Three extra time goals against, a red card, and a semifinal defeat; left Gorica’s spirits low as they exited the field earlier today in Zagreb. Dinamo Zagreb managed to pull off an entertaining comeback against an over performing Gorica side, winning the Croatian Cup semifinal match 4-1. Thanks to long-range rockets from Kristijan Jakić and Josip Mišić and cushion goals from Lovro Majer and Arijan Ademi. Dinamo Zagreb will now face Istra in the Croatian Cup final. Istra surprisingly beat Rijeka in their semifinal matchup, thanks to three shocking first half goals.
The only upside to Gorica’s disappointing performance was their third minute goal scored by 22 year-old Dario Špikić. Špikić, a Croatia U-21 international, added another goal to his fantastic 2020-2021 breakout season with the Goričani, and will ironically be on his way to Dinamo Zagreb this summer. This isn’t the first time the young winger has impressed against the Modri this season. Back in January, Špikić recorded a goal and an assist, and was Gorica’s man of the match although they fell 4-3 to Dinamo. Despite Lazio showing huge interest in Špikić during the winter transfer window, the 22 year-old committed to furthering his career with the HNL league leaders next season. He will remain on loan with Gorica for the remainder of the season.
Hope Sevilla win La Liga.
Love Luka but fuck Perez
And Raketa beating Barca would he great
@ Markus
I think Gvardiol could be a backup going into the Euro (won’t be the case probably, due to other dynamics). DĆC is a cemented starter for me for the forseeable future but in terms of the other person to pair with him, there are a ton of question marks. Vida? Lovren? Pongracic? Uremovic is definitely back up material in my book.
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If say one of Lovren or Vida take a dip in form or get injured in the lead up to the Euro AND Pongracic isn’t 100%… based on recent form and talent, Gvardiol would be my pick to pair with DĆC.
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Will that happen? Probably not. But if Gvardiol does come to the senior team for the Euros (and not the U-21’s) I’d be shocked if he wasn’t given playing time, most likely as a sub.
^ Ivan Saranic too. I’m so big on him, he’s gonna be amazing.
Gvardiol is better than Sucic right now (in comparison to their positions) as Gvardiol is a top 5 u21 CB prospect in the world but Sucic isn’t close to a top 5 u21 midfield prospect in the world. Don’t get me wrong, he has great potential and definitely can be, but he’s still new and needs to develop more. Gvardiol could crack the repka right now, but Sucic couldn’t in my opinion.
We need at least 1 world class talent if we’re gonna make any kind of impact similar to the last 5 years.
Luka Sucic is the only one i see.
Gvardiol possibly too.
Gvardiol was never going to stay at Dinamo long term. ESPN FC is garbage, but felt like he was notable omission on that best u-21 ranking.
@CroatiaU14
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The Dinamo path is always the best one for these Croatian kids.
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Serie A clubs are awful at developing young guys. Even the ones they give starts to immediately, don’t seem to develop.
Whereas we have HNL players who (even though they seem to have stagnated) continue to get better and better. Majer and Ivanusec were kinda like this from age 19-21 then both took a big step at age 22.
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AC Milan and all these other random clubs in Serie A have had lots of high-end young talent, and they all seem to stagnate.
The only good teams in Serie A are the ones who purchase players who were developed in other leagues.
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We all love that Bosko Sutalo was bought and actually gets time at Atalanta. Watch. I’ll bet we end up with several youngsters from the HNL that surpasses him in his development.
I prefer that all of our HNL youth players stay in the HNL until they’re 23 (unless they are duds that can be pawned off to foreign clubs like Coric and Simunovic were). Dinamo are truly the masters of this game.
They’re starting to hold onto players longer, and are quick to sell off the duds.
Gvardiol is the only good talent I can think of as being sold prematurely, but it was to a good developmental club in Leipzig (and his talent drew too much outside attention to dismiss).
It was a very close game, Dinamo just opened up the flood gates at the end. Gorica had a number of solid chances to make it 1-1.
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I want to see Istra win the cup and relegate to the 2. HNL(not likely, unless the Lokosi go on a ‘win streak’ here in the last few weeks). Would that be the first time that a Druga HNL side plays in Europe?!
@DannyJ
This kid is definitely repka quality. He’s a complete winger. But as Maminjo stated, it’s how he competes with other Croatian wingers. That is what’s gonna determine whether he can become key for the Vatreni or not.
His move to Dinamo may be good for him in the long run, but transferring to Lazio and PERFORMING there would have most likely secured a decent shot with the NT in the near future. He could end up playing one season with Dinamo though, and then leaving to go ball out in a top 5 league.
Dinamo’s attack will be young and deadly next season. Spikic, Saranic, Vasilj, maybe even Crnac. And Ivanusec/Bulat to back them up in the midfield
Couple of nice rockets from outside the box by Dinamo. We need more of these types of shots by our repka guys. Modric is due for one soon.
He will supplant brekalo and wear the LGBTQ armband with pride!!
Not if Brekalo has anything to say about it. 😉
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IMO, it will be tough for Špikić to become NT quality…not because of his skills, but because of the competition.
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Brekalo, Majer, Sosa and Bradarić are all capable of playing the wing (and they are about the same age, and further along in their careers). Plus, we have several others in our youth system too that have just as high potential.
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Glad to see more youngsters doing well, but the central midfield and wing areas are (by far) our deepest areas of talent. Very, very difficult to crack our lineup there no matter how talented and hyped you may be (just ask Kovacic).
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Now, if Špikić can develop into a scorer and play up top as a forward, then it becomes interesting…but it doesn’t seem like that’s his game. I think Petar Musa is the more valuable prospect for us in that area of the field.
@Dannyj
He definitely has the potential to be. He’s had a great season for Gorica and if he can continue his form with Dinamo then I can see him being an important winger in the future.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-espn-fc-united/story/4340555/haalandsanchofodenfati-lead-the-39-best-players-age-21-or-under
Cro u14
Is this kid repka quality??