Joško Gvardiol was named ‘Man of the Match’ Thursday as RB Leipzig squeaked out a 1-0 victory over Rangers in their 1st leg semifinal. The Croatian center-back anchored a 3-4-3 formation for Leipzig. Match reports say Gvardiol didn’t have to do much defensively, but he did complete the most passes on the field of any player. He is now 90 minutes away from his first European Cup final. Hopefully there will be many more to come.
In UEFA Conference League play, Duje Ćaleta-Car committed a bonehead mistake on defense, gifting Feyenoord a goal. Feyenoord would win 3-2. DCC made a lazy pass to his keeper and looked out of sorts on the play. He was subbed out later in the 2nd half. It’s only Conference League, but this is a semifinal. C’mon man!
Luka Modrić is Croatia’s only hope for a Champions League title. But in Europa League, the Vatreni are already guaranteed to have one of their own lift the cup.
But who we rooting for?
In one semifinal Thursday evening, it will be Joško Gvardiol and RB Leipzig vs. Rangers and Borna Barišić. In the other, Nikola Vlašić and West Ham will face Kristijan Jakić and Eintracht Frankfurt. Frankfurt is coming off a high-flying victory against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Leipzig have met all expectations in the Bundesliga as they meet a West Ham side who never really formed an identity in England this year.
Calling it now: All-German Final!
Gvardiol lifts the Europa League trophy.
Who do you want to lift the trophy? And more importantly, do you care about Europa League?
Caleta-Car had a bad game, it happens. That poor back pass, was nothing more than a psychological mistake. Perhaps it was nerves. But at 25 he still has a helluva lot more upside than Vida and Lovren.
I’d still start CC over Vida and Lovren. Vida was horrible in his last league game in the Turkish League, responsible for 2 goals scored. I think if you play CC next to a classy, technical, and composed CB like Gvardiol, it will only make him a better player.
Besides CC being 6’4, taller than Lovren and Vida, makes him vital for winning defensive headers and set pieces.
100 percent agree
I’m just thinking dalic will want to stick with one of the old guard
For some reason he seems especially loyal to lovren
I think most of us here would be plenty happy right now
With going
Sosa/barisic as back up
Gvardiol/cc
Juranovic/vrsaljko as back up
Who are the back up cbs
Well I’m sure it will be vida/lovren
But ya there are a couple guys that need to be seen
I didn’t realize sutalo was ready to test out as some others have stated
Lovren isn’t even in the squad for Zenit these days, which is strange because he actually played pretty well the last games he played for Croatia. But he won’t even be called up if he isn’t playing.
Gvardiol is like another midfielder the way he moves the ball
And not just a midfielder a Croatian quality type;)
total football
Bummer about caleta
We all know it’s gonna be gvardiol and lovren in the middle anyway
This should be fine overall
He’s bros with vrsaljko and If they play remotely close to Russia that’s not bad covering the right side
Interesting on this young buck
Another tall forward. Let’s hope we have two high end strikers in the next few years to choose from
The Germans are not liking us these days lol
Lovren and Vida shouldn’t start again. I’d perhaps keep them as substitutes and include them in the squad for the WC. However, both are hitting mid 30’s and skills have significantly dropped. Lovren and Vida had an atrocious Euros. Vida’s ball clearance and covering, Lovren receiving yellow cards.
Caleta-Car with a horrible game today in their 3-2 loss against Feyenoord today.
Feyenoord could have scored 7 or 8 times. Every long ball behind their defense was dangerous.
Third goal was a too short pass from Caleta-Car to their goalie.
10 minutes later a wrong pass of him almost caused another goal.
The coach subbed him out.
Vida & Lovren are still twice as good as Caleta-car.
Maybe we should try Vrsaljko as central defender? Or try Vuskovic (HSV), Erlic (Spezia) or Sutalo (Dinamo)?
Sutalo!! I like sutalo a lot and currently I rate him high on CB depth chart.
calling Vida twice as good as Caleta-Car is a bit of a stretch to be honest and Vrsaljko wouldn’t be that good for central defender, I think he’s a player that’s just past it in general.
We have a lot of CBs. We also have Stanisic and Pongracic, on top of Duje, Lovren and Vida. We also have some interesting non-callups like Erlic that may get a chance. We can see how they do in the UNL games.
Gvardiol is guaranteed starter…we can just rotate the other CB position with him, and see which one pairs best with Gvardy. I don’t want to see us clearing the benches and pairing random people together. I want to see who plays best with our best.
Pongracic doesnt play enough and has attitude issues.
Same can be said for Lovren.
Yet Lovren seems to be the default starter, despite having a worse attitude and sitting on the bench on a worse team in a worse league.
Oh, I just saw that tweet about Igor Matanović switching from Germany’s youth team to Croatia’s youth team.
Only good things from Twitter now that Musk took over. 😉
Hopefully the vengeful Germans don’t take it out on Igor’s career and stunt him at Eintracht.
It’s nice to have a 6’4″ forward with actual technical ability. Hoping this kid develops. Either way, we’re playing with house money now, since we stole him from Germany lol.
Oh great. The second coming of Dario Cvitanich.
Lol. Come on. Completely different situation with one of them being a Croat refugee from Banja Luka, and the other one being South American with a Croat great grandfather.
Never mind though, Dario was a pretty good player in the Dutch and Frence leagues.
If this kid could ever start and score regularly in those leagues, then i’ll take it.
I want RBL and Gvardiol to win it. I’d like to see Gvardiol have the experience of winning something at his young age. He’s got a lot of potential, and winning silverware will provide a confidence boost.
Also, in this season Hrvati have the potential of winning a unique treble, win in all 3 European competitions: Modric in the CL, Caleta-Car in the European Conference League, and the Europa League we already have as a lock.
Gvardiol truly has the potential to be the best defender in the world one day. A Europa league title to his resume this early in his career would help a ton. Let’s go Leipzig!!
Lepizig for olmo and gvardiol
Rangers! They beat Dortmund handily to open up the possibility, and I want to see them keep going. They have a great team this year. And Barisic has been key to their success in Europa League.