Oh my! Manchester City were 45 minutes away from being dumped out of Champions League…then Mateo Kovačić hit the TURBO BUTTON!
A win and only a win would have saved Man City’s European season Wednesday night at the Etihad. Funny enough, if City were not victorious against Club Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb would have taken their spot in the final 24.
Brugge nearly turned this Champions League tournament upside down with their 45′ goal just before halftime to make it 1-0. City knew they would now have to score at least two goals to save themselves the embarrassment. In the 53rd minute, Kovačić took the ball at the halfway line, dribbled it straight down the field and slotted home from 19 yards out — all by himself. The goal would give City the confidence and morale boost they needed. They would score two more to win it 3-1; which saves their European season and kills Dinamo’s.
Even though Kova was MOTM vs. Brugge, Goal.com gave him a rough 7/10 rating. What do they have against the guy? “Pulled City back from the brink with his run through the middle and arrowed strike into the bottom corner, albeit aided by generous Brugge defending.”
Gvardiol received a 8/10 from Goal.com: “A monstrous presence at both ends of the pitch. His block on Talbi saved a goal and then he set up City’s second.”
Just sad that non of eastern europe clubs qualify for top 24 position. Imagine if dinamo qualify.
Its just reflects the income disparity among the rich clubs and poorer clubs, unfortunately.
ZU going toe to toe with Wemby. So far so good. 14 and 14 boards.
Kovacic scored equaliser to kill off his ex club’s hope of qualifying..he shouldnt be celebrating his goal out of respect for his ex club. Gvardiol provided the sucker punch to condemn his ex club.
Good that many NT players playing in CL
Stanisic Erlic Gvardiol
Moro kovacic Sucic Ivanusec Baturina
Petkovic Pasalic
Either I’m not getting the joke, or you’re serious, and this comment is really ignorant. There were multiple games happening at the same time, that resulted in Dinamo, and other teams not making it. When Kova scored, did you expect him to pull out his phone and lookup the other results and standings before celebrating???
Yeah..joking only. Anyway, it is so coincidental that two ex players kill off dinamo hopes. And pulisic with croatian roots almost killed off dinamo hopes well if they didnt score one more and results dont go their way.
In general in 2024, its really a bad and unfortunate year for NT and croatian clubs. Almost got into nx rd of euros and CL. Just hope its a better year in 2025:)
Sheesh. They were still in it until Sporting scored … which was after Man City already had the lead.
2024 was a bad year for the National Team…but I wouldn’t say it was bad for our club teams.
Dinamo did very well in CL, despite changing coaches three times and being incredibly unlucky with injuries and the fact that 11 points statistically gets you into the next round 99% of the time.
If they win the HNL, they get an automatic place in the CL next year. In the past, we could only dream of a HNL team getting an automatic berth.
On top of this, Hajduk and Rijeka (not to mention Osijek and Varteks) are competitive and actually developing talent for the National Team.
Varteks resurrected Michele Sego’s career, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in our NT setup soon. Hajduk have some real good talent now, Dinamo is always Dinamo, and Rijeka and Osijek are pretty decent as well.
Thats not what killed them. They still had the 24th spot when Man City was up 2-1 What killed them was Sporting scoring the equalizer in the 77th minute. Without that goal. Dinamo in.. Sporting out.
And it was Gvardiol who fed the ball dangerously in front of the net for the own goal to make it 2-1.
Indeed. Also, Mario Pasalic with the equalizer for Atalanta. Need all boys in form shortly