Croatia faces two-time champions Argentina tomorrow at 2pm EST at Lusail Iconic Stadium. This will be the second meeting between the two LM10’s in a World Cup, this one being at a far more important stage than in 2018, when the Albicelestes suffered a 3-0 thumping.
Argentina’s Marcos Acuna (starting left-back) and Gonzalo Montiel (back-up right-back) will miss the semi-final due to suspension. Argentina have also been the first side to score in their last nine matches, while Croatia holds an eleven game undefeated streak.
Now, how does Croatia match up? Argentina are no joke as they were ranked as second favourites (behind Brazil) coming into the tournament. Although they do not possess the same firepower as Brazil, they’re a well-rounded team led by the greatest player of all time.
However, the odds have Argentina as heavy favourites as Croatia are yet again expected to lose. But does this accurately represent the difference in quality between these two sides?
Although there may be some bias involved, here is my comparison between Argentina and Croatia’s projected starting eleven based on current form and skill level:
Martinez = Livaković
Tagliafico < Sosa
Otamendi < Gvardiol
Romero > Lovren
Molina = Juranović
Fernandez < Brozović
MacAllister < Kovačić
De Paul < Modrić
Di Maria > Pašalić
Alvarez < Perišić
Messi > Kramarić
I truly believe only about 4 Argentinians would make Croatia’s starting XI. But this is all just a comparison, and of course, does not translate onto the football pitch, but simply goes to show just how underestimated Croatian footballers are.
Argentina will have to be dealt with in a different manner than the match versus Brazil. They don’t press and attack quite as relentlessly as the Brazilians do, and this is where I believe Croatia could keep possession in the midfield and pick their chances offensively.
The more chaotic and hectic this game gets, the better for Argentina. They are very aggressive and thrive in an atmosphere of pure mayhem, similar to the way the Netherlands game went. Expect to see guys like Otamendi, De Paul, and Paredes get in the Vatreni’s faces and try to rile up some of our more hot-headed players (i.e. Lovren, Brozovic).
Argentina’s defence is very solid, although not the greatest, and their keeper is also very strong. If there is any team I don’t want to go to penalties against, it’s Argentina. Emi Martinez thrives on his confidence and knows how to get in the penalty taker’s head.
The key factor to their team is, of course, Lionel Messi. It will be interesting to see if Dalic opts to man-mark him, altering his recent tactical choices, or to simply orchestrate the defence as a single, solid unit like against Brazil as to account for all attackers and not hyper-fixate on one player. England, for example, fixated too much on Mbappe in their quarter-final match. Although they successfully nullified him, this allowed for other extremely talented forwards like Griezmann and Dembele to hurt the English. Personally, I would go for the second option, like Croatia did back in 2018. Messi was not constantly marked, but he was certainly accounted for as our back-line kept an eye on him all game, while also concentrating on the other players and maintaining their structure.
Here’s how Dalic should line-up for Croatia’s semi-final clash:
I left a “?” up top because there are four available options and I’d like to discuss each.
- Andrej Kramarić
Kramarić defines the word “inconsistency”. Although he provided a great display against Canada, he’s been a little quiet since. However, he was left a little isolated in the Brazil match, and let’s be honest, there’s not really much he could do up there by himself against Brazil. He’s very talented and skillful and can score with the support of other forwards, hence I believe he’d best be utilized on the right-wing with clearance to drift inside as a “second-striker” (Juranović could cover his side when he drives in). But, Pašalić should start on the right in my opinion, as he won many duels against Brazil and contributed a lot defensively. I would like to see him get in the box more and help support whoever does start at striker. He has a scoring touch and we could use one of his odd headers right about now.
- Bruno Petković
I’m very torn on Petković. Against Brazil, he looked slow, lazy, and out of his element. Simply looked like he didn’t belong on the pitch against their midfield and defenders. But then he pulls off an incredible move to magically move past two defenders (nutmegging one of them in the process) to set up Brozović for our best chance of the match. Oh, and who could forget, he scored the game-tying goal to send Croatia to penalty kicks. He’s definitely a wild card as he could win us the game or do absolutely nothing for 60 minutes before getting subbed out. Who knows. Also, he’s got height and Argentina’s defenders are not that tall. The Dutch scored both their goals late in the game when subbing on two tall strikers and letting them work in the box.
- Marko Livaja
Again, another risky pick. He has a tendency to walk around and jog for 60 minutes, like Petković, but also has the skill and ability to score a big goal and turn the game on its head. Another wild card pick, and I’d hate to be in Dalic’s shoes right now having to pick between these four options. However, I believe Livaja has a killer mentality and could thrive in a big game like this against a tough opponent. On the other hand, Argentina can be dirty and like to chat up their opponents, and I can definitely see this getting to Livaja’s head as he possess the tendency to be hot-headed. Wouldn’t want to potentially get a red card in this game. As I said before, the calmer and more controlled this game is = advantage Croatia.
- Ante Budimir
He’s got heart and a great work ethic. But I believe he’s just not good enough to be starting in a game like this. Sure, he’ll run hard and he’s got that height advantage in the box, but the negatives outweigh the positives in my opinion. Although he may run hard, he’s still painfully slow. His link-up play is inferior to Petković’s, his dribbling and creativity is not on Kramarić’s level, and he only has one goal this season compared to Livaja’s eleven, and although I understand La Liga and the HNL are not on the same level, striker’s who score goals consistently get into a routine of doing so, and Livaja’s been routinely scoring. Budimir hasn’t. And I wouldn’t bet he scores his second of the year in a World Cup semi-final. Not to mention, he got subbed on against Japan just to get subbed back off, not a good look. I love his work, but his talent just isn’t there in my opinion.
I’d also like to mention Mislav Oršić at the left wing. He has truly been a super sub for us and needs more minutes off the bench. I would not start him, however. He’d be up against fresh legs and I don’t think his skill set would be best optimized at the cagey start of a semi-final match. Get him on at the end of the game when things get hectic and he can burn tired defenders and set up teammates for counter-attacking goals. Not to mention, Perišić is simply better and contributes more defensively. Forget starting both because neither of them fit naturally on the right wing. Not the time to force it and experiment in a World Cup semi-final. However, give him 20-25 minutes at the end of the game instead of just five. He has pace, creativity and a heck of a right-footed curler. Imagine a Mislav Oršić game winner from outside the box! Tasty!
Some trivial information before tomorrow’s clash:
- Croatia will apparently be wearing their away kits for the first time this tournament.
- The VAR ref will be Massimiliano Irrati. The same one from the 2018 WC Final against France.
- Argentina have never lost a semi-final match. Every time they win in the quarter-finals, they go on to make the final.
- Croatia have qualified to the semi-final in 50% of its World Cup appearances.
In under 24 hours, Croatia will play in its third semi-final in just six tournaments, unbelievable! Regardless of the result, this World Cup was a success. If Croatia can continue to frustrate its opponents and play as a unit, the trophy is a very realistic possibility. Wouldn’t that little star just look so pretty on top of the HNS logo??
Comment below how YOU would line up against Argentina?
Only one Croatian would make Argentina’s bench. Mordic
Stating only 4 Argentines would make Croatia is an insult to football
I am proud of the team and their accomplishment of almost making it into 2 consecutive World Cup finals. 👏
Dalić did an INCREDIBLE job getting the team this far with ZERO strikers and never being able to replace Raketić with another skillful offensive minded midfielder.
Anyone who doesn’t understand this should follow another sport.
Looking forward to the 3rd place match. HRVATSKA! 🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷
Red Star Belgrade 1991… Just saying…
As great as this run was and the run of 2018 It feels empty that we got so close and didn’t lift the trophy. I really felt that it was going to happen this year. I wonder is this the max and are we going to have a period with less sucsess and earlier crashouts expecially when Modric is gone.
It’s Croatian soccer – it’s winning or nothing else . We went to another level with Dalic but it’s not the top level so I’m sure HNS will be asking – who’s next? Nothing personal, it’s HNS soccer
Every coach has their pros and cons.
Dalić did very well at both World Cups, but was really bad at the Euros.
He’s probably a very well liked person who tries hard to manage relationships and consider all opinions (and likely manages by consensus, incorporating a lot of the input coming in from his vets, including when Lovren forced his way into the starting eleven, lol).
He is slow to bring in new players at times (but that goes hand in hand with keeping consistency in the locker room) and as a result, we never did try out many options at RW and striker. RW didn’t turn out to be a problem at this World Cup, but not having a striker killed us.
He generally goes through a hangover after each tournament, so I expect us to lose one or two easy games in our first few qualifiers (possibly our upcoming Nations League games too) ruining our FIFA ranking almost immediately after we just got back into the top 10, haha.
But you can’t complain about 2nd and 3rd place at a World Cup.
Maybe it was all Modrić (who knows). But hopefully it wasn’t, because I’d hate for us to drop off from this level.
I assume Bišćan would be the next coach, and he’s a very different personality.
I think he’s a more authoritarian coach which could go either way. I don’t think he deserves to be coach, but I really think the HNS is just a boy’s club (of former players) right now, so it’s hard to see them bringing in a legitimate coach that wasn’t groomed by them for the position.
If and when we move away from Dalić, I really hope the HNS takes the hiring process seriously since a lot of coaches would love to coach Croatia (especially if the salary remains as high as Dalić’s salary).
I think Dalic is signed through the 2024 Euros.
If it’s between Biscan and Dalic, give me Dalic all day long.
Didn’t Biscan squander some games with the U21’s even when the Senior NT was giving him some of our players that should of been starting or integrating into our Senior team. I think I also read he plays very defensive and makes some questionable selections for the starting 11.
I hope if Dalic steps down, I want Tomislav Stipic or a foreign born coach. No Bilic, kovac etc.
I’ve been feeling depressed and down today but super proud of the team and our efforts, it’s an amazing accomplishment overall which we will appreciate later, despite how shitty we all feel right now.
Biggest kick in the balls is having to play for 3rd place. As Rick Bobby said, if you ain’t first your last. We should think this way more, we’re a big soccer nation now and semis shouldn’t be enough
i know it doesnt mean much but finishing on a high and getting a medal would still be nice
Dalic said in an interview That we lack a true, classic striker.
Dalic had a great tournament coaching with who he brought, but he was the one that selected this group without a true classic striker.
In advance of the WC he should of gave a serious shot to some of the guys with that skill set we needed. Maybe he would of had that scoring option to break through at the end.
It’s amazing that he recognizes this flaw, but didn’t really do anything about it.
Like who?
Musa and Colak are the ones that come to mind as being in form and have the skill set of what we needed in the box.
If the coach felt that any of these strikers could of offered something I’m sure he would’ve thrown one of them into the deep end like they did with Gvardiol at the Euros.
The problem is he didn’t even take them to Qatar. I don’t think they got a real chance in Nations League, friendlies and some of the qualifiers to prove what they could do.
All in all, we have to be happy with this run. Our defense was excellent up until today. Lovren was finally exposed but actually had a great tourney up until this point.
Time for the next set of defenders (Sutalo/Erlic) to step up.
Juranovic was a bit of a revelation and a solid RB or even better right wingback option.
Sosa was disappointing. But in his defense he didn’t have anyone to cross to.
We need that big skilled target man. Bring on Ljubicic/Simic.
Our midfield was excellent. Zero complaints..Modric for 37 years
old is a generational talent. We likely don’t see another one like him for a very long time.
Kovacic was very good today and for the majority of the tourney. Brozo was Brozo – excellent at what he does for us.
Our forward line was a completely different story. Perisic had a few off games including today. Orsic is serviceable. No one else
was notable in my opinion.
Kramaric, Petkovic, Livaja and Budimir shouldn’t get call ups going forward.
As Maminjo said hit the reset button upfront. We need some fresh options and not the same old.
Regardless, for a country of 3.8 million, what else can you ask for?
The biggest disappointment was that this tournament was for the taking.
Hopefully Modric kicks around until the Euros – I’ll be there and would love to see him finish his repka career playing in front of 40,000 hrvati in Germany!!!
We should take that Nations League trophy home as a consolation prize
Agreed. I think we have a good chance of doing so.
The first Argentine goal…..if Livakovic even gets a fingertip on the ball its not a penalty ….. but he didn’t. He came out to challenge the attacker and made himself as wide as possible and in the process obstructed the Argentine from getting to the ball. 100% penalty every time
Dunno man….
If the roles are flipped, do we get that call? i dont think so….would i be upset about not getting the call? I dont think so. I would probably say that our striker should have done better with the finish to make sure it goes into the goal prior to colliding with the keeper – which the argie could have done in this case, he just reached for the ball and it was a soft finish.
He takes a soft touch to finish his shot because he is scared of the contact from the keeper. He does not take a weak touch because of the contact from the keeper. The keeper needs to come out. And they collide, it happens all the time….
I dont know. Maybe thats just my mentality of us not being given or gifted calls in games.
But I see your arguement, and its probably not enough of a clear of obvious error for it to be reviewed by VAR. And the official might not have changed his mind anyway. It’s a bit of a subjective one.
The Argentine puts the ball past the keeper and then you expect Livakovic to do what? Did you think Livakovic brought him down?
I read a comment here where some of the greats of the game have said “no penalty,” so it obviously wasn’t as cut and dried as you believe it to be in their opinion. But what do they know hey?
It’s been a strange tournament for us. The players everyone thought would be our stars were mediocre – Perišić, Sosa, Brozović. The players everyone thought would be our liabilities were excellent (on the whole) – Liva, Juranović, Kovačić. Even Lovren most of the time.
What it does show is just how good a coach is the ever under rated Dalić. To get those results two world cups running from the material he had to work with was spectacular. – a master team builder and motivator. Not to mention qualifying for the Nations League finals next year. Could anyone else have done better with what we’ve got? I doubt it.
And we must never start taking these runs for granted – as my Albanian mate texted tonight, he’d give his right arm for Albania just to qualify once for the tournament, never mind get to three semi finals in six appearances.
I’m not taking it for granted, but the bar has been raised for us. We have the talent to win at these major tournaments. To me anything less than a QF is a big failure. In my mind, and I think it should be instilled in all our players and future players minds/hearts is that we are the same caliber as the big teams.
I don’t want to celebrate this like we won the WC because of how small our nation is. Some had that mentality in 98 and 2018. I’m grateful for those runs, but at this point we should aim higher as these aren’t flukes when you do it this much.
But at the same time we need to keep that ‘us against the world’ mentality. Everyone counts us out or underestimates us, and that makes us play better.
For me, the Nations League run really raised my expectations going into this World Cup. And, we are right up there with the best in the world for sure- even with the glaring striker shortcomings.
The 2018 team was better, but I think other teams were also better in 2018 – except maybe a Brazil and Argentina. Taking out Brazil was one of the top 4 Croatian wins ever. This tournament was there for the taking so it hurts.
The games themselves were
Tough to watch as a fan- never felt comfortable ever – except maybe after 5th goal vs Canada. So luck was definitely on our side until today- and today it all went against us.
Quick turnaround for Euro 2024 and even World Cup 2026 given that this one is 5 months later than usual. Always more to watch as a fan – the hood springs eternal
Agree, need to stop treating ourselves as underdogs…
Including 1998 – world cup QF appearances –
Germany – 4
France – 4
Brazil – 3
Croatia – 3
Argentina – 2
Netherlands – 2
Croatia/Netherlands/Argentina have not won it yet, but thats the next step.
When you are getting into that top 4 conversation as often as Brazil over the last 20 years, that’s not bad.
And look at the rosters over those years, we had some stinky years mixed in there. especially compared to the others on this list in terms of big name players.
This still sucks, but we need to get away from “lets get out of the group and see what happens” and get back to “lets get to the last 4 and see what happens”.
Absolutely spot on.
Good post, I totally agree. You can have high expectations and not take the Croatian National Team for granted at the same time, it’s not contradictory. But I must say when I rewatch some of Croatia’s games on mind enhancers, WOW! We’re like the Hoosiers from the Hoosiers movie over and over and over again except it’s our relatives playing against gargantuan Brazil with all their different races of people. I was laughing my ass off rewatching the Brazil game. To me it’s still incredible watching the spectacle while Ian Dark says “Croatia aren’t intimidated” and Landon Donovan says “they’re very hard to beat Ian”.
Yeah but your Albanian friend’s National Team has shit players.
I like that we’re largely disappointed. It means that we’re transcending toward that upper echelon of teams who are only in it to win it.
The Belgians were kinda disappointed with their third place finish at the last World Cup (despite it being their best ever performance).
The Dutch were disappointed to lose to Argentina in the quarters, despite missing the past couple of tournaments.
I’m glad that alot are shaking this “small country” retard mentality where we should be happy with the scraps.
We were two wins away from a World Cup trophy. It’s a shame we didn’t pull it off (especially since this is Luka’s last chance)and Croats should rightfully be bummed out about it.
“I’m glad that alot are shaking this “small country” retard mentality where we should be happy with the scraps.”
I totally agree with that but the fact that we are such a small nation especially of our own kind makes the successes so much more enjoyable than they’d otherwise be. The reality is that what Croatia is doing on the football pitch on the world stage is absolutely unique right now.
Re: previous poster…. PC culture is made to quiet the dissenters and make militia men (Mr. Smith / Matrix) out of the population to attack people who object to the system. 2018 VAR was a theft and an attack on our republik. Everyone let it go. Players cannot object or be sanctioned. It’s a mafia, it’s more WWE than football.
Croatia had the matchunder control. A wrong penalty could have been reversed by VAR but the same Italian was running the VAR. Tipped the scales, Croatia had to play a bit forward and Argentina countered like they can.
FIFA is mafia. So is NFL. At least in NHL the referees are stingy with penalties so playoffs are watchable. What happens in soccer is a mafia. There is no way a penalty and momentum is handed to anyone in this situation.
The media is owned and jabbed by their masters. They say nothing. What the hell did everyone expect.
The look on Modric’s face says it all. Will you PC’s dare stand up to the Mr. Smiths and say FIFA is mafia or will your programmed fear of being judged silence you?
Eff this. Modric deserves better. I’m happy to discuss the truth of Argentina being handed games. I will stand by my captain as he is silenced by the threat of sanction.
Jivili 🥃❤️🇭🇷⚡️
https://twitter.com/oddc1od/status/1602773433347346433?s=21
Same old story…..
Dominate possession and generate 0 scoring opportunities.
Time for Dalic to take s coaching gig in China.
Sosa didn’t have one good cross all tournament. Kinda makes me miss Stinic.
The better team won and totally exposed the Hrvati.
good catch-
All of these people here defending Dalic
is beyond my comprehension – he is a lucky manager –
but too lenient and stagnant } { see how Modric even wasted }
look at the Argentine manager that knows Messi well _
in this match – He absolutely outclasses Dalic! > no question!!!
@Ante Kvartuc, I’m going to spout out one more think in your Royal Court before your henchmen take me to the gallows for speaking HERESY to your PC religion.
After the 2018 WC Alexi Lalas said Croatia’s small population was “AN ADVANTAGE”, something about “continuity” LOL! But he also said “diversity can be our strength” < straight out of the PC Gospel!
But later on I also saw Lalas practically in tears seeing an entire AMERICAN stadium filled with "Mexican-Americans" cheering for Mexico waving Mexican flags when Mexico was playing the U.S. Well, "diversity is our greatest strength" right? WTF did you expect homie? Would you have been satisfied if the Mexicans had converted from blood loyalty to your PC religion?
It is what is brothers. We have to circle back and win the bronze. Ajmooooooo
So much could be said about the game; that penalty call, a few players having their worst game of the tournament, etc.
But us making the semifinals again proved how much heart and talent Croatians have. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to even watch our team play at a World Cup; seriously think about how many people around the world aren’t able to say that.
Proud to be Croatian
this is rather a manager tactic and decision.-
The argentine manager knows how to put his players
see how effective the contribution of Messi –
so how about Modric :(_ absolutely not effective
as he should cover the defense area…
Dalic should place 3 defenders – to begin with ‘
you can maximize his role and create more chances!
anyway 3 defenders – only to cover the liability of Lovren +
with 2 defenders what can he do? > Juranovic and Sosa?| sucks!
Jovanovic and Sosa for the fast counter _ couldn’t happen here >
they are just busy defending the liability of Lovren – make it slow down!
this is rather a manager tactic and decision.-
The argentine manager knows how to put his players
see how effective the contribution of Messi –
so how about Modric :(_ absolutely not effective
as he should cover the defense area…
Dalic should place 3 defenders – to begin with ‘
so you can maximize his role and create more chances!
anyway 3 defenders – only to cover the liability of Lovren +
with 2 defenders what can he do? > Juranovic and Sosa?| sucks!
Jovanovic and Sosa for the fast counter _ couldn’t happen here >
they are just busy defending the liability of Lovren – make it slow down!
@Ante Kvartuc, may I speak at court your Royal Highness? Oh great Wizard of Oz arbiter of which Croatian gets to speak and what he’s allowed to say in your Royal Court?
Anyway, people always say how remarkable Croatia’s success on the world stage is relative to the population of the nation but nobody ever explains it. To draw an analogy: in high school american football a small town highschool is put in the same league as other small towns b/c if you put a small town in a league with huge regional highschools the small town highschool would get crushed for the obvious reason they’ll have a much smaller talent pool of football players; typically the best QB in a small town would be like 5th best if he went to a regional highschool and therefore wouldn’t even consider playing that position at the big school, etc, etc you can go down the line at each position. So Brazil, a country of 200,000,000+ people SHOULD basically have an all star at every position and quite frankly better backups than a much smaller country’s starters. Yet Croatia, somehow, produces talent pretty consistently that matches much larger countries. I don’t take that for granted, to me I consider it a great victory when Croatia beats an African nation of 40,000,000 people. What makes it so much better than just the sheer numerical differences is that the team is made up of my people, not fake my people with paper work that DISHONESTLY claims are my people. < Have I worded this to your PC censoring standards Ante?
What makes me laugh is when some american sports media guy makes the excuse "our best athletes don't play soccer", LOL! Really? You have 350,000,000 freaking people, surely soccer is the most popular sport of AT LEAST 4,000,000 of your population? Not to mention the massive amount of resources put towards the U.S. soccer team from a country of 200,000,000 white people. Good heavens!
Not sure who’s worse… The Aryan spouting his bullshit or the Lovren lover emoji king
I’m disgruntled and pissed off. There’s a lot to discuss about this game and how we go forward but I’ll bring this up to start off:
Perisic took a shot, it deflected off an Argentine player and should have been a corner kick. The ref called it a goal kick. 5 seconds later the ref is 18 meters behind Alvarez (that’s 60 feet) and cannot possibly see the play that he called a PK.
Not sure how anyone wouldn’t complain about this. Not even a VAR check and the ref had zero chance of seeing what happened! The ref was 60 feet behind the play, directly in line with Alvarez so he couldn’t really see Livakovic.
This was completely unjust…first in the missed corner kick ( they never would have had that penalty) and then being 18 meters behind the play and calling a penalty!
Didn’t anyone else catch that?
Also, watch the netherlands vs arg game. They give a penalty to mess i whrn he was fouled outside the box.
Yeah I caught that too. I’m pissed off as well. FIFA has just gotten better about covering their corruption.
@ Slavonac
I caught that watching the HRT panel analysis after the game.
When it happened I was yelling and asking how does that not go to VAR!?!?! The player did run into Livakovic…it was a marginal call I thought – as did the UK commentators.
The ref had a horrible site line and wasn’t in the proper position to call it correctly. Then to not have VAR check a penalty!?!?
Then to see the play before that should have been a corner…jebote.
The game was filled with these…second goal – two bad clearance attempts that both drop right back to the Argentina forward…bad defence and two lucky bounces.
I knew it wasn’t our day.
Lovren’s positioning on the first goal was also an issue. He was too far back while the rest of the line was higher…if Lovren is in line with the D it’s offside.
I could go one but it just wasn’t our day. Poor defending and non calls/bad calls = playing for third place.
@Slavonac: I think most of us saw that, exactly the same way. Only a few pundits and cave-serbs like the truth aka ziva istina aka my mom’s a cocksucking $2 whore see it differently. Why the Croatian players didn’t scream for VAR in that situation is beyond me. But maybe that’s what Dalić asked for and he got a yellow card from that joke of a referee…I think Dalić must have asked the ref to bring in VAR, but the ref was a piece of garbage. The Argentines have been awarded 3 non-existant penalties so far this world cup.
What’s worse was how the ref got instantly aggressive with our players after they naturally protested.
Threw up two yellows at Kovačić and Livaković, and had his hand on the red.
The ref was ready to call game right then and there.
Mandzukic red card
Unlucky penalty
Sosa tired?
Was Brozovic hurt when he came off?
Dalic said in an interview that Brozovic was feeling his muscles tighten up amd he didnt want to risk him getting injured
Yeah Brozovic had some muscle issue.
We got clipped today, and unfortunately we were do, we played above our heads and have been incredibly lucky throughout this tournament, but sometimes luck is all you need. Observations, Sosa was fucking terrible, Petkovic is a lump of shit and bag of sand on the pitch, Lovren had a good tournament but he was do. The striker problem will be in our face for next few years unless someone in the U21’s steps up. Will wait to see what Ante says in the next week for Croatian soccer
I don’t hink it was luck through the tournament at all. We deserved to beat Brazil.
They played their game and technically Broz should have scored, but he had tight muscles and struggled so he couldn’t get a shot off, not his fault. But if Broz did, we would have won before the penalties so in my view Croatia deserved to win that match against Brazil.
In this game we faced a team with stronger offence, and with more firepower. Take the loss. They played their best.
Ajmo vatreni!! Ponesi doma bronca!!
I found that was a very strange game. And I don’t think I wanna watch it again to try to understand it. We didn’t really play badly and we dominated possession. Our midfield was at its best, and Modrić was playing really well. But the defense didn’t work today . Lovren didn’t keep his line on the first goal which could’ve been simply an offside. We just made a few mistakes that they totally capitalized on them. Feels like that France game in 2018. The similarity is that we got exhausted as a team. Sosa was really poor. I would’ve brought Majer in sooner. Anyway .
I must say, I look forward to a new team and to letting the youth play in the future.
One last thing. If you’re not in Croatia or planning to live here and making babies you’re not Croatian. Love you all. živjeli
Did well for a team that hardly manufactures credible chances. Played defensive ball all tournament then opened up against Argentina and got slaughtered. Overrated coach, but there’s a reason why no good clubs wanted him after the last World Cup. Borna Sosa is a waste of space, can’t pass, can’t cross, can’t dribble and most certainly can’t defend. Need to move on from Dalic and the old timers. Kovacic is not a replacement for Modric in fact he was a really crappy replacement for Rakitic, most people plaudid him but I just can’t see it, he doesn’t pass the eye test and his stats are really poor.
Ti si kreten.
A sto ste vi vasa visost?
I’m hoping Lovren hangs up the boots now. Hats off to him and he proved the doubters wrong for much of this tournament. But time to pass the torch to the next generation. Let’s see what Sutalo can do paired with Gvardiol.
Our boys played very well until the third goal.
Argentina got lucky today. We were the better team.
Well….time to vomit out my thoughts.
After we beat Japan, we were playing with house money, i said i wouldn’t be dissapointed with any result after Japan. But this one still stings.
I dont think 3-0 was fair. First 15 minutes it looked like we were going to with the game if we got some looks on goal, we looked solid.
PK changed the game, and I dont like the PK given, the striker got his final touch on the ball to put in on frame. what happens after that was irrelevant in my opinion. it was a natural coming together of bodies. Had the ball rolled into the goal – the goal would count. I understand the argument both ways though, but i dont like the PK there. What is the keeper supposed to do?
2nd goal – our crossing is so bad, has been really all tourney….which sucks becuase that’s where we tried to generate most of our chances. and when you play that short ball back you commit an extra guy into the attack and you’re vulnerable on the counter. I know we do it to get a better angle on goal, but still, just hit the corner for a change. Especially if the cross is gonna be crap.
3rd goal – Messi sliced us up, what can you do. he played well today. we were committing numbers up the pitch.
Overall, just lack of a striker did us in. As many have said, need some fresh blood in there and need to find the new finisher. All we have are 2nd or 3rd tier guys playing right now and we’re just not sharp enough at the moment up front.
Still proud of the guys and getting the result and being top 4 is great. But need to find the path forward…i imagine there will be a let down in performance after this tournament and the continued club season. So who knows how we do in the NL.
Is it time for a new coach? respect for Dalic and what he has done…but i dont know, do we need someone new for the next cycle? Not sure the answer.
The announcers said that type of penalty is rarely/if ever given in a WC. I honestly don’t know if it should be a penalty but I do know refs look at goalies differently from field players in those types of situations, the Argentine player was not getting a second touch on that ball if there was no contact. And of course b/c goals are at such a premium in football that call did change the game. How many freaking times can you come back from conceding the first goal?
Yeah from folks i have spoken with there is enough debate on if it should be or should not be. I would think the goalie should be given benefit of the doubt. He is forced to come out, and the striker got his final touch on the ball, as you said, he is not touching it again. But i dont know. it just felt wrong.
I agree completely with your take. Well said.
PK definitely questionable, should’ve at least been reviewed. Ref was out of position. Just BS, but not really unexpected. That just changed the whole game plan there.
Sosa was particularly bad, but our crosses were pretty bad by everyone all tournament, even Perisic. The multiple short corners were odd when you have one of the best passers ever taking the kicks. I don’t get it.
Concerned that this consolation match will be a disaster. Hopefully they play hard but man, who cares now. It would be a huge game for Morocco, (fifa will make that result happen) with 99% fan support.
Probably time to move on from Dalic as they retool the team, although I don’t know who could have done better this tournament. They should be proud of themselves, they showed the heart that they have. Just not enough going our way this last game. Peace.
vs morocco:
…………………………….Petkovic…………………………..
Orsic……………………………………………………Perisic
………………………………Majer……………………………..
……………………Kova…………….Jakic…………………..
JJ………………………………………………………Stanisic
…………………Sutalo……………..Erlic……………………
……………………………………………………………………..
……………………………….Livi……………………………….
Gary Neville: “There is no way that is a penalty.”
Ian Wright: “They didn’t even check the VAR. I have no idea why. It’s not a penalty.”
Roy Keane: “I agree with the lads, that’s not a penalty for me.”
Of course they couldn’t do VAR. That would risk messing with the deification of Messi.
It’s all orchestrated. I’m done participating. Enjoy the bread and circuses.
We got Gauchowed today.
This team exceeded expectations making it this far in the tournament. It’s a tough loss to take but not having enough scoring talent finally caught up with us. We have one more game left and should hold our heads up high and get 3rd place for the record books.
We just weren’t good enough today and our luck just ran out. We were very unlucky with the penalty. The forward takes a shot and then crashes into Livakovic and the referee points to the spot. Our crossing in this WC has been nothing short of embarrassing, especially from Modric and Perisic.
Kovacic was our best player today. I hope Dalic gives all the bench players a go in the final match i.e. Erlic, Sutalo, Jakic, Stanisic etc.
Would also like to see Sucic.
Our crossing did suck, but Modric was hardly ever out that wide crossing.
Also it was part of Dalic strategy to not overcommit and cut off counters. So there was usually only one guy in the box for crosses and he was surrounded by 4. Some of the balls in were decent, but there was no one running in towards the near post.
I’m talking about free kicks and corners taken by Modric during the entire tournament. Awful, cannot remember even one decent cross from him. All his crosses were dropping short and low.
Yeah that is true, the corners hardly made it past the first defenders.
Was it really the crossing that was missing or bad or the lack of a decent striker? There were three cows out there today, Kramaric, Petkovic and Livaja. They suck at getting into the path of a cross. It was frustrating all world cup watching crosses flying over, under and getting cleared out by the opposition.
The guard rails will be off for the 3rd place game, i.e. 1998. Fake news, fake elections, fake sporting events. Welcome to the matrix.
Lots to play for
Third place
Nations league title for what it’s worth wouldn’t hurt….
It really hurts knowing Luka Modric never won a title with Croatia…
Nations League semis are upcoming
https://youtu.be/rRWeYX674nk
I’m proud of what Croatia has done this tournament. Let’s go for one more win. First goal was not a penalty. Second goal I hate that shit, just cross the ball all your big guys are in the box.
We need to do a Ctrl+Alt+Del on the striker situation.
Everyone else is fine, and most of our starters will actually get better.
But we have like 4-5 strikers that we didn’t even give a chance to yet, that we desperately need to try out.
Can’t play this 4-6-0 formation anymore.
Exactly. All of our current strikers love dropping back and getting involved in the buildup. That’s fine in certain situations, but not all.
That’s the thing everyone was complaining about in the Nations League and qualifying. Find a RW solution and an actual striker. Not another false 9 that drops back when we have already have a conveyor belt of elite CAMs.
There was not much serious experimentation of that.
Maminjo,
I respect your opinion a lot but which strikers didn’t we give a chance?
A striker who does well in Croatian or Austrian league is nice. But it’s simply not good enough to make it to a WC final.
We need a striker who is in the starting 11 of an Italian, English, German or Spanish team that plays Champions League football.
I would have called up Musa from Benfica. But would that have made any difference? The player who keeps him on the bench at Benfica (Ramos) turned out to be not good enough to help his (good Portugese) team to make it to the semi-finals.
Things would instantly change if Marin Ljubicic would move from LASK to Juventus and score a lot of there. Or Drena Beljo to Dortmund (rumours saying he will move to Dortmund) or Roko Simic….
We just have to hope for that something like that will happen.
Mr. Black, I agree with everything you said there.
It absolutely would have made a difference.
We have Budimir on the team strictly because of his height and hustle.
He’s not scoring for club or country, and is an end of the bench player for us because of it.
Why not just call up the 24 year old version of him (Musa), who is a lot faster, can run longer, and is scoring steady for the past year?
It would have given Sosa more purpose, and Krama too.
He’d also be great on counter attacks, and we wouldn’t have to watch Kovačić run by himself into a crowd (because there was no threat up top).
We probably wouldn’t be taking stupid short corners if we had an aerial threat in the box.
Little things like this can make a huge difference.
Our offense was a failure this World Cup entirely because Dalić was too scared to cut an existing player to bring in the new player.
But make no mistake, Musa would have made a MASSIVE difference for our offensive play, even if he didn’t score.
I think dalic coached well. His downfall was the team called up… that wasn’t a great Argentina team
Lovren and our keeper finally played as expected, it’s only a matter of time before the coin flips to the other face?
Livakovic is more concerned with not taking a hit and getting hurt than fully concentrating on the ball.
Watch the action before the PK,and the bumbling stumbling 2nd goal.
He’s good at PK’s because he doesn’t have to worry about getting hit in a crowded 6 yard box.
If a premier team foolishly signed him he would get horribly exposed
You are an idiot!! Period
Was Lovren at fault with the short corner that didn’t work the 1st time so we’ll do it again?? I suppose the 3rd as well that Gvardiol, with more experience, should’ve taken Messi down on the line?? The penalty is never there and Gvardiol was caught out of position and what was livakovic to do with the goals. Fuck off with bullshit, sick of it already.
Those 2 are a major reason why we got to the semis.
Yep I’m an idiot for having an opinion Johnny vagina from Melbourne. I’ll agree with you so I’m
Not an idiot 👍🏻
He did make that one great save on the corner though I stand corrected.
This was my concern with Lovren and Livakovic at the start. We were eventually going to get burned. But when you make it as far as the semis, it’s hard to make any changes in that regard. One of the best things about Dalic is he seemingly built an amazing team chemistry. If you take out Lovren at that point, you risk messing with all of that.
I actually hope Livakovic does go to a big club. Let’s see if he turns into Kalinic or if he steps it up and he turns into a slightly above average keeper.
Outside of the actual wins, this has generally been a painful watching experience for Croatian fans.
Leading for only 46 minutes.
Outside of Canada, 2 goals over 550 minutes. Or 1 goal every 2.5 games
2018 definitely more enjoyable regardless of result
The 2018 knockouts, QFs and SFs were played in a very similar manner than this but with more high pressing.
If we won today and lost in the finals, this would of been more enjoyable because of who we played against. Knocking off Brazil and Argentina to reach a final would have been a baller result even if it was dragged out to PK shootouts.
Yes we had another historic run.
With the squad that was chosen.
Please forgive me but, every top team in the world has some form of top attacking talent?
Musa
Ljubičić
Čolak
Rebić
Needed a combo of two of them.
We scored one goal against non Canadian teams.
I pray all the young kids get to play this Saturday as we can turn the page.
I want to see pure speed on Saturday.
We scored 2 against non-Canadian teams (Japan and Brazil)
Agreed
Ljubicic
Colak
Musa
Simic maybe soon
One of these guys (ok colak is older) will pan out in the near or semi near future
Vidovic?
Is matanovic that tall kid?
Defence looks secure. Sutalo if pans out will make us next level
JJ, stanisic will be solid
Sosa should be fine for a few years
Midfield will be more than fine
New luka looking to come up
Majer will be very solid
Kova and broz can hold it down for 4 years for sure
What is Perisic and the kings role?
Perisic Lb? Striker potentially like conte is trying? Even for a little bit
Has a good header and can manoeuvre still in tight spots
Give orsic more looks at lw?
Just some random thoughts
Its what we needed from the beginning of the tournament speed on the wings and number 9 to cause mayhem for any opponent’s central defense. Throw in the young talent in start Lovro as his shot is needed badly nevermind needing the experience as the future “heir” to Nordic.
We played a great tournament and Dalic coached well overall. We didn’t have a real striker or RWer and we made a very deep run. Am I satisfied? Hell no. I think we could of won it all.
I think most all our regular starters and rotation players played well to exceptional this whole tournament. Even Livakovic and Lovren who were widely considered to be our weakest links. Sosa was one of the weaker players to me. But it’s hard to fault the guy who is known for crossing as his main attribute when he has no one to cross to.
Kovacic was a bright spot for me today. If Modric retires and Kovacic plays like he did today on a regular basis, we’re in good shape for the next two tournaments.
Not our best game but Hrvatska played a brilliant tournament. Semi-finals in WC is a huge result.
The penalty was not at all a penalty for me. Livakovic didn’t do anything, it was the attacker who jumped him.
Without that goal things surely could have be different but…
We have to be honest. We didn’t perform okay after that. Our organization looked lost, things just didn’t work out anymore.
For me, the main problem was that we lacked someone like Suker, Eduardo or Mandzukic in front. No offense to Kramaric, Livaja, Petkovic because they gave it their all and we should applaud them for that. With our current team, if we want to score against a quality team as Argentina, we need to attack with too many players since we don’t have anybody (a striker) who make something out of really nothing.
I think we should applaud Dalic, he’s a true national hero to me. He really got (more than) the maximum out of this team. A lot of people on this site have (or had) their doubts about him but he did a splendid job.
We should continue like this and pray that one of our young strikers (Musa, Simic, Matanovic, Drena Beljo) get big.
To end a big HVALA to our players, coach and management. You really made us proud.
BOG i HRVATI
Yes. We need a predator up front no doubt about it. We have to produce one soon.
If we had a predator this game would be a whole lot different.
Heads up high fellas. I’m devastated as well but what a wonderful tournament we had.
Bog!
Ante Kvartuc little BITCH doesn’t erase disgusting comments attacking Serbs and Greeks for some reason, comments that make Croatians look bad, but he censors comments by Croatians who simply say ‘thank God our team doesn’t LOOK like France’. So what other conclusion can I arrive at other than Ante is a TRAITOR, what’s important to him is not his actual nationality, but a God Damn Jersey!
ne seri
We played the way Argentina wanted us to play. Instead of playing defensive football like we did the last few matches, we tried to match them and their tempo. Also, you can tell that they tried stretching us as they had their players as wide as possible on the field and it was screwing up our defenders.
ne seri
I will seri
My bad, I actually commented that on the wrong post. As you were good sir.
what is it?
all of you didn’t see that clearly – for the first goal
IT WAS LOVREN _o) p sucks .. don’t say -> anything!
It’s a shame. I was optimistic 60/40 that we would take this game. The penalty and the second goal came against the run of play and we really fell apart in the back. It was a long ball and a counter that screwed us over. Both seemed easily avoidable. Brozovic just kick it into the box off that short corner ffs.
Exactly, but some may say what Brozovic did there was Dalic, Lovren and Livakovic’s fault though, these are people that have never played as a team, won as a team and lost as team. That was sloppy by us all round.
Guys
We have what like 2 million men in Croatia
Maybe what a third of that play nogomet
Think about that…. We are incredible
Third place game is such a shitty thing to play for but we have to recollect and go on
Great tournament for our boys!
Had a bad game.
Penalty was BS.
Second goal was lucky. How that didn’t get cleared I’ll never know.
Changed the dynamic of the game.
Great achievement nonetheless!!!
Bravo dečki!!!
Bog i Hrvati
“Penalty was BS.”
shut the hell up, that was easily a penalty. Meanwhile Lovren is kept the attacker onsides, lovren was 10 yards more deep than the next defender.
Eventually luck catches up to you. Croatia should’ve lost their last 3 games based on expected goals
It’s an interesting transition over the years
1998: free flowing , offensive team
2018. Hard pressing team manufacturing goals through intensity
2022: greece
None the less, these guys should still be incredibly applauded for an incredible job. Still an amazing feat. They just weren’t good enough and it caught up. It seems real anti climatic to play for third but still would be a strong achievement
I know it’s deflating but keep in mind there is still a bronze medal match to come and if we do win that and finish on a high it will feel a bit better.
Either way i am sure the team is gonna get a huge welcome back to Zagreb, maybe not as much as 2018 but they will get cheered by a huge crowd nonetheless for sure, did really well this tourney regardless.
Sucks watching Modric cry…..why didnt we play more of a defensive game. Dont understand
Needed Perisic, Sosa and a striker to turn up this tournament. Got as much as we deserved. Great result overall.
Another World Cup, another siting of Croatians losing! How can you expect to win and never score a goal! Pathetic! Better for you to lose now than get crushed by France again
Another post from “Frenchman, another grammatical mistake.
Another post from Frenchman, another grammatical mistake.
Just as I expected…mr “frenchman” aka orthodox christian the truth aka Ziva Istina. I guess you’re wallowing in the moment eh? You came in your underwear while your momma is out making her $2 nightly rounds blowing bosnian and albanian c*ck? Treasure the moment. Your pathetic svrbija is NEVER EVER going to the semifinals in the World Cup…
Another World Cup, another asshole troll. Your team isn’t even half French, lol.
Ziva Pizdina, Mile, baka, just shut the f*** and stop embarrassing real Croats. I was the real Frenchman, the guy above is a fraud, you should know if read my previous comments that I’m more Catholic than the Pope you fools.
Notice how “Ziva Pizdina” calls them “orthodox,” my Croatian nationalist friends call them “krivoslavci.”
Ziva Pizdina is a snake in the grass.
Ziva Pizdina, Mile, baka, just shut the f*** and stop embarrassing real Croats. I was the real Frenchman, the guy above is a fraud, you should know if you read my previous comments that I’m more Catholic than the Pope you fools.
Notice how “Ziva Pizdina” calls them “orthodox,” my Croatian nationalist friends call them “krivoslavci.”
Ziva Pizdina is a snake in the grass.
@frenchman AKA the truth AKA Ziva istina: how the hell would a REAL frenchman even know the meaning of the word “krivoslavci”…. you fucking inbred mongrel whore of a serb bastard half turk cocskucker?
Ziva Pizdina/snake in the grass, if you haven’t got early onset dementia, read again fool,
“Notice how “Ziva Pizdina” calls them “orthodox,” my Croatian nationalist friends call them “krivoslavci.””
Trailed almost the whole tournament – our group turned out to be alot harder than we thought- should have lost to Belgium who was all over us and we kept dodging the bullet – but today we got the bullet full on- right in the face- time to move on to younger kids a few years of great wins we should be proud of – PERIOD .
Argentina got there revenge on us 2018 – what shame / not shit talking Dalic as his tactics were usually good but his timing of subs drained out starters when we had good depth for once- orsic can shoot and in the 86th min have we even had a shot on net ? Lovren with our best 2 chances. I’d trade that groups stage win any day now as it’s irrelevant – your only as good as your last game – Gvardiol, Sosa, lovren, all bad games – was juranovic our best defender !? Why no mins for sutalo, erlic ? Majer, orsic, vlasic shohlda been deployed earlier during group stage games and r16 to save legs. Overall what can we say – another chance squandered and going out embarrassed on the score line this time tho we deserve to hold our heads up high. What coulda been I suppose
Its all matrix bullshit. Might as well watch the Rollerball movie.
We did as well as possible without a good offense. We all talked about the striker problem….it would have been a miracle to win the tournament without scoring more. Jebiga…I’m proud of how far we’ve come.
We could only go so long playing as a team like Kovacic. Strange game. They did very little but it worked. Reminds me of France loss.
We are getting robbed again. first goal wasn’t a penalty. it changed to flow of the match.
Exactly, mate. Expect plenty of salty comments from ziva istina aka the truth and his likes. Hiding in their serbian caves just waiting for a croatian defeat and wallowing in their greasy homosexual ass-banging together with the greeks and other f*cktards.
well, we don’t lose the close ones at least. Great tournament though
Help me out here. What happened to defense wins tournaments. Why change tactics. I didn’t expect a tactical change from the Brazil game. bizarre.
Don’t understand either. Easy to say now but I don’t understand. Perhaps we wanted to score so we dont go to extra time?
Its all matrix bullshit. Might as well watch the Rollerball movie.
You can’t do what you want if the other team have a plan to get you to play another way. If our attack is ordinary why wouldn’t you give us the ball and beat Croatia playing the way Croatia would like to play. We got to get a plan B it’s as simple as that.
Back to earth for Lovern
🙁
Messi is currently showing why he is the GOAT.
It happens, we had a great run, I couldnt be more proud of our decki. Cant score if you dont shoot though. I dont want to hear any Dalic slander or anything like that.
We still got some time but its not looking likely
Too bad he is an absolute prick. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I want France to win this thing now. I want Messi crying on Sunday. Who cares if France wins another one anyway.
Yeah me too. I also dislike Messi and Argentina
And I’m guessing we won’t hear stories of Croatian fans beating up Argentine fans after the game like what happened in 2018 when asshole Argentine fans beat up Croatians. But yeah, go Messi!
I agree, I dont like Messi and I hate Argentina, but i definitely think he is the best. Sucks that he is a prick
Now I would go at Ottomendi’s ankles for 2018.
Whether that was a penalty or not is debatable. But at the end of the day, we have to play better. Our defense fell apart, no one to blame but ourselves. Not the Argentinians or the Ref. If we want this we have to go out and get it
If we bow out of the tournament, I will still be so proud of our lads. Without a threat up top we went as far as humanly possible.
We need to produce a striker soon.
I think the lack of even checking VAR is so disappointing
Isn’t that kinda of strange? Every other game that was played the refs check VAR….this one …nothing. Also, they booked our GK in hopes he gets sent off?
Again, same Italian asshole VAR guy as the 2018 final. Agendas are clear.
How do we score without taking a shot on goal? Serious question. As has been said here many times, we go as Perisic goes, and he’s stunk so far.
That “we go as Perisic goes” is the biggest bullshit I’ve ever heard. To me it’s always been Perisic goes the way the game goes, if the game doesn’t give him the opportunities he needs to make an impact, he can’t do much.
I think I heard the commentator say that 9 of our starting 11 have played every game and only 4 of Argentina’s have, you got to say the Argies do look sharper than us, and I think it’s more our work load that has got the better of us here. If I was Dalic I’d play the younger kids in the 3rd place play off.
More importantly at this point, I’m hearing there is sickness in the French camp. Should we be worried about that? Morocco would be a much easier third place game
The third place matches are pointless. This one is not over yet, but it is the biggest test yet. No matter what, taking down the dancing Brazilians was a great feat.
I’d rather play the French to be honest, we already played Morocco. We couldn’t beat them in the first game to give some of our older players a rest in the 3rd game, and I couldn’t care less if we beat for bronze. Give me France, it’ll be a better game to watch, and give me Sucic, Majer, Erlic, Sutalo, Jakic all in the starting line up and I’ll be happy!
Besides Majer and Erlic I’ve never seen any of the others play.
Brozovic botched that corner big time. Took way too long with it and let it get deflected to start the counter. Also mistimed his tactical foul to stop play. The back line has been atrocious.
Why even bother with short corners? They we are all so predictable and 2nd goal cost us the game. Whip the bloody thing into the box. Embarrasing shit!
These short corners we are taking are killing us. Brozovic’s poor cross that was blocked led to the counter attack.
Put the fucking ball into the penalty area when you can!
Playing from behind for this long is just a matter of time to get soaked like this- we needed to score first and we didn’t – second half – just go for it- lose 5-0 or 2-1 – what’s the difference
Wow, that half sucked
Dominating possession….we just break down in the final 3rd, everyone knew this was an issue – coming back to haunt us.
Sosa not having a game today. looks like hes just not feeling it.
Kovacic playing great. Kramaric trying but not enough movement around him.
Overall not playing badly going forward, just having trouble with the final 2 passes.
Horrendous defending.
Now we need to score at least 2….dunno where it will come from unless its from distance or a corner/set piece.
expect argies to bleed the clock now.
I’m not a ref
Penalty or not
We don’t get the call on the other end
If it was only 1 not a massive deal…
What are the changes at the half?
Orsic and petko?
Keep waiting for Perisic to hit God mode but I don’t know if it’s there
Jebi ga…. Ajmo
Boys seem off in the back third and first third. Haven’t seen them like this since the 1st Nations League tourney
Croatia risks getting embarrassed now as for the first time this tournament they ll need to open up for a prolonged period of time
Croatias strength has been controlling tempo
Now they’ll need to push to the final third which they’ve been toothless in
Croatia was playing their game for a while there and it was going well. Now we’ll get to hear the commentators that Croatia has come back down to their rightful place
Why do you say “Croatia” and not “we” ?
@ Iggy: good point. It’s because he’s a cocksucking faggot whore of a serb who revels in all his “wisdom” and senseless “predictions”, while his mom is out doing her nightly rounds choking on bosnian and albanian cock for $2 a piece…
Fresh air Sosa. How does that flog get a game?
Perisic needs to play better too.
Poor defending. Gvardiol out of position with the first goal and Sosa failing to clear the ball with the second. We’ll need a miracle to come back from this.
Yes. You could see lovren thought Gvardiol was in line with him.
The ref has been against Croatia from the start. Again, Italians never want Croatia to win. Anyone have Italian acquaintances that are happy for us getting this far. Yeah, me neither.
We should be playing better.
We need to survive the remainder of the 1st half, then stage an epic comeback
Livakovic didn’t touch the ball when he came out…..it was a penalty
Because the player put it past him, once he did that either the Argentine ran into Livakovic or Livakovic brought the Argie down? The ref believes the Livakovic brought him down, what are you gonna do, sloppy play from us all round there.
Take Sosa out…total liability
Lovren too.
Wonder why we aren’t playing ultra def like the other games
I mean, why never a corner kicked into the box? Sosa
Wow, we get fucked again?! First of all, 20 seconds before that bs, clear corner kick off Perisic’s shot. The ball even spun backwards. The agenda is clear. Messi needs to be in the final.
Sosa having horrible game – what a fuckin joke var again – not even a check
VAR??????
That wasn’t a penalty.
Yeah not a penalty, ran into each other
Sosa sucks!
any working streams by the way? Not up yet on Redditsoccerstreams…
https://totalsportk.org/
Man i was pretty much too excited to sleep, like a child on Christmas Eve waiting to see what presents they got lol.
IM FUCKING SCARED !!
judge by the lineup
I think Argentine positively win this match
so go to sleep _o) Lovren will screw it!!
Lovren has been playing well thus far, don’t doubt our team … we have come so far.
@Iggy: We’ll win this match and then it’s onwards to the finals against France. There we’ll get our sweet revenge for the atrocious Griezmann dives and non-existant penalty which they were handed on a platter. Believe in what the asparagus said. Croatia will be champions this year…! 😀⚽️🇭🇷
Perfect👌
Looks like Argentina is going to line up in a 4-4-2
They can line up with 0-10 for all I care. We’re gonna win this….! Ajmooooo Vatreniiiii….samo naprid…! Za dom i finaleeeeeee…! 😀😀⚽️⚽️🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷
Obviously, Maradona is the best ever…he’s a quarter croatian! (The quarter that doesn’t love 1000 lbs of coke and hookers per day.)
#2 is Luka.
Perisic header against Japan was another historical beauty. Hope he can regain youthful leg strength and speed, for just one more day in his life.
We need (2) Modric and Rebic type magical goals today.
Luka will always be a legend
But it somehow he takes these last two games on his back and does one of his golassos he will have to climb that all time list to the top ten footballers
The best midfielder will at least have to be shared with Zidane
His longevity alone will take him higher then all
Epic day to be a Croat brothers
* on top of the HNS logo! Love it! Let’s go Vatreni!
i certainly wouldn’t be mad at that
The yugos may like it as well;)
If anyone is in NYC I’m be at Smithfield hall. ZDS!
We certainly need to create more offensive chances. I loved watching our midfield dominate against Brazil but at least occasionally we have to risk a little to try and score.Kovacic should be given instructions to penetrate that box.
I love penetrating boxes.
Brazil is better than Argentina but Argentina play tougher.
I still like Budimir up top to start which will allow Vlašić on the wing.
Budimir attacks the box and Vlašić is built to run at Argentina.
We need an outlet on the right as they know they have to stop Perišić.
Our midfield is due for a golasso or two.
We need to jump on Argentina the same way we jumped on Brazil.
Iz naša Svi
Great article and ajmo Vatreni!! 🇭🇷❤️🔥
This game is interesting because although it is Argentina that is favored, I feel it will be them that changes tactics to adjust to Croatia
Croatia will roll out with a very identical plan as with Brazil, but will likely be a bit more balanced and attacking in their approach in this game, especially at the start
Given what Croatia did with Brazil in terms of dictating tempo, I think Argentina will pro-actively adjust their tactics to make sure they are not overwhelmed in the midfield. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out for them.
Overall, South America has not had a great tournament.
Firstly only 4 teams in.
Uruguay finished 3rd behind Korea.
Ecuador finished 3rd in a group that included Qatar and behind a Senegal team that was easily dismissed by England.
Argentina finished 1st, but with a +3 goal differential, dropping a game to Saudi Arabia, and so-so games vs Australia and Netherlands
Brazil finished first but lost to Cameroon (although with subs), and only finished with a +2 goal differential and then obviously lost to Croatia.
I would play the physically strongest non-Dinamo players to start (Perisić, Livaja, Pasalić), or maybe the same lineup that played against Canada and Belgium. Kramarić and Livaja were a good tandem. Kramarić draws penalties like no other, so an overly aggressive Argentina team could fall for his dribbling tricks and pull him down in the box. Livaja is strong and not actually that short. He’s also more clever with the ball than Petković. He may once have been a hothead, but we have seen Livaja keeping a cool head on the pitch for a couple of years now. He may have exactly the personality needed for this match. I agree that Budimir is only there to be a sub for certain situations, and Dalić himself has stated that Budimir is a defensive option. Petković always plays like it’s 5-a-side, which leads to amazing plays but sometimes leads to wasted chances. I agree that he and Orsić are better as a tandem off the bench.
Livaja was an unused sub against Brazil and for good reason.
Petkovic isn’t perfect, but his elite technical ability, ability to win aerial duels, and chemistry with Orsic (and other former Dinamo players like Majer) makes him more useful.
Not sure if I would start Petkovic though (he’s better off the bench).
Krama was fine up top in our last game, and provides that extra stability for maintaining possession.
Yeah, Kramarić realistic should start again, especially since the team keeps winning with him on the field. But it will be interesting to see if the striker changes. I think the team can squeak out a goal if the same players keep playing together, regardless of the striker.
I think it’s going to be the same setup as against Brazil. I also think the subs will be the same. I’m not against this as Pasalic was praised for his defense on the right. Argentina is not as dynamic as Brazil offensively so hopefully both Pasalic and Kramaric won’t have as heavy of a defensive responsibility this game.
Maybe start with livaja or krama up top
But i do think both orsic and petko being more valuable together
Boosts subs power IMO
Pasalic looked good on the right
Tougher and stronger then krama
Has that header potential
I’m going out on a limb
Sosa gonna be involved in a goal for us tomorrow. Just a random hunch
If Perisic can go God mode somehow, game set match! We need two monster games from Ivan and I don’t care if he ever scores for us again;)
I’m like others. I’m mostly worried about their dirty ness and fifa corruption
Also, if Luka takes this game on his back… it wasn’t long ago he out ran pretty well the whole psg team
It’s still there!!
Ajmmooooooooo!!!!!
Guys… GUYS… im fucking SCARED!!~!! Can someone plz HOLD ME!!! LOL
Take a nap again in the 90th!!!
More often than not, playing attractive and attacking football does not win you World Cups or for that matter any other tournaments. Many neutrals have been saying that we are playing ugly? but who cares as only results matter. Our midfield has been tremendous in controlling the tempo of all our matches including Brazil. This is critical as it enables our players especially defenders to take a breather and recuperate during the match.
Early goal? not sure if I like that against strong opposition and with the players that we have upfront at this WC. If we had quick players up front an early goal would be ideal, however apart from Perisic in our starting 11 we do not have anyone else that could sprint away from the opposing defenders on a counter. My preference is to tire them out and then to score a late goal giving the opposition very little time to respond.
Chances for this match are 50/50. I am hoping that we can win in regular time and hopefully no penalties. Argentina has a good goalkeeper and good penalty takers. Their penalty shootout record at the World Cups is 5 wins out of 6.
I’m also hoping that the Italian referee will do a good job and not fall for any trickery and dirty play from Argentina.
As far as the stats of Argentina winning 5/6 penalty shoot outs in the WC. This is one of those stats that holds no credence to me. A couple of these were in the early 90’s when most of these players were a glint in the milkman’s eye. The only one that holds weight is the most recent one and even that had Van Dijk take the first one which didn’t seem like a good idea without much previous experience/success.
Argentina also lost both the 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals in PK shootouts (with Messi missing in both).
So if we want to make ourselves feel better with stats, we can cherry pick Argentina’s last 4 shootouts and say they are only 50% in those.
PKs are still largely luck.
Modric and Majer’s penalties were bad and they were both lucky that the keeper jumped early.
Modric’s PKs are always shaky, and Majer’s was straight down the middle (but with no lift). He also looked extremely nervous when he lined up.
Orsic’s PK was amazing. Allison guess and jumped perfectly, but still not enough.
Our best PK takers are probably Krama and Orsic (but we rarely have those two out there at 120 minutes). Vlasic and Brozovic and noticeably good too.
Dalic has to be more strategic with who he has out there at 120 minutes.
We all love Modric and Kovacic, but they’re not the best at this.
Modric’s was bottom corner, near the post and with pace.
Penalty record:
https://www.transfermarkt.com/luka-modric/elfmetertore/spieler/27992
I’ve always been worried about Modric penalty’s ever since Denmark and Russia not looking the best there. But another night of not sleeping made me look up all our PK takers records and I was pleasantly surprised to find this as well. We have some really good penalty takers.
Ugly? That’s curious. Saying any team is THE best at something is always debatable, but we are at least among the best in every category that makes the game beautiful. Ball control and brilliant passing? Check. Switching play? Check. Playing out of tight presses with calm? Check. Generally clean play and a family atmosphere? Check. Resilience, emotion, and heart? Who has more? In what upside down and perverse world do these journalists live? I think you can safely ignore them.
When we are calm and confident, no one can stop us. The calm seems contrary to being Croatian, but I know that we can do it! Let us try our best as fans to be calm and confident as well, so that our boys can feel our positive vibrations and play like the warriors they are.
I’ve figured out how to be Argentina. All we need is for @Iggy to post about how nervous he is and that we’re doomed. Guaranteed win after that😜🤣
Good one!
Work your mojo @Iggy
Did somebody say Doomed?
Excellent article. Well-thought-out and articulated…
Thank you very much
Who the ref for the game?
https://www.croatiaweek.com/world-cup-2018-croatian-army-sends-team-video-message-of-support/
All we have to do is get down quickly on the right side as the Argentines have no speed down the left. Pressure the attackers. Luka has to hold his own. He is the key player tomorrow. He must control the midfield and stop any balls going through to Messi or Martinez but then we have the brick wall gvardiol blocking all entries. Do those things and we will be there. COME ON CROATIA !!!
Ante, thank you for all your influence and commentary. It’s so fucking hard going from game to game with so much at stake, it’s almost sickening. But tomorrow our boys know what’s going on. Bog I Hravati
I think the Ref will give us the fouls. I’m being hopeful here, but after the latest fiasco with the FRA-ENG & ARG-NL game, there will be a requirement to be more fair and not have another controversy
I have a feeling tomorrow will be like that Euro match against Portugal where they fouled the shit out of us and the ref turned a blind eye to it.
I expect Luka to get stomped on.
Yeah that is my worry. I think Argentina is going to make as many fouls as possible to break our flow, especially on key players and they will do that early to send a message and try and rattle us mentally. They want a dog fight. Now does the ref give out cards or not is the question.
My starting 11 would be the same for defenders and of course Livakovic. In my opinion Juranovic is a minus on defense and a great help on offensive. The guy can fly. To be fair on defense he is often out of position because so much is expected of him on offense. His height (or lack thereof) doesn’t help.
You cannot mess with the midfield trio which is exceptional.
You could play with the front three. I would like to see Orsic on the left, Ivan (who can play anywhere) in the number 9 and Majer on the right wing. That said, the game is 90+ or 120+ minutes long and putting those three upfront would deplete our bench. I think Ante is right about the value of Pasalic defensively. So maybe we go with Perisic on the left, Livaja ( to start) in the middle and Pasalic on the right and have Orsic, Majer, Vlasic to sub as needed.
Argentina is a dirty, dirty team. If I were Dalic -and I am not-I would play in the locker room over and over again the clip of how some bastard intentionally kicked the ball into Raketic’s head after play stopped in 2018. It was amazing how that did not precipitate a brawl. Those guys were stronger than me. Also noteworthy was how classless Messi disappeared without bothering to shake hands after that game. Makes you appreciate how Luka is so much more of a humble leader and how proud we should be of him.
If our guys play like they can we will win. Argentina is prone to making mistakes and I believe we will capitalize on those mistakes.
If our two dinamo players can break through Brazilian defence? Why not start Orsic and Petkovic? I don’t think people understand that when you play at a national level for a major tournament, chemistry is difficult to maintain and establish. Petko and Orsic have been together for awhile. They know each other well on the pitch both at the international level and with Dinamo. Petkovic had a goal and two assists in CL. Orsic had two goals and an assist in CL. They were able to make it work again against Brazil. Let’s not forget, Orsic had the second goal and tying assist vs Spain. Kramaric scores two against Canada and all the sudden he’s our first choice still? Kramaric should sit. I’d go with Perisic left wing, Petkovic in the middle and vlasic on right. Do you replace Perisic with Orsic? I would. Subs should be Majer, Pasalic, Budimir and Orsic. Gotta keep Vlasic, Orsic, Modric and Majer on the field if it goes past 90 minutes.
Messi is better than Pele and Maradona? Not sure if i agree…
Yeah he is. He’s better than Maradona and Maradona was better than Pele. So that settles that too many people are weirdly sentimental. As a side note Pele never had the stones try his luck in Europe.
A lot of people on this forum are too young and have probably not seen Maradona play apart from video clips. Maradona for me is the greatest player of all time.
Remember how much that guy used to get hacked when you could get away with a lot more than you can now? I think if Maradona played in this era there is 2 more world cups easy for Argentina.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/zkgu17/threat_and_progression_via_pass_world_cup_2022/
Threat and Progression via pass, a lot of Croatian players are on here. Luka Modric a big threat.
Lovren will run out of luck vs Argentina __
it’s about how to change him soon! ..
0-1 because of him
1-1 we try to retaliate
1-2 because of him
—— at this point ——
Lovren should be out
then this will be for ->
2-2 we have quality
3-2 we have spirit
I hear Moroccosports.com looking for a Lovren hater. Inquire there.
Lovren>Otamendi
I think that we all hope that you are wrong about Lovren because he has been one of our better players during this WC and hopefully it continues.
In the end even the best players make mistakes.
Just out of curiosity, who do you think was at fault for the Brazil goal ??
If you go and watch the replay you will see that Gvardiol tries to intercept a Brazil one/two on the edge of the penalty box and fails, leaving a hole in our defensive line. Sosa is then unable to get to the ball before Neymar and in the end Livakovic fails to dive at the feet of Neymar and he scores.
Gvardiol has been outstanding, but the initial mistake was his that lead to the goal. He tried his best as did Sosa and Livakovic to stop Neymar and that is all that we can ask from our players.
Guys, don’t be too worried about the VAR ref. Sure, he requested the review of Perisic’s handball, that is his job after all. It was fucknut Nestor Pitana who studied the replays for over 2 minutes that screwed us.
I think though there is an implied message, if official gets a call from the VAR ref., on a call, that does not require a mandatory review, that he, the referee did miss something, and he needs action to rectify his mistake, maybe I am wrong. If the VAR calls it out there is a 98% chance the call will be changed. They don’t have the rule on something they don’t think is a problem. Maybe I am wrong.
It’s true, as soon as they go to look at the screen you know you’re fucked.
I want that POS Otamendi to eat shit. F*&king thug.
I hate him with a burning passion
Budimir size and toughness is a great way to start up top for us.
I feel his mobility is underrated here.
I more interested in Vlašić on the RW to provide a thrust in the final third.
Our guys have acclimated to pressing Brazil.
They are ready for an offensive breakthrough against Argentina.
We need to match the physicality without getting involved with any of that Argentina ghetto fabulous corny shit.
By the way Maradona > Messi.
We need subs early and often in the second half.
We need to take care of business in regulation time.
This formation is the same that Chelsea used when they had Didier Drogba as striker. Although Petkovic is no Drogba, I think his size and random dribbling skills might work well in this formation.
Messi>Kramaric………….you can’t be serious?
Kramaric is useless……..he’s slow as shit, has no hold up play and is weak AF. For all of Petko’s inabilities he at least has better then average hold up play and is physical. At least he make the opposing defenders work at having to cover him. Kramaric floats around like a pedar when he plays CF.
Play Orsic and Perisic as your winger Dalic…for F##k’s sake. Dalic is going to play the same lineup he had against Brazil because it worked and they won but were dominated for most of the game with only 0 shots on net in 90 mins.
Orsic and Petko have great chemistry for Dinamo….let them play together! WTF Dalic.
If you’re saying Kramaric is useless then why are you so shocked I said Messi is better?
Not sure he knows what the greater than less than symbols mean lol. Great write-up as always.
Yikes… someone skipped math class. Thanks for the kind words.
My guess is he wanted: “Messi >>>>>>> Kramaric”, lol.
I would like to see some offensive players. I really want us to score first and put the game to rest in 90 minutes. If we’re going to the final, we need as much rest a possible, and need to avoid a 120+ minute game. Argentina are beasts when it comes to OT and penalties, and they are veterans who can blow our lead. It’s too much of a gamble to let it go to OT. I would like to see Orsic come in early, because I think he was powerful in the game against Brazil. One of his first touches on the ball allowed for the Petkovic goal. He is fast, and he has the ability to outplay Argentinian defense.