The Euro 2024 ‘Group of Death’ is upon us and Croatia will be part of the madness!
The Vatreni will open up against Spain in a UEFA Nations League Final rematch on June 15th in Berlin. This will be a high-profile affair with Luka Modrić facing off against many of his Real Madrid teammates…maybe for the last time.
Then Croatia play Albania in Hamburg before wrapping up the group against reigning Euro champions, Italy. It’s nearly the same group Croatia played in Euro 2012; swapping Albania for Ireland this time around. Both Spain and Italy made the Final in 2012.
However, I would say both those sides are not nearly as good in 2024 as they were 12 years ago, especially Italy. More to come later on the group from the Croatiansports team, but all in all, a great group! All eyes will be on the Spain and Italy matches. We will finally see what this rising Albania side is all about. And remember, the best four 3rd-place nations will make the Round of 16. The good news, 2nd place from our group (Group B) will face the runner-up from Group A which is pretty watered down with Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Switzerland. Not the worst group to have to start facing off against in the knockout round. I know I’m getting ahead of myself but it’s always fun to look ahead a bit.
Every game will be exciting in Group B. 100% the Group of Death! It’s going to be a fun tournament the way the draw shaped things today.
Group B grade: A- (for entertainment value)
I love this group, when we win the group of death, no one will challenge are dominance.
I also love beating the Wops and I hate that Spain has our number but things will change.
I hate the small country mentality of path of least resistance. If we want to always be considered a part of the footballs elite we must embrace every challenge.
Lastly, we always step it up for big games, I rather play Spain 🇪🇸 first then watch are guys sleep 💤 against Albania 🇦🇱
Spain barely has our number.
Our losses to them were all controversial with ref bias and key players being out.
Despite this, the games all go down to the wire and are decided by injury time or extra time winners (or PKs)
I agree 💯 same issue with France 🇫🇷 ref bias and match fixing but I digress.
We can only hope and pray 🙏 it’s left on the field with no VAR or corrupt refereeing.
Anyone else frequent transfermarkt? Do the values listed there carry much weight? Look at a guy like Marco pasalic and they have him at $350K lol. Although they haven’t updated HNL since June
They don’t.
Things change too quickly.
They had Gvardiol at like 20 million, then I blinked and it went up to like 90 million.
Hrvatska nece ici dalje
Nazalost zadnja utakmica je protiv Italije a znamo vec kako ve to izgledat namjestano da prodju spanjolska I italija
Croatia 1-1 Spain
Croatia 2-2 Albania
Croatia 1-0 Italy
Albania will only get one point in this group at best.
Germany ‘24 and North America ‘26 are back to back home field advantages for us.
Dalic has to know we need young hungry legs after 18 months of intensive football from our boys.
I love a tough group as it will bring focus. We need to over power Spain, outplay Italy and dominate Albania.
The real challenge will be well before the group play.
Dalic has to finally focus on youth as the most effective strategy to shape the squad call ups.
There are big contract transfers on the line for our young guns.
They go at Spain and there will major interest for these young men.
Budimir is built for Spain match.
Dalic may have to shift lineups for each match. Keep the teams guessing and the squad fresh.
Spain 0 – 0 Croatia
Italy 0 – 1 Croatia
Albania 0 – 3 Croatia
Ohh fuck sake, im so sick of spain
Does anyone understand the knockout qualification third place teams can qualify?
Don’t think this is gonna be our year, but still excited. If we don’t perform well this euros, I’m positive we’ll have another golden generation soon enough🇭🇷
Wouldn’t want it any other way
Let’s get some pay back
Let’s take light work against our Albanian friends and let’s topple the defending champions
Let’s give modric and perisic the perfect send off
This is horrible. I’m always optimistic, but with the way our roster currently is, a declining Luka and no striker, we’re looking at 1 point here 🙁
The dude was a 9/10 in the last game. Go to sleep Franjo.
We’ll get out of this group. I’m not worried.
I am not sure if I have seen anyone post this yet, so my apologies if its duplicated….but Italy have never in history defeated Croatia! I predict that we finish top of this group!
We lost to Italy when we were FIFA members in the 40’s.
Maybe so, but it was a friendly and 80 years ago…so competitively Italy has never beaten Croatia. Even if you take historical records out of the picture (because in reality they mean little), Croatia is all the better team across the board. Spain will be tricky and I think we will tie Spain and beat both Albania and Italy.
Tie win tie for us!
Albania steals points from Italy in first match!
Jebi ga
It is what it is
I’m guess both Spain and dalic will be ok playing for the tie in the first match
We always play well in our second match, so I assume that we’ll lock those three points against Albania.
That’s what’s most important because you need a win to secure enough points for the knockout.
The Spain and Italy games will be fun.
Euro2012 rematch.
Do you believe this shit, each team has same goal, take 3 points against Albania then draw against each other, it’s going to come down to goal differential!
I’m sick of playing these Španjolci!
Hopefully Perisic heals up and can repeat his 2016 antics against them.
Ajmo dečki!
Bog i Hrvati
Too bad they screwed us over at Euro2020 and blocked Perišić from playing that game because of that fake COVID positive test they made him take three times (because he refused to vaccinate).
Now we lost Perišić again, but they also lost Gavi. So that evens out.
We have Gvardiol this time (something we didn’t have at Nations League) so it should be a good game.
What’s the progress on Perisic recovery??
Not many work harder then him and he was absolutely fit when it happened
Sure it’s not a 20 year old like the others but still hoping we can get him back somehow
He might actually be recovered for the tournament (assuming he continues to progress as he has been), but he won’t be in form though.
In all probability we’ll need 4 points to progress to the knockout stage, even 3 points might be enough with a good goal difference?
Second match is against Albania which is good. Need to win this comfortably before playing Italy.
We play well against Italy always . Albanians are pit bulls so I predict they upset someone even with a tie. It will be a good battle
Italy struggles with teams in “South Eastern” Europe.
They almost always lose or draw with former Yugo teams, and lose points to teams like Bulgaria too. Not sure why.
At the same time, they also play well against Spain.
Croatia, Italy and Spain playing well against one another may result in a lot of draws.
That could be bad news for the third placed team in the group, as too many points will be lost between them.
I think that a lot of ties could actually benefit the 3rd place team. It’s completely possible that the 3rd place team has 5 points. That’s almost guaranteed advancement.
Ya that’s true.
I guess this assumes that nobody screws up and ties Albania.
Group of death for sure
Still too 3 make it unlike 2012
Let’s hope for vengeance.
Albania will be tricky as they can maybe take points but we shall see
Anyone else hear the porn noises?? Apparently it was there live not just the live stream
Lolol
Tough draw. 8 9 and 10 ranked countries. But then we play best when challenged so maybe a good thing.
Group B – Spain, Croatia, Albania and Italy.
Tough group, had no luck with pot 4.
Also bad news that we play Spain first.
Group B with Spain and Albania and opening against Spain. Not bad so far as long as we avoid Italy from Pot 4 ?
FYI for those in Canada, the draw is on a couple of the TSN channels.
Would much rather have Scorpions as the musical guest than this shit.
I’m guessing we get Belgium (the only pot A team we haven’t played in Euro group play), Hungary and playoff group A.
Ramon Mierez was asked if he would like to play for the Croatian NT:
“Actually I would. That’s something I would like. I recently discussed this with my wife. Today, our family has more links with Croatia than with Argentina.”
His agent doing good work.
Taking notes from the agents of Robert Ljubičić and Rijeka’s Ivanović, by setting up self-promoting interviews about how they’re ready to play for Croatia.
How about trying to score some goals in the HNL first?
Who’s making the trip to Germany? Seen the Vatreni live (only) three times. Have a cousin in Berlin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mIm4bPBWE
After the last two victories, we remain the top 10 again.
https://www.croatiaweek.com/latest-fifa-rankings-croatia-in-top-10/?fbclid=IwAR2kD_FedRfGt8e6vqRkL34_HnOoMts_21yqj7PH5X1hSitWLH0vbj_8ip4
Pot 1: Let’s avoid France, Portugal and England.
Pot 2: I don’t wanna see Denmark and Turkey as we have played them recently.
Pot 4: Obviously don’t want Italy. Also hope to avoid Serbia, because it’s going to be a tense affair and as Mate1 pointed out, the risk of fan violence is high. If we draw Serbia, I guess we’ll be playing them in the first game ?
***
@Maminjo
https://croatiansports.com/will-vlasic-learn-to-harness-this-power-internationally/#comments/501786
That’s cool… come to think of it Majer’s best goal to date is that lovely winner vs Denmark in the NL.
On another note for the Women’s Nations League. If the Croatian Women beat Romania and if Finland beats Slovakia they may qualify.
I think it may be their first major tournament that they would have qualified for. Not sure if I got that right.
I was thinking but nevermind it would mean that they clinch the second spot to hold on to league status.
My bad.
I was thinking promotion I mean.
Very Cool, Ana Markovic and Crew, hope you are right. Like tennis, it is a different sort of game when the women play it, but easy on my eyes, win or lose.
Our ladies by beating Slovakia 2 – 0 in NL B have avoided a drop to NL C. One away match left against Romania.
We should never want the host country. We all know refs and uefa are crooked for revenue. So no Germany. I want Spain so we can celebrate in front of them and get some vengeance from the Nations League Final loss. Other two teams-Romania and one of the playoff winners.
I agree on your point given that it’s in Germany.
Spain would be a difficult pairing but it would nice for Croatia to beat them.
This is true, but this disadvantage would apply to the other three teams as well.
I also like Spain too. I think our games against them are always fun.
Nations League rematch would be good, but this time we have Gvardiol back (but also lose Perisic). They’re without Gavi.
Would be a close match.
I don’t want to be drawn with Serbia, but only because I don’t want the media to put us at their level.
The media will bring up the war, and they will paint us as having some major football rivalry with Serbia (which isn’t true at all).
Serbia is far below us in football, and are rarely even in tournaments…which is exactly why we don’t have a rivalry with them. We never played them in a tournament, and they’re always like 20+ places below us in the rankings.
It’s like saying that Argentina and Bolivia have a massive football rivalry. I mean, I’m sure the fans and people don’t like each other…but let’s face it, nobody is going to assume there is much football-related rivalry there.
In reality, Croatia’s real football rivalries are with several of the elite teams in the World.
In recent years, we’ve had some good battles with good teams in tournaments like Argentina, England, Spain, etc.
We beat Argentina 3-0 in World Cup 2018, and they got us back 0-3 the next World Cup. We knocked out England for Euro2008, they got us back in 2010, then we got them bad in World Cup 2018 semis. Same with Spain in the previous two Euros and recent Nations League.
When the fans from teams like Spain, England, Germany, Belgium, etc…draw Croatia in their group, they would probably prefer another team as they know they will have to deal with a familiar rival.
They won’t feel any such way when drawing Serbia. Drawing Serbia is the same as drawing Poland, Ukraine, Romania, etc. Decent team, but a win over them is expected.
Give me the serbs. You are correct in everything how the media will position the match. I am for having some of their heads smashed the night before the game and the day of the game.
Exactly. This isn’t about the footballing side of the equation. This is about us just having the opportunity to kick their ass on a world stage. That’s always must see TV.
I think the last team Serbs want to face is Albania.
There might be some scuffles in a Cro vs Serb match… but an Albania vs Serbia match has brawl potential.
Veliko Kosovo vs Serbia, understandable.
I’d be curious how UEFA handle that. They can’t be paired in qualifying group together but that goes out the window in group stage. They would have to manage it one way or another or that has a potential to turn into a massive shit show
They’ll just fix it so it doesn’t happen
The last team I would want us to play is Serbia, and I would hope they feel the same way about us. If that happens you should be aware that fights will ensue with the ultras and both teams will get kicked out of the tournament. That is not good for either side, and would create a very shitty environment to the game and less for either side to look forward to.
This isn’t fear of us losing so much as the prospect of being penalized by Fifa in a very handed way.
For people to ask for that kind of match up to me is questionable??
I don’t doubt that our team could win such a game I just doubt that the match would last long enough for any result to happen.
Simunic stopping the breakaway will go down in history!
The final score would be settled by 9 players on each team with 1 yellow card a piece.
Well apparently they also want Croatia in their group…so Ante you may get your wish.
I still think it’s not good for either side. Especially if violence can be avoided.
There is an article in Jutarnji List.
Yeah, Croatia may win, but we risk, half of the team might be ineligible to play the next game.
The players would be OK. In the stadium with the fans would be the issue. But players all get along. They hang and party with each other at their clubs or if they live near each other. We have our guys who go to Beograd and enjoy their nightlife.
I’m still fuming mad about the Serbs shutting the lights off in Belgrade during the 2000 Euro Qualifiers.
We were all over them, up 1-0 in the first half, with a relentless attack, then the lights go out for hours.
We come back with zero momentum, the Serbs on a stupid set piece late in the game, win on Predrags header.
Conspiracies are real 🤪
Huh? That game was a 0-0 draw
the lights did go off…..the serbs did not win the game. Dont know what you were watching.
Wrong game youngin
I’m still curious as to what game he is remembering.
The first game was scoreless (despite us deserving a win in that game).
But I vividly recall the second game (which ended 2-2) and there was no set piece goal from Mijatovic there.
Are the Pot 4 playoff games conducted post the draw? Seems strange, kind of like American football with the wildcard playoffs I assume?
We are getting England. So it was said so it shall be.
Germany.
I want that opening game.
My wish Germany, Albania and winner from playoff Path C (Georgia or Greece).
Winners and runners up from each group progress to the round of 16.
Best 4 third placed teams also progress to the knockout.
From a group like this surely, we would get at worst 3 – 4 points and progress as one of the best 3rd placed teams.