What an absolute stress-free week of football from our beloved Cardiac Croatians. Two wins in two games. +6 goal differential. Can’t ask for much more.
It’s exactly what Modrić and the boys needed to set up the 2nd half of qualifiers in October and November. If my math serves me right, Croatia can technically book their EURO 2024 ticket with two wins in October over Turkey and Wales. That’s why this week’s wins over Latvia and Armenia were so important. REST. REST. REST.
When’s the last time the Vatreni went into the last game of qualifying already locked in for the tournament? It just doesn’t happen. 2006 World Cup qualifying and EURO 2008 are the only campaigns Croatia have ever controlled start to finish.
Positives from this week:
-6 points from games Croatia “should” be winning without trouble
-2 clean sheets (Croatia have only conceded once in 4 matches this campaign)
-the Gvardiol-Šutalo partnership in full effect
-the rise of Ivanušec! He definitely made the most of his 2 starts this week in checkers.
-Kramarić will always come up with goals when you play him outside of the #9 role. I will go to my grave saying that. (props to Petko for showing up this week)
-Petko is going to Petko! He either lays a ‘goose egg’ or scores a Euro-goal when he plays. What an amazing free kick goal versus Latvia. The #9 position will be his to lose going into EURO 2024 next summer…with or without Livaja.
-Livaković made some great saves this week. His confidence is growing.
-Kovačić got to rest all week.
Negatives from this week:
-Vatreni should have scored 2-3 goals against Armenia. We need to learn how to put the easy ones in the back of the net. I’m looking at you Perišić! (he had a bad game against Armenia but a great game versus Latvia…so we can let it slide)
-Why is Barišić starting? Why? We know his dad has everyone on speed dial but come on. He’s a bench player at best.
-Stanišić getting burned down the line on more than one occasion. He will surely look at the tape after the match and learn from his mistakes but Armenia was good on the counter all day.
-We still have not had a proper look at Musa. If Petković keeps playing the way he is, it might take us another year to see Musa in action.
Slovenia leads their H group with 13 points after six games I see. Maybe we can have a Slovenia Croatia final.
Only 1 point separates first and fourth place in their group and Slovenia has the hardest remaining schedule.
Slovenia played San Marino twice, and the rest of their group have only played San Marino once (so that’s 3 points you can give to their competitors).
They’ll still need to secure a big home win against Finland (in Slovenia) and somehow score some points on the road in Denmark and Kazakhstan (who are also very close to qualifying themselves).
Most of these qualifying groups are going to go down to the wire. Will be interesting these next two months.
I see, better than it looks. Devils in the details. Seems like it is pretty tight in Croatia’s group with Latvia the apparent weak link, bringing up the rear, but Croatia has played one less game and still in lead.
Still, with Kek back, looks like SLO is at the very least winning the weaker opponents. I see that Mlakar moved on from Hajduk and is in, Pisa, Italy.
Kek is a good coach. He fixed that team.
Kazakhstan won’t qualify. They have the toughest path by far. They play at Denmark, at Finland and at Slovenia. For Slovenia, it was big that Denmark scored late against Finland. Now Slovenia is a point ahead of Finland, so if they beat Finland at home in the next game, and beat Kazakhstan at home in the last game, they can still lose to Denmark and maybe even drop points against Northern Ireland and still qualify. But if Slovenia don’t beat Finland, Finland will likely qualify because their last three games are much easier than Slovenia’s.
Mile, Thanks for going the extra MILE to enlighten me! Got it!
Will gvardiol be suspended in next match? I remember he has another yellow in qualifier.
Look at turkey squad now..the market value of their squad is similar to us.
I hope livakovic gets to play in his club.otherwise he will rusty against turkey
Yes, this was his second yellow. Looks like that bum (and Ajax captain) Josip Sutalo will have to lead the backline.
Don’t worry. Turkey sucks no matter what Transfermarkt says.
Nope he’s good.
It’s only if you receive your 3rd yellow that you sit out the next game
Atta boy MB giving maminjo some of his own medicine.👍🏻
Grrrrrrr!
I’ll get you next time Gadget! Next tiiiiime!
loool
🙂
Watched the highlights and OMG our D needs some training in shooting. I understand their job is to defend but in modern soccer the D is in the offense so much more. I think our D men could have had 3 goals alone if they had any idea of how to take a shot. Stanisic , easy goal just hit it. All in all, I see the guys having fun and playing loose and that’s all we need to do. Guys off the bench are just as good as the starters so we are far deeper than any team in our group and we should be.
perfect example above of someone who never played a sport in their life.
Hey Dave- send some of your sports prowess , would be interesting to see.
I will when I make a comment that is dumb.
Be polite. Nothing dumb about his comment and no need to insult anyone.
Thanks, Dave. Just what i thought. Mixed Grill the world is full of these Dave’s . The judge of all who is very little control over their tiny lives full of things they can’t control. It’s very common. It’s call DS . Dave Syndrome. It’s very sad and lonely.
Guys, any links for game replay? Want to watch again stress free…lots of good things in that one…26 shot attempts, 9 corners….everything but the ball in the back of the net 4 or 5 times.
Lets take care of business in October and qualify then and there. Last two games then can go with youngsters.
Links are in Spanish from TUDN but here you go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jykDU4vr0fc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJcJzTbZiYE
October will be tough with the home fixture against Turkey in Osijek, followed by the away match in Wales three days later. We need to hope that all our players will be injury free and in good form. I expect us to beat Turkey at home, however Wales will be tough away.
The Welsh will be fresher since they do not have a competitive match on the day, we play Turkey. They have a friendly match and will rest all their key players for the match against us which in reality they will need to win to have any chance of qualifying for the EURO.
Tonight, our U21 side open their qualifying away to Faroe’s. Looking forward to seeing how our guys will cope playing on the artificial pitch. Time for Simic and Beljo to impress Dalic. I think Biuk is also playing so it will be interesting to see if he has improved while playing in the MLS.
I think playing Armenia in Yerevan is tougher than playing Wales in Cardiff.
I don’t expect anything less than a win there.
I don’t agree, OK Armenia won 4 – 2 in Cardiff but I still reckon that Wales is a tougher opponent. They are very physical and hard to break down. Last night against Armenia we created quite a few chances which was not the case against Wales in Split when they scored a flukey goal in the 93 minute to get a 1 – 1 draw.
We created tons of chances in the first half against Wales (we had almost 70% possession in that game). We scored on one, but then we stopped playing and started to coast in the second half.
It was a discipline issue, whereas in the game against Armenia, we didn’t take the foot off the gas the entire game.
Wales only create a couple of chances (including that hail Mary they scored on) and still had no other shots on target, despite Croatia taking it easier on them than they did Armenia.
If we show up in Cardiff like we did in Yerevan yesterday, Wales will lose. We have the depth to keep going all game long. If guys are tired, make subs earlier, but just keep pushing for more goals.
I think we will do well against Wales. Needing three points, Wales will push forward. We have a tall back line and should easily deal with the Wales aerial attack, making them extremely vulnerable on the counter. Wildcard is the Wales left winger, Daniel James, who runs like he has a rocket up his ass.
perisic is not a world class ..
you are so delusional
Why?? He is easily our second best player, he assisted many of the goals against Latvia and creates goal scoring opportunities even if he doesn’t score. So why do you say that Ivan??
Perisic is world class. End of.
Perisic has had an inconsistent club career (most of which wasn’t his fault to be fair), and I doubt many outside of Croatia would rate him as ‘world class’ whatever that means.
However when he’s on form for the repka, he single handedly transforms the whole team’s performance and dynamic in a way that nobody else has done including Modric. In that sense he’s easily our second best player when he’s on form, I agree. It doesn’t really matter whether he’s genuinely world class or not – that’s irrelevant given what Perisic means to us. He has the X Factor.
I missed most of the second half but I didn’t think Stanisic was all that bad in the first. His yellow card was BS. In fact I was surprised how fast he was in backtracking on the Armenian winger who dropped too easily on a fair shoulder to shoulder challenge.
I would take Stanisic over Juranovic all day every day at RB.
I did manage to catch the last 15
minutes of the second half. Majer was awful. Poor touches, lazy and not trying to challenge anyone with the ball. Perisic is a beast…as is Broz. Tireless running from both. Needs to rub off on players like Majer. Petko had a good two games…first one obviously better than today. Maybe he’s a typical late bloomer. Ivanusec has been a pleasant surprise.
Lastly, another invisible showing for Musa. Yes, he was only on for 5-10 minutes. But he wasn’t noticeable in either game. Still too early to make a judgement on him.
I hope one of Beljo, Simic, Vidovic or Ljubicic catch fire and get a shot. We do need some fresh options upfront.
Stanišić was good. Him getting “burned” is an overstatement. What’s more important is how he recovered. Most defenders are far too slow or incapable to do what he did. He’s extremely fast and knows how to use his body physically. That yellow was a flop from the Armenian because he knew he couldn’t get away from Stanišić.
I agree that Majer hasn’t been good. Ivanušec should be ahead of him.
Musa barely played but did well to get open for Perišić’s cross (and he almost scored). There was another run where he could’ve done better, but those were the only two plays to judge him on since he got subbed in late. In the near term, he’ll probably be a decent joker off the bench the same way he is used at Benfica.
We’ve played so well this qualifying campaign despite the last minute goal to Wales on the first match day. Teams like Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and Poland have lost valuable points. We have only conceded one goal. We’ve scored 11 goals in 6 matches since the World Cup run and conceded three. The last minute goal to Wales was extremely unlucky and a fluke. I can assure you we are playing well above previous qualifying groups. Besides the Argentina and Netherlands matches, we haven’t conceded more than one goal and we won against the Dutch. Teams like Germany, Italy, and Poland are declining. The only teams that look unstoppable right now is Portugal and France. That game in Turkey next month will pretty much guarantee first place. Turkey will definitely seek a draw. The Wales match will be difficult too.
Agreed. I would probably get rid of the minus beside the A but that’s OK.
Like I posted earlier, 6 points with a 6 goal differential I’ll take it.
Today was a hostile environment. They’re passionate as hell. We got lucky a bit, but all great teams find a way to get through the muck.
All in all, a wonderful weekend and we can all take it easy for a month.
Were were unlucky today if anything.