Ante and Markus breakdown:
-Croatia’s 1st opponent at Euro: Spain
-who Dalić should start at left wing, right wing, and striker
-the depth Croatia currently has off the bench at Euro 2024
Euro 2024 Preview Show w/ Ante & Markus
By 38 Comments
CROATIANSPORTS.COM
Uniting Croatian Fans Around The World
Since we’re on the topic of Hockey, I also don’t buy into Canada’s team garbage.
The National team is Canada’s team, the blurring of the lines for club teams is nonsense.
I stand with Calgary and want the 10 time first round lottery picking Choklers to be blown back to Alberta.
Anyone who thinks other wise is probably the guy who says he a Leaf and Habs fan.
For our Diaspora brothers outside of Canada, it’s likened to someone say they support Dinamo and Hajduk, lol.
The constant F00LS that bring their Leaf Nation hatred into a football discussion is laughable. You see them trolling the hockey forums everyday, yet here we are.
I’m assuming the same anti-leaf proponents would most likely suffer from TDS (Trump-Derangement-Syndrome), talk about renting free space in someone’s psyche.
First and foremost, Leaf’s fans are very aware of the curse and how much their team is no where near from winning the cup.
Leaf fans amongst themselves will acknowledge everything wrong with their team but when talking to the opposition we change our tune.
We might boast or brag every year that we will win the cup but that is only false hope and bravado.
Every fan since the dawn of time should have this same stance, it’s called rivalry. How many Split fans have said, this is their year, especially this year?
What makes Leaf fans the best is the unending loyalty, similar to the Cubs or Red Sox as opposed to band wagon followers.
Lastly, I always found the Leaf Haters stance quite moronic, since as fans we all cheer and hope that this is our year for whatever team we support.
Crazy twisted logic.
Leafs fans r world class donkeys
Haha I’m busting them.
What makes most of the world hate England football and Canada hate the leafs is the media;)
Only some fans are obnoxious as any fan base
Anyways forget England and their nonsense
If we play them in the quarters, it will be epic
Ajmo!!
Comment from down below. You know it’s close to tournament time only when we get fake luka injury reports…
Could Stanišić play lb or just not enough of a strong left leg? I feel he could take care of carvajal
I thought he was supposed to be able to play most positions too, some said even midfield
My prediction, is that Croatia will dominate and win this tournament. Prophecy will unfold before our eyes.
Croatia is a top 5 contender.
France, England, Spain, Portugal, Croatia are probably the top 5 teams right now.
Germany and Netherlands are the next tier, with Italy right behind them.
I don’t believe anyone outside these 8 teams above have the capability to win the tournament.
I think there are some dark horse countries that can go far (like Turkey) but not actually go all the way to win it.
my English buddy says “its coming home” and he’s 100% convinced England are (in his words) BY FAR the best team.
We might see an England vs Croatia quarterfinal.
Looks like the most likely outcome.
Love those Toronto maple leaf fans er I mean English. They should be embarrassed at the money and resources and not winning it. I would keep my mouth shut if I were them. Celebrate if and when you finally do. But they should be embarrassed when little broke ass Croatia does more than them basically in our 30 years.
That is the problem with most English fans, they think they are the best, are overconfident and cocky, and then shit the bed. Same with the Leaf fans. All the Leaf fans in my office are the same. They always say they are one of the best teams in the league. I have to listen to them every year say they’re better than Boston. THEN WHY ARE YOU ALWAY BEHIND THEM IN THE STANDINGS AND LOSE TO THEM IN THE PLAYOFFS EVERY TIME!! It’s just maddening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-JKKSrRjaQ
here is a great link to espn fc’s analysis of the croatia – portugal friendly
It consists of about 5% talking about croatia, 45% talking about concerns on portugal and 50% talking about ronaldo
the bit of Croatia chatter is the usual lazy analyst commentary that this is a modric team and nothing is new, how can they still be performing.
meanwhile since world cup 2018, I think modric and brozovic might still be the only remaining starters.. perisic too but he arguably won’t be starting anymore
since the 2022 world cup, i think the only remaining starters are modric, brozovic, kovacic, gvardiol, livakovic…and maybe kramaric
as i always say though… most of these analysts are former players who generally weren’t pro footballers for their intelligence
first of all…who even watches or cares what ESPN says about anyone in the soccer world? I had to lookup who Ale Moreno and the other guys are…give me a break, anyone can make general comments and make some sense although its obvious they see Croatia as Modric?!?!
I’ve never watched that panel before, nor do I think they have any relevance to anyone outside of the US.
Still disrespectful and terrible journalism.
Deserves to be called out, especially since they’re on a big station like ESPN.
Utterly shocking how uninformed the guy was. Does he not follow any of the top 4 leagues in Europe? Haha
Ironically I watched a replay of the ESPN bit on YouTube and kept fast forwarding it until they actually talked about our beloved checkers…alas it never happened and left me a bit perplexed but the disrespect is common place for us?
Somehow they even managed to mention England more then us…shocking!!
I’ve given up watching any pregame, half time, etc. shows for any sport. Just put the game on when it’s on and that’s it. It is sometimes good for a laugh, like at the last World Cup, when the TSN homers said Perisic couldn’t crack the Canadian lineup. Just hilarious how ignorant these guys can be. And Croatia gets no respect. Every tournament. When I see them grouped with teams like Hungary and Switzerland in terms of their chances in the tournament, I just laugh. We will never be respected. And for some reason, every time Serbia is in a tournament, it’s “watch out for them”. Watched a bit of their game against Sweden. Although they won, they were dominated and they have holes all over their defense. I will be surprised if England doesn’t score at least three on them on Sunday, especially after losing to Iceland.
To be fair, Croatia is always considered the “dark horse” which is intended to be a compliment…
But after three medals in six years, it gets a bit disrespectful that teams which regularly get bounced in the first round (like Germany) or not actually qualify for tournaments (like Italy and Holland) are always put ahead of us.
Serbia, on the other hand, only get that “dark horse” label because they’re our neighbors and people still associate their football with ours (even though it’s nothing alike).
I’m a Canadian. Still the best day when we laid the smack down in Canada. Man I wish it was a couple more.
Lol Perisic couldn’t crack their line up
Perisic before knee surgery on crutches has a chance of starting for them
They wish they had a warrior with talent like a Perisic
Who cares guys , let them disrespect us
They just jealous cause we have more love, passion and talent from basically scraps of population and the rest need to bring in Africans
Let them hate all they want
Wait till young sucic gives lays down a world class showing on the international stage
Premiership? What is this, Scotland?
Agreed that Budimir looked slow and had a lazy press. Petko is just as slow and looks lazy as well but has far better chemistry with Mod/Broz/Kram and very good link up play.
I always thought that Budimir should get the start but have changed my mind and think Peko should start vs Spain.
I thought Perisic looked good but still not ready to start. He can come in for Krama in the 2nd half.
Sutalo and Pong looked very good vs Portugal. Still a tough call on if Gvardi should play LB or CB vs Spain. I would play Gvardiol at CB vs Spain. Question is who do you plan at LB? Do you risk Sosa?
Krama – Petko – Majer
Kova – Broz – Modric
Sosa? – Gvardiol – Sutalo – Stanisic
Budimir and Petkovic are equally useful right now, but with different skillsets. I think each would be useful against Spain. Either way, one will start and the other will sub in for them in the second half anyway. Both will get time.
Not sure if Sosa plays because he was pretty poor in our last tournament defesively, and I could see Carvajal giving him problems there.
Gvardiol would end Carvajal’s life on that side of the field, so I could see us just sticking with the lineup that we played against Portugal.
Gvardi had a monster tournament at CB at the World Cup. Do you risk playing Sutalo & Pong together against Spain? We need experience in the Center vs Spain. Let Suta & Pong play together against Albania. Pong sits vs Spain. If Dalic can prey all he wants but he has to go with what he knows will work.
Juranovic can play LB if Sosa can’t be trusted.
Neither Sosa nor Juranović can be trusted defensively against Carvajal.
I’m fine with Gvardiol at either LB or CB.
I was just worried about Vida making a starting appearance, but my fears were alleviated with Pongračić being out there against Portugal (which means he’s ahead of Vida in the pecking order).
So it’s not as critical anymore for Gvardiol to be at CB and clean up Vida’s mistakes (like he was doing for Lovren at the last World Cup).
But if we’re trying to be conservative and defensive, we can always switch Gvardi there.
June 20th – wow – only day with 3 great games
Slovenia vs. Serbia
England vs. Denmark
Italy vs. Spain
UK media already given the gears to Serb Ultras, lol
***.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/england-euro-2024-serbian-ultras-32995727
Gvardiol – Pep’s plan is to play him in John Stones role – see 2nd half of last game of season vs. West Ham – this has been the plan all along (Pep said back in November he wasn’t ready for the role yet) – the LB has just been an apprentice for the first season (akin to Ake as u mention)
Front three – Perisic-Kramaric (as “#9”)-Majer
Budimir was TERRIBLE last game (muffed shot – the yellow card would have been RED card in a competitive game) – missed header from couple yards out – zero pressing threat (Portugal were passing it right around him like he wasn’t on the field) – at no point did his pressing do anything (bc he is SO slow) – he had a couple of sprint 1 vs 1 with defenders (including in the first 10 minutes) and I’ve never seen such a slow player on a soccer pitch (he was slower than Kranjcar at his max weight) – he has zero cohesion with Kramaric and Majer up front (he was just getting in the way) – as e.g. a few times when Kramaric and Majer cut in towards the centre – they were only looking to played it across to each other and completely ignored Budimir like he wasn’t on the field – they didn’t see him as an option v-a-v a pass – also the goal he scored he was a millisecond from being caught offside again (the defender was rushing back to put Budimir offside and Budimir just standing there not aware he’s about to go off-side again) – he’s terrible (he scored 17 goals for La Liga – bc they peppering in crosses the whole game to him as a “target man box #9” – he creates nothing – and we’re not going to be peppering in crosses – that’s not our style)
I would also not “experiment” with Kramaric at LW – he wants to cut into the middle – ditto for Majer – neither wants to play down the wings (nor does their games really allow for this) – and there was a lot of inter-change and fluidity b/w Kramaric and Majer (i.e. switching to each others wings or when Majer went deep to pick up the ball from back for – Kramaric moved into a “#8” positioning on the field, etc etc etc)
Adding Perisic – you get the width on the LW – otherwise all that will happen is opponents with just all low-block in the centre and none of our shots will get thru as will be a cluster-f*ck/congestion in the middle just outside the box
The ideal front 3 IMO would be Perisic-Kramaric-Marco Pasalic (as Marco could stretch play on right-side) – but won’t happen at this point (as a starting configuration) – it’s a shame but is what it is
We don’t need Budmir to be a pilon on the field
Lastly – Pongracic was OUTSTANDING last game – if that was the only time and first time I saw him (based on that game alone) – I would say he is just below the “world-class level” – he has so much to his game – very good all-around – Lecce already putting out reports that he played and that no transfer decisions will be taken until after the Euros (clearly they hoping he gets the starting nod and they can move him on for a big price)
You’re right Anonymous. Like you always are.
Budimir almost broke the defender’s leg with that yellow card – he is so uncoordinated and terrible eye to foot coordination – he completely missed kicking the ball and almost broke the defender’s leg
I’d agree with most of the things you’ve said here but I will challenge this. you said “Budimir was TERRIBLE last game”…and my reply to this is…yeah, but he scored!
you see, strikers have 1 job to do. some guys do it looking sexy, some have no style at all but they score…at the end of the day its the goals we count from our strikers and considering Budimir scored 17 goals this season in Spain…and he just scored while having a “terrible game”…makes this even more reason for us to stick with him.
I’ve never supported Budimir as our striker until I saw him a few months back, working hard, pressing high, contributing well to get us a result. he’s nowhere near my favourite but we can’t play everyone at the same time. If we go with Perisic or Krama on the left and Majer on the right we will need someone to press high and hard….and if he’s in his goal scoring form….thats exactly what we need!
you guys are putting croatia a bit too high. I think your luck has run out.
You know it’s close to tournament time when the basement dwelling trolls start coming out. Somebody is nervous.
Did anyone else know there’s some club in Israel called Hapoel Be’er Sheva and THIS is their uniform lol:
https://www.villarrealusa.com/2022/9/15/23354605/getting-know-hapoel-beer-sheva
Yes. Mainz too:
https://shop.mainz05.de
Both these jerseys are more Croatian then this years for us;)
There was this black with red and white checkers I think from a Dutch team we talked about years ago here and it was really nice. I wish I could find it again
PSV Eindhoven.
Mate Pavić
First doubles French Open title (after being in the finals for the 5th time in his career)
Well done
And he has the golden slam – he’s won all four grand slams in doubles and the Olympic gold. In mixed doubles, he has won three of the four. So if he wins the French and Olympic gold in mixed, he will have the golden slam in mixed too. And he’s only 30, which is a baby for doubles.
hhahahahahh, typical croatian. a stat that has zero meaning
Ante and Markus, thanks I enjoyed the discussion and look forward to more over the coming weeks.
@BEĆAR – thanks for sharing that article from Irish Independent.
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Below are highlights from the U21 friendly versus Ireland in Vrbovec which ended in a 2-3 defeat. After going behind 3-0 by the 52nd minute, the boys replied with goals from Matanovic (62′) and Frigan (74′ penalty, awarded for foul on Bukvic). The boys next play against Sweden in Zapresic on Tuesday.
youtube.com/watch?v=h7i8fCjRVEA