The new Champions League format is much better. Take a look at who Dinamo Zagreb will be playing in the new “League Phase” of the revamped Champions League; which was surely done to combat any progression from a European “Super League”. Dinamo will play 8 different clubs on 8 different nights. Four matches in Zagreb. Four matches away.
🇩🇪Borussia Dortmund
🇩🇪Bayern Munich
🇮🇹AC Milan
🏴Arsenal
🏴Celtic
🇦🇹RB Salzburg
🇫🇷Monaco
🇸🇰Slovan Bratislava
Roko simic to Cardiff city…
Step down?
Step sideways? If he gets to play, then it’s worth it.
He’s being loaned out Kortijk in the Belgian League for this season, but Cardiff own his rights and can trigger him coming to Cardiff as early as January if they want.
Not sure why RB Salzburg sold him. Maybe he wanted to move.
His transfer value took a dump in the past season. It’s possible Cardiff pays more as well.
He’s apparently going to bulk up in Belgium then transfer over to Cardiff and become their first choice striker next year.
Yup. He’s going to Belgium. Santini’s old club. Actually, Santini had a couple good years there then fizzled out.
Hope Simic does well
Gabriel Vidovic got extended at Bayern and loaned to Mainz for this season!
Hopefully he has play time stipulations in his loan, I never like players getting moved the first week of the year during developmental parts of their careers…
MUST READ
ANGE JUST SAID LUKA VUSKOVIC IS IN HIS PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR !!!!!!!
https://x.com/AlasdairGold/status/1829510837046063497
“No, and I don’t think we’re in the same position. I think Radu is a different proposition for us, and certainly with Archie coming into the group and Djed probably not being in the plans initially but now in, I think we’re in a much different position than we were last year. We’ve got Ben Davies as well, obviously, who can play at centre back or at left back. But again, I mean, that’s the discipline of it. Yeah, we can go out and sign another centre back, but if the right player’s not there, I’m not going to do it. It’s as simple as that. I’m not, I never have, I never will. For me, it’s about getting the right people in and there wasn’t an opportunity for us to bring in someone who I thought was going to add to our group, so we don’t do it. We’ve got Ashley Phillips, we’ve got young Luka Vuskovic available next year. Two young centre-backs. I don’t want to block their pathway by doing something now. It might look from the outside like we’ve got another player, but if that player is not going to be suitable to what we’re doing and not going fit in, why would I bring them in and potentially block the path for somebody else.”
Oh ok.lol
ako pratite HRV košarku, onda budi spreman da će i tako HRV klupski nogomet
ok relax ha ha
Release breath
Pjaca called up (for the injured Erlic)
x.com/HNS_CFF/status/1829454380417900756
Interesting replacing a CB with a winger. Obviously it was a bonehead decision to not have any in form wingers called up. Especially after the Euros demonstrated how dumb that strategy was. Barring further injuries, I doubt Dalić will start Pjaca because it would raise questions as to why he was omitted in the first place.
He is probably planning on starting Krama at LW and Majer at RW regardless.
Both are in good form…but then again, both were in good form leading up to the Euros and we had no width or speed with these two technically-gifted (but slow) midfielders playing on our wings.
I still expect to see them starting on the wings, but at least now we have a strong, fast and physical winger in Pjaca to throw in there in case we need it.
It shouldn’t have come down to a standby callup, and we really should have Marco Pasalic in there (at least as a backup) for RW, to give us equal width and speed, especially since we don’t have a single callup who gives us that on the right side either at RW or RB (especially with the injuries we have there right now).
The gap between Dinamo and Rijeka/ Hajduk/ Osijek is widening. I’m happy that Dinamo as a Croatian club has got into the Champions League, but the downside is this is just going to increase the gulf between Dinamo and anyone else in the HNL. Dinamo’s B team is strong enough this year to likely come second in the HNL, if it played separately.
The mighty Slovenia now has more teams (2) through in all European competitions than Croatia (1) – just think about that for a moment. Tiny Wales or Northern Ireland now have as many teams though in European competitions as Croatia. We can keep on making excuses for Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek for as long as we want, but other countries less than half our population size and with the same bad infrastructure can manage to get clubs through into Europe, so the excuses don’t stack up.
Nothing is ever going to change given the current state of the HNL until one of Hajduk/ Rijeka/ Osijek or another project (HNK Vukovar, anyone?) is bought out by a mega-rich owner with money to burn, and the willingness to stick around for a 5 year project whilst putting up with massive hostility from a fanbase at any tiny failing along the way. Good luck on that one…
People need to stay calm.
At the beginning of last season, Dinamo was collapsing and we were babbling about it impacting our National Team.
Now (one year later) Dinamo is playing well, is stacked with several future NT players, and are in the Champions League.
Rijeka and Osijek had a bad start to the year (like Dinamo last year) but are both on the right path.
Rijeka is finally developing NT players, and Osijek is looking like a sustainable club who actually has a high end prospect forward for us as well. This was unthinkable 10+ years ago.
Hajduk were on the right path with Jakobusic and all these U19 prospects that went to the Youth League finals, but I think they made a mistake letting go of Jakobusic. Kalinic is not looking like a good hire (which was probably pretty predictable) so they’ll probably go sideways for a few years, unless he surprises us.
Dinamo has a strong squad, and I think they can win a few matches.
Rijeka getting thumped 5 – 0 by Olimpija, just shows how bad HNL is. Apart from Dinamo our clubs cannot compete in Europe even against teams coming from countries with a lower UEFA coefficient. No money, lack of infrastructure, poor coaching, slow tempo matches and too many poor-quality foreigners are killing the HNL.
Dinamo making it to the CL is a double edged sword for the HNL. Its great for Dinamo’s bank account, and the best possible exposure for our upcoming Croatian stars, however it will also cement Dinamo’s dominance in the HNL for the next decade. Not only will they get a huge paycheck from UEFA, they will also be able to increase the price tag of their best players in the transfer market. I’m so happy that players like Baturina and Sucic stuck around.
HNL isn’t bad.
Rijeka lost some key players from last season, and there were some internal issues resulting in team president (Mišković) strangely firing their coach in the middle of qualification. Team is in shambles to start the year, and it isn’t a reflection on how they were in the past year (and they will likely recover). Dinamo was in a similar position at the beginning of last year, and they’re fine now.
Osijek were ridiculously unlucky in their qualifications.
They also made a critical financial decision to sell Mierez now, or lose him for nothing in a year.
This obviously hurt them, but financially it made sense.
Hajduk are just being Hajduk and choking during qualifications for Europe is just what they do. They were on the right path these past couple of years, but then the parasites started to show up to get in on the fun.
I wish they didn’t hire Kalinić, and I wish Jakobušić was still around… But what can you do.
I see 4 winnable games, and a chance to maybe upset a big club. My bias is obvious, but this Dinamo squad is better than the past few years and I’m excited to see what they can do.
So 0w-6L-2D?
Also bravo to Rijeka today for getting stomped on.