy, Bud Bundy, was in his 20s and lived in the basement at his parents’ home (like most of us do). So I had this brilliant idea: our name would be BBB: the BUD BUNDY BROTHERHOOD.
So guys, I can assure you that the BBB (BUD BUNDY BROTHERHOOD) won’t do anything at the game against Spain. Most of us are grounded by our parents anyway.
Thank you for your time.
Come on LAKnat!
That’s the 3rd time uv posted that.
Keep it fresh man!
come on guys. .
you know nothing about this tourney .
i wanna slap Platini use my P coz let 24 teams
and we play ridiculous system with the best 3rd
you know what this meaning. .
open your eyes ->
failed in group stage = 4th place on the group
failed in knock out 16th = 3rd place on the group
quarter final will count by 1st or 2nd on the group
don’t fucking up until quarter final. .
this is the true round, and decent to celebrate a goal with emotional ^^ v
here we come to judgement from Prof.LAknat about our national team performance recently. the means of professor football so deeply, because he can make our national team become a world cup champions with his tactic.
GK Subasic…….. 4.0/10
what was that! he didn’t jump to reach the ball and let czech got 1-2 score. next game i will deploy Lov Kalinic
LB Strinic…………7.0/10
he can control left side both defense area and offense well
DF Corluka………7.0/10
he managed defense well and don’t blame him for the goal, we know the goal keeper really garbage
DF Vida……………7.0/10
he managed defense well and don’t blame him for penalty, stubborn ignorance Cacic didn’t use subs to boost our attacking and let czech got their chance
LB Srna……………7.5/10
really impressed for his tireless, he dribbles ball well also conduct our attacking rythms astonishingly
DMF Badelj……….6.5/10
seems ok somehow and he had contibute for our first goal
MDF Modric………7.0/10
dribble well and versatility as a midfilder
MDF Rakitic………7.5/10
absoutely menace for czech team, he just need a good forward to be his partner for goal scoring. stupid stubborn (SS) Cacic needs to replace mandzukic with a dynamite kramaric
AMF Perisic……….7.0/10
composure to control ball in czech area, really cool for his first goal, but he got tired early after 70 minutes (he really loss his pace), SS Cacic should have subbed him and we still managed the attacking well.
AMF Brozovic……..6.5/10
he can keep the ball well, contribute for passing when we managed attack. if he has dribble technique like the God of Halilovic surely czech defense got scattered and easy to make a goal from assist
FW Mandzukic…….4.0/10
sigh ): Bad
SS Cacic should have subbed him much earlier
SS Cacic needs to be slapped to realize him for his fool!
if some players look so tired = subbed him
if some players totally garbage = subbed him
this player vividly garbage!!
At this point with all the “hoologan” suker mamic nonsense I couldnt give a rats ass who we play… I just care that we play in a knockout match for the first time since ’08.
Having watched the so called heavyweights nine if them look unbeatable. Italy…Germany…France…England no fear of any of them. Spain is the only team that has played better than Croatia so far and we get to play them next. Actually Slovakia is a team I would want to avoid even with a fully fit Modric.
If the players don’t take it one game at a time and look ahead to see what’s on offer with a win, they can see that their is an easier route with a win against Spain, so for me they must go for a win against Spain.
Of course Spain has the advantage because a draw is good enough for them, so it will not be easy.
My two cents, and maybe I’m a masochist but I’d rather take on the heavies (Italy Germany France).
I don’t like being favourites. I think Hrvati take on the role of the underdog much better. Plus we have some interesting storylines with those big 3.
hard to say but at least we can role out some other guys and formation like a friendly? or would this not happen
i guess we have to see if we are down a point or not first