EDUARDO HAS OFFICIALLY RETURNED!
Eduardo made his 2009 Arsenal debut in magnificent fashion. After rehabilitating his leg for the past year, Arsene Wenger gave ‘Dudu’ the chance to prove his fitness and ability against Cardiff City in the 4th Round of the FA Cup. Earlier in the week, Eduardo helped the ‘Vatreni’ pull out a 2-1 win in Bucharest with a game-winning assist to fellow Premiership player, Niko Kranjčar. Today, it was ALL Eduardo.
Half-way through the first, Eduardo put a ball down the wing to a running Carlos Vela, who in return flicked the ball right back to Eduardo’s head for his first goal of 2009.
If you can make Arsene Wenger smile; you know you did well.
CELEBRATING AFTER A YEAR’S LONG ANGUISH
Eduardo went back to work early in the second half as he was pushed in the back while shielding the ball in the penalty box. With Arsenal already up 2-0, it was a no-brainer that teammates would let ‘Dudu’ take the kick from the penalty spot- which he converted for his second goal of the day.
Notice Eduardo hugs his physiotherapist after he converts the penalty.
All together, Eduardo had a remarkable day netting a double in his return. He almost made it a hat trick seconds before being subbed out in the 67th as he missed his spot going one-on-one with the Cardiff keeper from an angle. Eduardo returns with a bang and Arsenal win 4-0. The Gunners will face Sunderland this Saturday in the Premiership. Will Eduardo start?
EDUARDO BEING MOBBED BY TEAMMATES
Germany
The Hamburg Croatian attack of Ivica Olić and Mladen Petrić was cut in half this weekend as Mladen has been suspended for last weekend’s “fluke” yellow card. The absence of Mladen made way for the return of Ivica Olić. Ivica sat out last weekend serving the last of a three game suspension. The 29 year old striker had a few chances in the first half; but an overall quiet night. He did manage to assist on a long diagonal pass to Guerrero for the second goal. Hamburg came through with a 2-0 victory over Arminia which is good for second in the Bundesliga behind Josip Šimunić and Hertha Berlin.
Dino Drpić started for the third straight game for Karlsruhe in a 0-0 draw away to Koln. Dino played well in 90 minutes of work in front of 48,000 fans.
Josip Šimunić once again was solid for Berlin, leading Hertha to the top of the Bundesliga table with a 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich.Marko Babić was also in action, started and played the entire 90 minutes in front of 74,444 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
Schalke playmaker, Ivan Rakitić once again failed to impress in 71 minutes for Schalke in a 2-1 away defeat to VfL Bochum.
Photo: www.bundesliga.de/
Next Match: 2/20 Borussia Dortmund at Schalke 04, 2/21 Hertha Berlin at VfL Wolfsburg, 2/22 Hamburger SV at Bayer Leverkusen, and UEFA CUP 2-18 Hamburg at NEC
England
Luka Modrić, Vedran Ćorluka and the rest of Tottenham had the week off as the Premiership was brushed aside to catch up with the FA Cup. However, the lone Premiership game that took place had Niko Kranjčar and his Portsmouth club take on Manchester City.
Niko played the full 90 in Portsmouth’s 2-0 win and seems to be at full strength after being banged up earlier in the year. He has not hit the scoresheet for Pompey in awhile. Niko’s due, right?
France
Ivan Klasnić scored a beauty off a one-two cut back breakaway for Nantes away to Valenciennes. It was Ivan’s third goal of the season in 87 minutes of work.
Klasnić goal, interview in English/French…
Dario Simić played the full 90 in Monaco’s 1-0 home defeat to powerhouse Marseille, while Nikola Pokrivač managed to get another yellow card in the 56th minute before being subbed out by fellow Croat Jerko Leko in the 74th minute. All three players failed to impress in yet another home defeat for Monaco. For those of you that chose Pokrivač or Leko instead of Jurić in our last poll: What were you thinking?
Vedran Runje returned for Lens at the weekend helping his first place team knock off Clermont 2-1 on a last second strike by Maoulida in the 94th minute. Vedran played the entire 90 minutes and helped extend Lens to a five point lead over 2nd place Metz. Next Monday’s encounter away to Metz should be a doozy.
Next Match: 2/21 Caen at FC Nantes, 2/22 AS Monaco at Lille, 2/23 Lens at FC Metz
Italy
Ivan Jurić and his Genoa side had a three goal lead on Fiorentina with only 30 minutes left to play. Final result: 3-3. So what happened? Adrian Mutu is what happened. The Romanian international, who did not play against Croatia last week tore up the Genoa defense in mere minutes scoring at will. Jurić played the entire game and received his usual yellow card. He’s slowly earning a Šimunić-like reputation receiving a caution almost every game.
Who said Ukraine is a better side than Romania? Mutu leads his team and makes everyone around him better. Would you like to change your mind now?
Netherlands
Danijel Pranjić played 80 minutes in a 1-1 draw at NEC Nijmegen. Heerenveen missed out on jumping over PSV Eindhoven into fourth place in the Eredivisie table after losing two crucial points in the draw. Danijel had a header go over the bar in the first half and a shot go wide late in the second half.
NEC-Heerenveen
Next Match: Saturday 2/21 Willem II Tilburg at SC Heerenveen
Ukraine
Darijo Srna and his Shakhtar Donetsk side have not played a real game in weeks, but this Thursday Srna and his Ukranian crew will take on his compatriots at Tottenham Hotspur. The Uefa Cup clash in Donetsk will showcase three Croatian starting internationals on the field at the same time: Darijo Srna, Luka Modrić and Vedran Ćorluka. (I’m fairly sure Ćorluka can play even though he played Uefa Cup matches with Manchester City earlier in the campaign. Anyone know for sure?)
The game can be seen live in the U.S. on Thursday, February 19th at 11:45 AM (Pacific) on Setanta Sports USA.
~Denis Svirčić, reporting from Lakerville
~Ante Kvartuč, reporting from the Poljud- still no tickets!
Olic and Petric had another good night for Hamburg tonight in a 3-0 victory over NEC. They combined beautifully, especially for the final goal.
I hate to sound like a broken record but why don’t they ever reproduce these kind of performances for the NT? It can’t be because the Bundesliga is not that good a league as has been suggested elsewhere on this site. I saw them almost single handedly tear apart Aston Villa, who are no small fish. There must be a reason… Could it be that our style of play just not suit them as well as the german game does?
Croat
no, I wasn’t being sarcastic. No need to apologize. I enjoyed the videos along with many of our viewers.
thanks!
Oh,sorry about spamming links like that im just trying to show how Eduarrdo is happy back
Croatiafan:)
German Bild gave Babic a four out of 6. With a 1 being the best grade. But who are Bild to judge?
Simunic is a horse! Without a doubt our best defender and one of the world’s best.
Croat
Thanks for the links… you can post them any time.
looks like eduardo hasnt missed a step. it is gonna be great to have him back in the lineup for wc qualifiers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQhWgd7eIQ
Watch this interview by Eduardo after the match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7n9FxSvzhQ
Does anyone know how Babic played against Bayern? If he is now playing 90 minutes there must be a case for him to come back to the Croatia squad.
Re: Denis
You can’t base the arguement for which TEAM is better than another based on the performance of ONE player. Thats all i’ll say on that. You’ll see what Ukraine and Belarus are like in couple of months then we’ll talk. Togo have Adebayor but the rest of the team is crud! As i said about Romania – they are solid and workmanlike and will negate even high class opposition, but they depend too much on Mutu. They have no playmaker these days and lack depth. Ukraine have a more rounded talented squad of players.
Eduardo, Klasnic, Kranjcar need to keep this up as this is the form we need them to be in for Croatia. Eduardo put in a brave positive display. i don’t think enough can be said about his attitude and importance to us. We desperately need him back in our starting eleven. Am really happy about Klasnic. More goals and we have to take him back. He’s proven at the highest level. This comes before Mandzukic and Kalinic. Kalinic never plays for us. He should go back to Under 21’s where he is needed. I am anti Klasnic when he is in whinging lazy mood, but pro Klasnic when he plays like he should be playing which is normally achieved with just some effort. Am looking forward to Srna V Modric this week.
Yeah, Mutu is a beast. He wasn’t very impressive at the Euro ’08 though. His absence in the Romania game is the reason for my C grade.
It’s great to see Eduardo back and right back into his old scoring ways.
Corluka is cuptied and can’t play any games for tottenham in the UEFA cup