HRT Sport has reported that Dinamo Zagreb striker, Bruno Petković, may not be available for Croatia’s opening two EURO 2024 qualifiers against Wales (March 25th) and Turkey (March 28th). Petković picked up a knock on the knee against Rijeka on the weekend and was subbed off in the 20′. Petković still travelled to Split with the team but is uncertain to be match-ready for Wales on Saturday at Poljud.
Croatia had striker problems at the World Cup and Croatia will have striker problems in 2023.
How does Dalić get a #9 striker to rise to the top this year?
What does the current pecking order look like?
- Kramarić — Until someone knocks him off his “False-9” pedestal, I guess you have to play Krama up top; as a true striker or not. At 31 years-old, he is getting up there in age but tops the group as currently playing in the Bundesliga.
- Musa — You heard that right! I’m putting Musa at #2 in complete darkness. This will be Musa’s first call up to the senior side and he has the most to gain from it. He has met all expectations coming off the bench for Portuguese leaders Benfica this season with five league goals. He’s tall. He’s young (25). If anyone can shake up the striker pool in 2023, it’s Petar Musa.
- (a/b) Petković/Livaja: At a virtual tie, I’m putting both of Croatia’s HNL strikers. At 28 and 29 years-old, these guys aren’t getting any younger and are not the future of Croatian football. They should get the job done off the bench for the next year, but it is time to try out Musa in front of them. The next crop of strikers to follow after Nations League has to be Šimić and Vidović with Čolak bottling his opportunity in Scotland.
**We’ve all chatted in the past about trying Perišić and Oršić up top. But could there be a worse time in both careers for this experiment? Perišić has clearly lost a step at age 34 playing his first season in the grueling Premiership. Oršić simply isn’t getting any playing time for Southampton after making his transfer from Dinamo in the winter.
Since this site rarely posts what channel or site the game can be seen, do any fellow fans here know where it can be seen, other than Fubo TV?
Posting a game summary and discussing it without being able to watch it never made sense to me.
From what I can see, it won’t be one of the handful of games Fox is televising.
I normally watch all the Euro qualifying games on Nova TV.
You can try this link: https://novatv.dnevnik.hr/sport/kvalifikacije-za-euro-2024-hrvatska-wales/
If it doesn’t work simply Google Nova tv Croatia-Wales or Gol.HR Croatia-Wales.
It’s free and doesn’t require any subscriptions but there is one thing you need to do.
If you’re outside of Croatia you need to make the device you’re using think it’s actually physically in Croatia.
How you do it is by using a VPN. When loaded on your device you can choose the country you would like to hide your ip address in this case Croatia.
I pay yearly for a VPN service (nord vpn) it helps with watching things outside of Canada in my case but it also helps when you’re traveling and using free wifi in an airport as example.
There are a bunch of vpn services that will give you a 7 day trial if you wanted to try.
Set it up ahead of time go to Nova TV and try to watch something so you can make sure you don’t run into issues before hand
Good luck
Hvala Tomislav! 👍
For those in Canada. DAZN will show some games. If you don’t mind a few pop ups. FirstRowSports.eu. Or the one I find best is hesgoal.com. uzivaj, ZDS.
The site hesgoal.com says “domain has been seized”.
The same lineup that humbled Canada will likely start against Wales, and that’s a good idea because Wales is of similar caliber. They open up too much and defend poorly. Now they don’t even have Gareth Bale to save them. Livaja and Kramarić were a deadly pair against Canada. We should be happy to see them work together against Wales. Once the game is basically under control, it’s a great idea to put Musa at the #9 position with Juranović as the RW and Stanisić as RB.
So long as those three (Stanisić, Juranović, and Musa) get time on the field at the same time, I will be happy.
Livaja and Krama are still useful as vets, but I think Stanisić, Juranović, and Musa would be better for us come Euro2024.
However, I think Dalić will stick Juranović at RB all game, and try to give Pašalić, Vlašić, and Livaja time in order to get as many former Hajduk players on the field (to satisfy Torcida).
That’s most likely, though he could also change Modrić for Pasalić, Perisić for Vlasić, and Kramarić for Stanisić and Musa for Livaja to make both of those outcomes happen. It’s also possible for Vlasić to start instead of Perisić, given the latter’s poor form.
I’m pretty sure that Livaja will start, especially at Poljud. These next few games may be his last chance to prove himself with the Vatreni, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays well. If Livaja can’t “put on a performance” in front of his hometown fans, then he needs to be relegated to the bench. Hopefully Musa gets some meaningful minutes in the second half, and eventually earn his way into the starting lineup.
If you’ve followed Dalić since day #1, you would know that there is NO way Musa would be a starter in his first match. I just hope he doesn’t wait until the 89th minute to sub him and alows him a chance to develop chemistry with his teammates.
Livaja is the definite starter. Against an average team, such as them, he would do fine. Otherwise, we’ll see Kramarić (unfortunately). There’s NO WAY he isn’t starting in Poljud.
It seems some are not aware that Bruno asked to be taken out of the Dinamo game in the 20th minute on Sunday. He is not going to start in a National Team game only 6 days after being injured my friends.
Good one ,Franjo. Agree. Order is Livaja, Krama, , Petko regardless of injury .Everyone else would have to be shot dead for some kid to come in . I love to see Musa but Dalic only goes deep when Modric tells him it’s ok.
As we all know we need an injection in attack… Juranovic is playing RW where I think is suits him best both for club and national team! Stanisic is a beast and he proved that last year and recently this year shutting down Mpabbe.. we need to start bring in young strikers ASAP preferably one with size and the other with speed or the whole package.. for this reason I believe this game should start like this…. If Beljo gets called would be great as most likely Kramaric will start on the RF position where Juranovic will move back to RB…. Livaja may get the start because it is at Poljud lol but Musa I believe is the better choice here
Either way I see him getting some time especially if Petko is ruled out…
This 4-3-3 can shift through the game and turn into a 3-5-2 at any time with these players on the pitch where I can see Perisic taking the LF striker share with whomever and Sosa stepping up and playing LW..
Will be interesting to see if Dalic spices anything up…
Za dom spremni!
———————-(Petko/Beljo)————————
—————————Musa———————————
——Perisic——————————Juranovic——
—————————Modric——————————
————-Kovacic————Brozovic—————
Sosa———————————————-Stanisic
————-Gvardiol———Sutalo———————
——————-——Livakovic—————————
Hopefully Petkovic is ok…. But He shouldn’t be on the national team regardless of injury. Krama should be on the bench as a 3rd option. It’s past due for new strikers to START the game and come off the bench as well. Will just have to wait and see how it goes.
0-2 for Wales. .please!!
for the sake of our future []
kick Dalic out – n0 question
Lol get the fuck out of here emoji queen. What team do you even support?
Beljo is way ahead of vidovic, and simic. Veronica has natural talent but is yet to show he can step up to the level of Dutch league football, nowhere near ready.
Simic is closer to the call but also needs to prove he can be effective in first team competitive men’s football. We won’t see him for a while yet.
Ljubicic is closer, but as mentioned needs to show more consistency. I really like his style and would have taken him to the World Cup, but I’m not dalic.
These three are only potential solutions, we don’t know yet if they will make the grade.
Beljo should be given a chance soon. At the moment he is the guy I have highest hopes for becoming our main striker.
Musa is also good and we need to see him get meaningful minutes.
Colak is nowhere, he is limited in a number of areas, I don’t think he is technical enough for international football
Agreed on Ljubicic. He is a work horse. Has the right attitude. I would like to see Musa get more minutes also.
It’s Poljud.
Livaja will 100% be starting for that reason alone.
The bigger issue with this is we probably default to Krama at RW…or have one of the two Splićani (Pašalić or Vlašić) play at RW.
I was hoping we’d try Juranović there (as he’s been playing at RW for Union Berlin) and start Stanišić in our backline instead.
I don’t want to see Stanišić riding the pine because he’s not born in Split.
I reckon all of that bullshit about if you’re from a certain city, you get an automatic starting role in the team is just pure nonsense. Two years before when we were qualifying for the world cup, Dalic chose Vida and Barisic when we played in Osijek for that exact reason and they were crap.
For those who have been keeping up with Ljubicic, is he worth calling up anytime soon? His stats say he’s doing great for a 21 year old, but I haven’t watched him much (besides highlights) since he left Hajduk
Still too inconsistent.
He was red hot at the beginning of the year, but has cooled off.
Still impressive. Definitely gotta keep tabs on him and Roko, while we currently integrate Musa and Beljo.
Petkovic had one spotlight moment against Brazil. That’s it. Give minutes to Musa ffs.
Before that he was the worst player on the pitch for it but it’s covered up because of the goal.
Agreed, he is too slow and acts lazy on the pitch.
If the shot wasn’t deflected, the Brazilian keeper would have had an easy save.
The announcers were mocking how easily Petković would lose the ball.
dalic is dalic
and he is shit
there is no room
for the youngsters -0
still keeping shit things ||
luck is available to him`
The first match being played in Split in all probability will mean that Dalic will go with Livaja if Petkovic is injured. Kramaric will also get a start. I can see Musa coming on in the second half.
Musa off the bench is a great option. I’m sure he’d get some great service from our mid.