AC Milan did what they were supposed to Wednesday night by defeating RB Salzburg 4-0. That would open up a scenario where if Dinamo Zagreb could grab a win at Stamford Bridge, they would backdoor qualify for a Europa League knockout round berth in February.
And it looked promising right off the bat as Bruno Petković put Dinamo up inside 10 minutes with a header right in front of the goal. However, Chelsea showed their dominance with two 1st half goals while rattling off six shots on target and 57% ball possession. It would have been pretty cool to see Dinamo beat Chelsea twice in the same campaign but it wasn’t meant to be.
What’s up with Dinamo starting hot in Champions League and then fizzling out? They beat Chelsea 1-0 in their opener this year just as they did in 2019, when they opened up their campaign with a 4-0 win over Atalanta at Maksimir. It would have been completely respectable to finish third in this group, but you can’t expect to do that only grabbing one point from Salzburg.
It was fun while it lasted. Dinamo got a memorable win in Zagreb against mighty Chelsea. Now, back to the HNL they go.
Decent performance by Dinamo in this year’s CL. Apart from the 4 – 0 drubbing by AC Milan in Zagreb they competed well in all the other matches. They should have done better against Salzburg at home and a win there might have seen them come third in the group and a place in EL? Still, the club bank account will receive a boost of around 25 million Euros.
As far as our national team players are concerned, we have learned a few things.
On recent form Livakovic has cemented his spot as our number 1. We simply do not have anyone better at the moment.
Josip Sutalo has been playing hot and cold. Some matches superb others prone to mistakes. Even in today’s match, he was out of position with Chelsea’s first goal (too far forward) and tried sliding to intercept a through ball and his contact with the ball directed it into the path of the Chelsea player who got the better of Peric and cut the ball back for Sterling to score. With the second Chelsea goal, Sutalo tried to block a cross from the right and again made contact with the ball which went back across the penalty box to an unmarked Chelsea player who scored. He was unlucky in both instances, but this bad luck has been following him for a while now. Tough decision for Dalic to make as to who partners Gvardiol in the middle of our defence.
Bruno Pekovic has improved in recent weeks and despite being lazy at times is still our best central forward and he should be included in the starting 11.
Orsic was disappointing today and cannot play in 352 and 442 formations. He was nowhere to be seen today especially in the first half. According to HRT commentators he has not scored a goal in six weeks. I think he will be on the bench and lucky to get 10 – 15 minutes as a sub.
Misic, I thought had a good match today, but I still reckon that Jakic playing for Eintracht will get the nod over him for the WC. Ivanusec did a lot of running but was ineffective in the attacking third and will also miss out on the WC.
OT- but the way I see it, Croatia needs to finish first in the World Cup group to have a decent shot at going far. (Assuming Brazil wins their group). 2nd in the group, have to go through Spain and Brazil to get to semis most likely
Same situation as last World Cup.
Regarding the posts about Musa.
First, his goal over the weekend was in a blowout vs a weak team coming off the bench. Second, his goal today early on was in another blowout in a 6-1 match.
Let’s not get too excited. Yes, let’s give him a look for the Euro qualifying but he’s not a regular yet at Benefica and take into consideration how he got these goals the past few days.
These are still Champions League and Portuguese league goals.
Also, the point is that he’s actually been scoring steady for a year now (dating back to last season when he was one of the league leaders in arguably the sixth best league in the World).
The only reason he’s not playing for us is because he was sick during his June callup, and his transition to Benfica ruined his shot for the September callups.
He’s seemingly still in great form.
We need a header like musa just did with the service sosa can provide….sigh
Hear Dalic, hear!
I know Budimir brings some value to the team… but it doesn’t make sense to me if we don’t bring along scoring strikers like Musa and Colak (Ljubicic’s exclusion is still understandable)… unless Budimir manages to pop in a couple of goals in Osasuna’s last 3 games before the WC (against Celta Vigo, Barcelona and Fuentes which is a 6th-tier side participating in the Spanish Cup).
Musa should definitely be given a chunk of time during euro qualifying
I wish they would have at least kept him on the list like maminjo said
You did call the streak
Least their is hope for the future
Is there no way of making any amendments?
I’m so proud of our fans!!!!
All you hear all match is “volim Dinamooooo!!!!”
Livakovic with a pretty good match. He made some excellent saves, and he commanded his box pretty well. He probably could have made the save on the second goal, and I wonder how much of that one was Moharrami being in his way. If this is the start of a new chapter for Livakovic, then it’s good news for the HNS and fans. To me, Dinamo looked good throughout the match, with some encouraging performances from Petkovic, Misic, and Livakovic.
In other news Petar Musa has a goal for Benfica
Gvardiol and co are off to the next round
I was afraid of this.
We idiotically left him off the list, and now if he goes on a scoring streak…we won’t be able to call him up.
https://www.goalstube.online/2022/11/maccabi-haifa-benfica.html?m=m7
A beautiful header. Dalic is an idiot.
Something worth noting… unlike Colak who has played in 2 CL group stages (with Malmo and Rangers), Musa has got his first goal in the CL tournament. Granted it’s against Maccabi Haifa who has nothing to play for, but Musa has had much less CL minutes compared to Colak.
I believe Colak will start to play a bigger role for Benfica, especially once their first choice striker Goncalo Ramos gets sold.
Yeah Maminjo, you commented the other day along the lines of “now watch Musa go on a scoring streak”.
Like you said, Portuguese league is damn legit and I believe Benfica has been unbeaten since day 1 of pre-season, I consider them a top 10 side in Europe atm.
Growl… it’s on Dalic if our center forwards play like crap during the WC.
So barring injuries, there is no way we can call up Musa now?
Maybe the Vida injury will allow it…but then again, I guess that’s why we have the expanded list to begin with.
Šutalo looks good, Petko looks alright. Other than that 🤷🏻♂️
Šutalo almost scored there. Mendy with a good save.
Does anyone have a link for the match?
https://totalsportek.to/soccer/chelsea-dinamo-zagreb/979772
Hvala!!!