Dinamo Zagreb took care of business Tuesday night in Zagreb as they defeated Zalgiris Vilnius 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League second round qualifying match. After a scoreless first half, Algerian international El Arabi Soudani broke the deadlock in the 58th minute before Domagoj Antolic doubled the lead 11 minutes later. The return leg is next Tuesday in Lithuania.
Dinamo Goals
After their 2-1 SuperCup loss to Rijeka last week, Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb start their Champions League campaign Tuesday night against Lithuanian side Zalgiris Vilnius. The first leg takes place at Maksimir with a 2:45PM (ET) in a match that should see Dinamo show their dominance against lesser European competition.
Dinamo is expected to move forward from this second qualifying round affair, where they would be seeded once again in the third round. Last year, they failed to make it to the Champions League group stage, losing to Austria Vienna in the playoff round, before being bounced to Europa League. In the Europa League group stage, Dinamo only managed one point in a draw against PSV Eindhoven. The group also consisted of Ludogorec Razgrad and Chornomorets.
What are we to expect of Dinamo this year in European play? And will Rijeka given the Plavi a run for their money in Croatia?
Doesn’t matter if Sassuolo is a small city. Stadium still holds around 24000. The bonus for them is the ownership. They have deep pockets. Very deep pockets.
I guess something to smile about post WC:
jadan i mali i nemocan Hajduk
Dinamo International team
RNK Jugo
and my beloved Rijeka, ponos Kvarnera
all won their first European games
Nikola Vlasic already jumping into success 🙂
Whoa. Rijeka and RNK Split with some late goals to win their matches.
Hajduk wins 2-0 on the road.
Nikola Vlašić (the younger brother of Blanka Vlašić) scored. He’s supposed to be a very good winger prospect.
Rijeka tied 0-0 with Ferencavos
Hajduk winning 1-0 at half-time against Dundalk in the Europa Cup opening matchup. (Caktas 9′)
@Milan
Sassuolo may have a couple other foreigners, but I doubt they paid anything for them.
This is a small club. The city of Sassuolo is like a smaller version of Varaždin. I can’t see them filling out their squad with additional signings to the amount they signed Vrsaljko to. The entire city would have to attend all of Sassuolo’s home games just to cover Vrsaljko’s cost.
There has to be more to this than Sassuolo suddenly wanting to be a competitor.
World Cup of basketball up next in Spain beginning on August 30.
Looks like Dontaye Draper has been dropped and Oliver Lafayette is going to be awarded Croatian citizenship in the interest of sport.
http://www.fiba.com/basketballworldcup/2014/news/CRO-Plenty-of-continuity-as-Croatia-prepare-for-tra
Haha, and we give Eduardo and Sammir such a hard time. This is way more comical. Gotta love it.
How many words is this guy going to learn before he scores his first two points for us?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Lafayette
Although, for some reason, I have a good feeling about this basketball tournament. They will play with much more pride than our prima donna soccer team did in Brazil.
Still can’t believe that so many in form players can show up and play so poorly.
….and now that you look back at our group, it pretty much sucked – one of the worst in the tournament.
Correct. I had no clue Kroos was at the end of his deal.
Also, looks like Pletikosa will announce he will no longer play for the repka. Which is odd, because I thought he wasn’t playing for the repka based on what I saw in goal during the World Cup.
Does this mean Pletikosa has found a new lady friend to spend time with?????/
@ Ziva i know what you are trying to say, but,
you can not compare the moves of Lalana and Kroos, Kroos had one year left it was get something or let him walk for free.
Modric will play his deep CM role.
This is where he is best for Madrid and maybe for Hrvatska.
He has gotten stronger on defense since joining Los Blancos.
Deep center is where he can shift the field with his creative vision. He needs to practice with Kroos and James and then transfer that to Rakitic and Kovacic.
La liga will be better then ever.
Can’t wait to see Bayern get the smack down in the knock out stages of the CL.
I can’t believe we moved up one to 17 ahhahah I’d say most teams from 20-30 could beat us right now….
I’ll go back to what I said a week ago……. There were nine qualifying groups in Europe for the WC and seven of the nine had teams that went undefeated in qualifying. So, not really hard considering there is all sorts of talk of how difficult it is.
Any european teams going to Malaysia for training. I know some have gone there in the past. I wonder if any teams were on that flight.
3 CONCACAF teams in the top 20!
And then there’s Canada…
A solid ranking of #118!
Just behind Central African Republic, whoever the hell they are…
Kroos is bit over-rated to me.
James is pure class.
Best player in the tourney!
Thought that after 2 games.
Very unselfish player, great vision, beautiful left foot and an eye for goal.
Modric will be fine.
Ultimately, Ziva’s wishes need to be granted. It would be in everyone’s best interest for Croatia to crash and burn and for Suker, Mamic and Kovac to leave the national team.
The new Euro qualification allocations makes it nearly impossible, here’s hoping both Norway and Bulgaria do a job on us.
Dudu nema toliko lijepo mišljenje o izborniku kao igraču, cijeni mu borbenost, ali ističe još nešto. “Bio je i glumac. Igrao je na to uklizavanje, viku i dernjavu, nosio štitnike za zube, plakao na himnu i osvajao narod na patetičan način”, zaključio je Dudu u ovom intervjuu.
What part of that is Eduardo claiming to be pathetic?
at least croatia is still ahead of mexico in the rankings by one spot 🙂
Well I know what airline I’m never flying again.
English players are grossly overvalued in the Premiership and Modric place in the 11 is safe. He can play alongside Kroos or Alonso. Alonso wont play all the games plus Kroos can play in the hole. Pep chased Kroos away and its unbelievable. Kroos is a ready made replacement for Schwini and that baldy is going to let him walk for half the money they paid for Javi Martinez who he misuses at CB. Pep is the result of a golden generation at Barca and ayone with the IQ over 100 would have won trophies there.
thing about this for a second…….Adam Lallana cost Liverpool about $8 or $9 million more than Kroos cost Real Madrid.
Kroos’s contract runs out in 2015, and they never reached an agreement regarding an extension. So Bayern are forced to sell, instead of letting him go for free.
Get Blanka on the team.
http://www.croatiantimes.com/news/Sports/2014-07-17/35990/Blanka_Vlasic_delights_with_her_football_juggling_skills
I still don’t get the Kroos move. Why would Bayern sell him unless Kroos expressed a desire to leave. I guess Bayern have someone else in the pipeline and made some nice money on his deal.
No one is pumped up for Rijeka’s game today???
Kantrida featured on the UEFA website earlier today.
Toni kroos has joined Real Madrid, plus James Rodriquez is comming too.
So Modric might lose his spot in the starting 11. The competition will be fierce in midfield.
Well it appears I did lose my bet. Cro (17th) finished ahead of BiH (19th) in the rankings. Damn, didn’t miss it by much.
Not that it matters, or anyone should give a shit about this, but here are the newly updated FIFA rankings
http://m.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html
http://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/eduardo-nisam-otisao-zbog-mamica-a-kovac-je-imao-svoje-favorite-s-kojima-je-razgovarao-na-njemackom/760487.aspx
Da Silva with some comments in the media today. Nothing too bad at Kovac other than a slight accusation of favoritism. Not bad, I was hoping we would get into a war or words. It makes it that much more entertaining in this dead period.
Nothing short of assassination would get Suker & Mamic off their power positions.
Let’s start a assassins for hire fund, to get these clowns wacked.
I will kick it off. I donate €200
Anyone else?
This would be their fifth foreign player on the roster and nothing fishy going on here. Sassuolo FC were promoted to first division play so it looks like they want to stay in Serie A and will invest more money in players abroad. Watch them spend more on others.
As shown with Mateo, Itailian clubs have no problem throwing good money on transfer fees but in the end our players sit on the bench. Wish he ended up somewhere else.
World Cup of basketball up next in Spain beginning on August 30.
Looks like Dontaye Draper has been dropped and Oliver Lafayette is going to be awarded Croatian citizenship in the interest of sport.
http://www.fiba.com/basketballworldcup/2014/news/CRO-Plenty-of-continuity-as-Croatia-prepare-for-tra
Haha, and we give Eduardo and Sammir such a hard time. This is way more comical. Gotta love it.
How many words is this guy going to learn before he scores his first two points for us?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Lafayette
Although, for some reason, I have a good feeling about this basketball tournament. They will play with much more pride than our prima donna soccer team did in Brazil.
Still can’t believe that so many in form players can show up and play so poorly.
….and now that you look back at our group, it pretty much sucked – one of the worst in the tournament.
he’s going to juve in a couple of seasons.
Yeah, somethin’ fishy is goin’ on with that transfer…..
Very true……that is a big expense for a small club.
So…what’s this agreement between Vrsaljko, Sussuolo, and Juventus?
They don’t mention at all that Juventus has any ownership of Vrsaljko. They mention that Juventus and Sussuolo have a good relationship, and they hint that this is supposed to be a stop gap between his path to Juventus (yet not technically a loan deal). But if Sassuolo has full ownership of Vrsaljko, where did they suddenly get 7.5 million Euros to make such a purchase? They’re a very small club and they don’t even have any foreign players, lol.
@Ivica – Yeah, I was a bit surprised by that, but, given our track record with players in Italy, it’s probably better that he starts for an up and coming team than sits on the bench at Juventus.
Did Vrsaljko really just transfer to Sassuolo?
@Armada,
When in Istra I only drink Favorit, it’s great buddy!!!
My uncle is not too fond of it but I love it!
Also when in HRV outside Istra I drink Ozujsko
cause I know we dont get it up here in the GTA
@Armada
karlovacko good beer— but up here in Oakville it use to always be Ozujsko at the beer store (which i love). No longer being sold and only Karlovacko to pick from.
If we were to miss out on Euro 2016, it would just be Kovač that pays the price.
I’ve never heard of a federation president being pushed out after a missed tournament. One was killed (Serbia’s) and others have stepped down on their own accord (ie. Italy), but let’s face it, Šuker would never step down.
He’s there for as long as Mamić is there, or if someone decides to ‘pull a Serbia’ and kill him. With all this negative press, I’m kind of surprised nobody had threatened Mamić already.
@jm…….hmmmm. Your comments make me raise the following question. What needs to happen for Puppet Suker to be removed/fired/resignation???? Would not qualifying for Euro 2016 do that?
as i think about it, cro should be a guarantee to qualify, but there is danger. they could easily mess something up, be forced into a 3 rd place playoff game, and be forced to coin toss to get inoth t etournament
Someone needs to show Kranjcar a DVD of the game………
http://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/niko-kranjcar-nitko-me-ne-moze-uvjeriti-da-je-meksiko-bolji-od-nas/760349.aspx
There are a few constants in life, but Mexico making it into the knockout stages of the World Cup are one of them. In case you are wondering, other constants are:
– taxes
– Pedophila, homosexuality and drugs at Zrce
– STDs following Corluka
– diaspora hrvati butchering the language
–
http://www.croatiantimes.com/news/General_News/2014-07-16/35983/Rijeka_to_open_concession_contract_for_Tito%27s_yacht_Galeb
Rijeka proper doesn’t have any big time beers that I know of…. but Crikvenicko Svijetlo, from Crikvenica is one of the better Croatian beers I’ve had… Istra has some beer that has some Italian sounding name (surprised?) that suppose to be good…. Favorit is probably just as bad as Hajduk 1911…
for the big time beers, I’ve always gone with Karlovacko
Armada is jelly that Rijeka doesn’t have its own beer. They only have Rijeka brand chinotto.
I’d rather drink stale cat piss than that nonsense…
http://hajduk.hr/vijest/vrhunsko-pils-pivo–hajduk-1911–dostupno-na-brojnim-lokacijama/4798
Cico, let’s get started! Need to get drunk before the first match!
@ Bobby V,
Thanks man
Just like all the other groups, the top 2 teams qualify from Serbia’s group, and the 3rd place team will either qualify directly or go to a playoff against another 3rd place team.
Serbia and the other 4 teams will all play France, but, just as a friendly.
@ Bobby V
So Group I with Serbia, Only one team from that group advances or the top two teams from the cetinicks group automatically qualify?
Group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team among all groups directly qualify for the finals
Remaining eight third-placed teams advance to the play-offs
As some groups contain six teams and some five, matches against the sixth-placed team in each group are not included in this ranking.
As a result, a total of eight matches played by each team count toward the purpose of the third-placed ranking table.
Other very interesting facts you might not know about:
For television rights reasons, England, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands shall be drawn into groups of 6 teams.
For political reasons, Azerbaijan and Armenia (due to disputed status of Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as Spain and Gibraltar (due to disputed status of Gibraltar) shall not be drawn in the same group.
Unlike the previous UEFA qualifying tournament, Russia and Georgia have agreed to play each other if they are drawn together.
France are partnered with the five-team Group I, which enable the 2016 tournament hosts to play friendlies against these countries on their ‘spare’ dates. These friendlies do not count in the qualifying group standings.
question for anyone please….I know the top two teams from each group automatically qualifies for the Euro 2016. But what about Serbia’s group? It is Serbia, Portugal, Denmark, Armenia, and Denmark. They have one less team in their group than the rest of the group, probably because France fits the missing link in that team but they qualify automatically. So does only one team from Serbia’s group qualify?? can somebody please explain, and is their a playoff round for the third team with the most points??? Anyone, please….hvala
maybe he will have a croat born german son that can one day coach us
I can already imagine the jock sniffers from Bjezigrad lining up to meet him.
http://www.croatiaweek.com/world-cup-winning-german-to-celebrate-at-home-in-croatia/
I’ll be going over to his home to help celebrate.
@Ziva
Probably.
Sure, after he gets his citizenship in five years.
Just caught the highlights of this game on Youtube.
Interesting to see that Luis Ibanez is back with Dinamo after his loan spell in Argentina.
Maybe he’s our answer at LB after all, now that a South American spot has been opened on the repka with the departure of Eduardo.
After watching Jelavic and Olic play, I don’t blame Eduardo for being upset. Let’s face it, Jelavic is another player that has essentially zero value left. We know Olic is finished. I’m not sure what Eduardo would have brought to the table, but he certainly would have been a decent option on the left wing. Maybe they could have put Olic up top as a striker and Eduardo on the wing.
These are just options that I’m looking back on. It’s easy to pick on Eduardo for being selfish, but he does have some legitimate claims besides being Brazilian. Jelavic and Olic are garbage on the ball, although Olic has value for his work ethic.
For what he did in the Euro 08 qualifiers and to come back from such a gruesome injury to try his best to produce, you have to give him respect. All the best to Eduardo and he will be missed. Certainly better than some of the attacking clowns that are currently on the national team. (Jelavic & Kalinic)
@poglavnik………..I think he just wanted some attention and got caught up in the moment. Selfish act whent he rest of the team was already in the tunnel going down to the locker room.
I wouldn’t say Vrsaljko was impressive. We are so accustomed to shit performances at left back, that we are going to give too much praise for average performances. I thought Vrsaljko was OK against Brazil, Cameroon you throw out because they imploded and he was unimpressive against Mexico. What did we actually do to praise him.
@Ziva
He gave himself up for his beliefs.
They took him down cuz of what he stood for.
I’m sticking with “martyr.”
“Eduardo is a decent dude, all the best to him. Vukojevic coming out and attacking Kovac for not playing Eduardo against Brazil because his friends and family were in attendance is naive and childish, no one is bigger than the team.”
Sounds like Eduardo was probably bitter about this and the players took notice. In other words, Eduardo was probably acting “bigger than the team,” and his fellow bench-warmer Vuki wanted to chime in.
Eduardo is a decent dude, all the best to him. Vukojevic coming out and attacking Kovac for not playing Eduardo against Brazil because his friends and family were in attendance is naive and childish, no one is bigger than the team.
Srna hasn’t got many years left and Vrsaljko was impressive…but there was one moment v Mexico where Pletikosa wanted to do a quick release and Vrsaljko turned his back to the play, the whole team looked at him and were shouting at him, it looked like he was anxious and didn’t want to receive the ball, I can’t trust a man who can’t trust himself. Hopefully we don’t lose anymore players, it’s just Vukojevic and Eduardo who have left right? Pletikosa won’t get another game but he’s been a great servant, hindsight is a beautiful thing but we all would’ve started him v Brazil.
@ Ziva Istina
You were at the games right? What’s your take on the Cameroon game?
While it was 11 v 11, one moment of intelligence brought us a nice goal but apart from that we were useless and couldn’t control the middle. This didn’t surprise me as we saw the same against Australia and Mali.
Niko Kovac coming out and saying the Cameroon game was an excellent performance is offensive to me.
It’s a real shame, I never once imagined I would be anti-Kovac back when he first got appointed, just goes to show you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Bring back Ciro!
Mamic nedaj se. Samo naprid.
Is anyone surprised that Eduardo has retired from international play?
I am changing names- my cousin was promoted-
Hopefully Slaven Belupo next.
I was with 30 BBB tonight and nobody watched the game – very sad.
Dobro za je Dinamo da Mamić napusti klub!
Najbolji klub u Medimurskoj zupaniji je Donjo kraljevec!
Franjo jako dobro igra nogomet !
Pozdrav iz Ludbrega !
Suspension Joey is up there with Butthurt Vuki as my favorite nickname on the site. Well played Ziva.
@Ziva
Well said.
@poglavnik……..martyr is too strong of a word.
I’d say you are correct………the average person in Cro doesn’t care one way or the other for Suspension Joey or what took place with him. They do have much more to worry about.
Most diaspora hrvati don’t have a clue about the situation in Cro. They are aware of who is in power, but have no clue what they represent other than if they were commie or non-commie prior to 1991. I think all the politicians or people in positions of power over in Cro are pieces of shit, regardless of political affiliation. They are all opportunists and looking out for themselves and what they can get. The country is garbage because of the people who have led the country since the late 90s. Anyone who is young, educated and has any skills should leave the country.
cant belive eduardo is gone never played in a big game 2second behide suker
Poor Joey…
He’s a martyr in my eyes!
Ziva,
I just got back from Croatia a week ago. People had good things to say about the site as well as bad.
Spoke to some middle-up people in city government. They said don’t you dare touch the Simunic “Za Dom Spremni” stuff with a 10-foot pole. No one in Croatia is supporting him and no one cares about that stuff more.
Diaspora Croatians have no idea what they’re talking about…blah blah….”they don’t know how bad it really is over here, yet they (diaspora) never forget to chime in with their 2 cents”…
What say you?
(I also met a nice fellow from Cleveland that had only good things to say about you)
in other breaking nogomet news
Dinamo holding back European powers Zalgiris to a scoreless draw. Currently at the half.
I live a “boli me … kurac” lifestyle – think more people should implement that lifestyle
Some interesting articles published lately on Rakitic’s potential role with Barcelona
Bleacher Report:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2129930-how-ivan-rakitic-and-luis-suarez-can-form-a-deadly-understanding-at-barcelona#articles/2129930-how-ivan-rakitic-and-luis-suarez-can-form-a-deadly-understanding-at-barcelona
Holiga article:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2122690-how-will-ivan-rakitic-fit-into-barcelona#articles/2122690-how-will-ivan-rakitic-fit-into-barcelona
As the article mentions, rakitic plays much more direct and risky football than the typical barcelona style
80% pass completion rate vs typical 90% for barca midfielder
but completes many more long balls, key passes, and shots from outside the box
Big Joe eats, breathes and skrews the Za Dom Spremni lifestyle.
Friends,
I have a question for you.
Do you think there was any part, even a small part, of Suspension Joey that was happy the repka was three games and out at the World Cup? I’m sure he has to feel that way just a bit because none of his teammates came out to defend and the savez didn’t do anything for him. I’m sure that didn’t sit well with Suspension Joey.
What say you????
Look at this, Suspension Joey is still playing. Well, good for him.
Same goes for Siroki obviously, but unlikely (for both teams perhaps).
Really couldn’t care less about Dinamo.
I’d like to see Zrinjski do well though and maybe get into Europa League.
@rihanna thug @rihannaski I agree, there are many Croatian children who already know how to speak Croatian who need a home and family, putting your big mental face on newspapers showing your new exotic trendy pet all proud like, is showing bad judgement and bad priorities, sort of that celeb illness.
http://www.sttheresasorphanage.org/currentNeeds.html
http://www.sos-dsh.hr/en/
As long as they vote in former communists nothing will change. Also we need to start humping over there. Our population is to old and thus we have a pension economy. Or we can adopt the Za Dom Spremni lifestyle and annex Bosnia.
http://www.croatiantimes.com/news/Sports/2014-07-15/35976/Ivan_Rakitic_supports_Niko_Kovac
@ Ziva
There are always jobs for world class mathematicians in Croatia. We have a bunch of them in our academia, which is why we are strong in this department. And they make significant contributions to the field of Mathematics.
It’s the average “Joe” that lacks job opportunities. And those that are not distinguished in their fields.
The only thing that makes up for this World Cup is doing something in the Euro 2016. “Doing something” meaning making the quarterfinals or better. We will have to wait two years for this.
Dinamo making the CL wouldn’t atone for Repka’s failure. I knew that, I was just exaggerating as I am a Dinamo fan.
🙂
But seriously, I would like to see all Croatian teams make it into European competition (CL and Europa league). It is a positive note after the the debacle at the WC.
Dinamo making the CL doesn’t atone for the repka. It would be good news if you are a Dinamo fan, but I don’t think the rest of the country takes any pride in that, unless they are dinamo fans.
@ Croatia vs. Antwerp
0% Dinamo make it to the CL Group Stage unless they get a gift for each qualifying round.
and how long before they leave Cro for better paying jobs throughout the world.
Croatia’s mathematics team received top honors at the World’s Math Oympiad competition. Continuing to demonstrate Croatia’s ability to produce world class Mathmeticians. This to me is just as awesome as success at the World Cup.
http://www.croatiaweek.com/croatia-shines-at-maths-olympiad-in-cape-town/
Dinamo need to make it the Champions League in order to atone for Croatia’s failure at the World Cup!
Allways a big fan of Eddie, loved to watch him play.
Good bye and thanks to one of the brazilian-born hrvati. He came up with some big goals for the repka. Now, if we can get rid of the other brazilian-born hrvat as well.
Decent letter. I love his comments about Mamic and the negative influence he has over the repka, but things will never change.
Don’t get me started on European women please. Half the time they are sleeping with each other.
@trendy croat
Typical of European women these days. They have lost all connection to their people. We aren’t a rich country. We should be like Jewish people and help our own first.
Did Samir get sighned anywhere after the world cup?
There’s already hundreds of Croatian kids without families and homes, the smart Croatian celeb has to go all the way to africa to find a pet? and think it’s some sort of great accomplishment to be proud of? I think she needs some medication.
pff, croatian actresses and celebs, even black ppl in the usa don’t care about their own people, in steps the trendy look at my new pet croatian actress. lol, no wonder the croatian population has gone down 15,000 since just last year. croatian actresses and celebs are so altruistic and giving. lol trendy bitch, would make more sense to have gotten a mexican chihuahua like normal hollywood actresses.
@ Anona
Dinamo – Partizan would be fun…. but unless they ban away fans, it will get ugly and will probably lead to the savez getting fined for some nonsense our fans get into (whether we start it or not)
I mean, all you pugeri out there…help me out here
why didn’t Dinamo load up the roster for the European campaign? Does ‘Arrogant Mamic’ think they can make a deep run in the Groups at the EL or CL with guys like Cop, Brozovic, Brodic, Simunic and Leko leading the way?!?! Like that lineup is all fine and great if you want to take home another Prva League title, but my prediction?
Dinamo barely get pass this team and bow out next round. Then Mamic & Co. can concentrate on big #10.
stupid croatian wannabe trendy bitch. http://www.jutarnji.hr/barbara-bilic–moja-sestra-prvi-put-je-u-hrvatskoj-probala-jaje-i-vidjela-kompjuter/1206253/
Should Dinamo advance, and should Partizan advance, they could potentially meet in the 3rd round.
http://www.goal.com/hr/news/6955/svjetsko-prvenstvo-2014/2014/07/15/4960371/eduardov-zbogom-uz-poruku-mamiću?ICID=HP_HN_1
Eduardo resignation.
Don’t expect much from this current Dinamo Zagreb squad. I will be surprised if they get past Zalgiris Vilnius.Even if Dinamo Zagreb do make the champions league it will be good for them to get the money ,but they will get smashed in the group stage like 6:0 etc.