Mario Mandžukić’s fine season continued Wednesday night in Torino, Italy when Bayern Munich took a 2-0 first leg lead against Italian champions Juventus. Mandžukić got the start but was carded in just the seventh minute of play, meaning he will miss Bayern’s first leg semifinal match versus either Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund or Barcelona. The draw will be held this Friday. Mandza went into a 50/50 situation with Giorgio Chiellini, didn’t touch the Italian and was then carded thereafter. Bayern is sure to appeal the suspension and it is sure to be reversed.
But he made up for it in the 64th minute with the game still scoreless, heading home a a partially blocked shot by Juventus goalie Gianluigi Buffon following a Bayern free kick. Mandžukić was in the right place at the right time to cooly head home the ball for a 1-0 lead. Claudio Pizarro added one more for the German champions in injury time to make it 2-0 (4-0 agg.)
Mandžukić header to make it 1-0 vs. Juventus
sorry but it WAS an olic-goal so THERE LOL
@Poglavnik
Are you serious? Ok, i agree Mateo Kovacic and Luka Modric would be a good centre-midfield couple. But Mandzukic and Olic? Gotta be kidding me, dude; For the World Cup Olic will be 34. We can’t keep ignoring Jelavic, we is a good striker (As he proved in the Euros) and he has a great partnership with Mandzo, so, why not putting him? Yeah, i agree, he is not a regular at Everton, but, we are trying to construct a team for the WC! We have to stop using players that are not going to be in shape for then.
@SišmiššĆovjek
I agree, we have never needed Zlatan. Right now Croatia has been doing a good performance at international football and has been doing it as a team. But if you look at the Euros, Sweden WAS Zlatan, there was no Sweden without him, and thats just pretty fucking bad, i think that would happen with Croatia if we had him, not cause our players are not good, but because Zlatan wants to be the team and get all lights.
I can just say, if i had Jelavic and Zlatan to create a partnership with Mandzukic, Ibrahimovic would be spending a lot of minutes in the bench.
The Red Jersey helps with the name as well. We need to take this name viral.
@Mate Cleveland
“@BatMan
What did Zlatan give his wife for her birthday?
Five minutes of his time”
You got it, that’s him!
@Iggy
“also agree with Ziva (for a change) in calling it an olic type of goal precisely because it is an olic type of a goal.. sorry but that’s what it was *shrugs*”
Since your statement was addressed to me I will respond. Not that I want to or should as this topic is beyond irrelevant redundant and boring.
We discussed this already and the statement from Ziva goes from “tap in goals” which he has been annoyingly saying for years to “type of goal.” Are you sure it was not in fact a Mario Mandzukic type of goal? He was the person that scored the goal and it is a replay of pretty much all his goals he scores from within the 6 yard box. You even said, and I quote:
“he’s still a tap-in artist as is mandzukic.. both of them cannot score for the repka from outside of the 6 yard box.”
Olic “can and does” score from outside the 6 yard box but does Mario? Mario does not score from outside the 6 yard box, for club or country and to be completely honest I really don’t care! This completely exonerates the Olic implication in the statement. As Croatia v Antwerp said so brilliantly..
“I don’t care how he scores, as long as he scores.”
Exactly! Mario is playing awesome and I don’t care if Mario scores a million of those types of goals! That goes for Olic, Eduardo, Jelavic and anyone of our guys. The ball went in the net and that is all I need to know. Iggy, this is a stupid redundant and irrelevant statement and discussion if you really must know. A goal is a goal is a goal. I would rather have a drink or two or three or four or five or six!
“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”
🙂
@Luka
As soon as I typed out “Gimme A break” the song emanated in my head. To be honest I have not listened to them in years. LOL! Today’s music is not for me. No offense to anyone.
@Elvis @Croatia vs. Antwerp
Awesome nickname!
@ Elvis
Lol, I was actually thinking of the same name. The BARON it is!
@Croatia vs. Antwerp
That’s it mandzukic’s new nick name is the BARON!!
@Ivo
Right on IVO…I was very proud of our effort in that game. We took on the world best team and made them shit in their pants.
The ranking means nothing unless we beat Belgium. A seed will help us alot in the WC on paper. But still better to play a Bosnia or Sweden than a Germany.
If the right call was made for Corluka we would have had a PK and percentages say the ball would have been in the net. We derserved to win that game. Soccer mafia would not allow Spain to lose.
You can dominate a game and still not win. Do you people watch soccer???? Sometimes team sit back and are able to absorb the pressure and get lucky with bad finishing by the better team. take one or two shots on goal and get a deflection to go in.
Actually, Bilic was making the sub but the 4th official was slow. Go watch the game again.
And if a player doesn’t know how to kill a game when he is at the professional level that is on him and not the coach. So, at least we now know that Rakitic has bad soccer IQ and cant head the ball.
I’m not here to defend Bilic, but to say he was outcoached is nothing more than an emotional reaction that is wrong.
Thats it i am getting a Mando jersey ASAP!
*lose sorry
we totally dominated turkey we should have won within 90 mins easily but.. oh well.. and yeah i could never watch that shit again either.. i hate watching croatia looks.
Makes Iggy SADFACE :_(_____
@jm youre right great numbers for him. the man does everything, if football gave hockey assists hed have a bunch of those too.
@ croatia antwerp thanks for the mandzukic link. everyone can see the goal numbers he is putting up, but many claim it to the service and say gomez could do a similar thing. it is nice to see stats on the other important factors that bring a striker worth like balls one and scoring opportunities created which madnzukic ranks at/toward the top
p.s. you wanna talk about out coaching watch a laker game.
never in my life did i think id agree with ziva on so many things.
thats football people, football is one of the few games where one team can completely dominate and then lose. outcoached? hardly. turkey was on a run that tournament much like the italians usually are. outplayed every game and then somehow get a goal. reading some of the comments its easy to see that many people think they know what they are talking about but actually dont know. yeah it was rakitic’s fault to some extent but in the pks it showed that we were a young team, even modric missed his pk. it happens. its the sport its what makes the sport so beautiful. me for one i still cant watch the replay because it sucks, but we outplayed them and bad luck happens.
you say its not Bilic’s fault Rakitic had a bad soccer IQ in that game??? He was only 19 years old back in 2008. He should have been subd out as soon as Klasnic scored. But Bilic decided to run up and down the field and celebrate. Sub Rakitic out as soon as we scored. Bilic didn’t, therefore, out-coached.
I love Croatia with all my heart, Love watching them play, even against shitty teams like faroe islands or malta, ill watch any game. Yes we will qualify for wc 2014, but be honest,,,,if we reach the quarterfinals, miracle. We had our chance in 1998, Boban gave up a bad ball, baddd mistake, and boom, france tie and evantually win. Yes Boban had a bad back and wanted to be taken out in half-time, whatddya gonnna do…..jebi ga
We dominated?????? yea scoring the first goal in the 120th min….yea thats domination. Don’t get me wrong. I hate Turkey in asoccer sense, but what they did , in that whole tournament, they played with their whole bench against Germany and almost won in the semis with half their players out. All Croatians, including me and my serb friend said after we beat Germany, thought Turkey will be an easy game and were going to the finals. Germany as a national team, since reaching the finals in wc 2002, what they do? nothing
Bilic wasn’t outcoached in that Turkey game in 2008. I suggest you go watch the game again. We dominated and we were unlucky. It’s not Bilic’s fault that Rakitic had bad soccer IQ. That same tourney Bilic outsmarted Germany. Us losing to Turkey had nothing to do with Bilic.
Some of you guys simply equate winning/losing with being outcoached. I can give plenty of examples in sports where a team won despite bad coaching from their own coach.
I don’t know why you guys are talking about Euro 2008. We lost to Turkey because Bilic was out-coached by a season manager. That’s that. THE END
@ poglavnik, thats random. i dont care as long as i can make fun of them, socks and sandals and their bmws. nothing against them just easy to make fun of.
@ziva nothing wrong with saying olic type goal. both are at the right spot at the right time. both make millions and both played or play for bayern. trust me bayern doesnt make many stupid buys. @everyone else, get off zivas back, theres nothing wrong with what he said.
@sis
youre absolutely right. however, zlatan doesnt do anything stupid for sweden. he can watch his temper and such, he can be a strong leader. I wouldnt mind him on our national team at all. cant really compare him to dudu because they are two very different players. but dudu in his prime and with all the potential he had id still take him over zlatan. without the crazy that zlato is he would never be as good.
@sismisscovjek
I’m impressed you were able to quote a VanHalen tune and actually tie it into your commentary.
@SismissCovjek
yeah i agree totally.. eduardo was enough and the other thing is Zlatan prolly would’ve picked up a red somewhere along the way which dudu wouldn’t have. The real shame was the horrific tackle that robbed us off Eduardo in that tournament.. goodness could we have used him there
also agree with Ziva (for a change) in calling it an olic type of goal precisely because it is an olic type of a goal.. sorry but that’s what it was *shrugs*
@BatMan
What did Zlatan give his wife for her birthday?
Five minutes of his time
Completely agree with you. To me Zlatan is the same as Balotelli. At least their quotes are hilarious
@SismissCovjek
Agreed! Olic/Mandzu, Modric/Kovacic. Both pairings complement each other very nicely. Hopefully we’re on to something here…
@IvicA @Bobby V
“Ugh. I’m happy for Olic, but I really hope he doesn’t start for us against the Serbs”
🙂
What Olic needed in 08 was a good partner up front as his strength is not the lone striker role and without any hesitation the Turkey game in 08 was one of his worst games he has played but he still had a very good tournament. Also, we did not have any depth at the striker role and I think, if I maybe so bold in saying, that is what you are trying to say. Look at the depth we have at that position now compared to the 08 tournament! Olic did have a bad day at the office against the Turks. No question. I have mentioned this before but I don’t blame him for the loss but he was not up to snuff that day. As of right now, Olic has Mandzo and prior to Eduardo’s injury he had Eduardo. Petric was not himself in the tournament as he was slightly injured/out of form, and you could tell. As of right now, the Olic/Mandzo pairing is quite ferocious! They feed off each other very well.
Comparatively speaking I look at it the same way as I view Luka needing a little help in the midfield every now and then. There have been games in our past when Luka was asked to do everything in the midfield and sometimes he was unable to do so because the defense would key solely on him and Luka had nobody to play off of. The game in Greece for the Euro 2012 qualifying as an example. Continuing with that train of thought, the game in Osijek is a good example of a much different Badelj from our last encounter with Wales who was really helping Luka out and there was some beautiful play in our midfield as a result. Much like the Serbia game when Luka had Kovacic helping him out. So refreshing!
Now that being said, we still should have made it to the semifinals in 08 at the very least. Losing that game was a total fluke and BS. Am I implying that Zlatan would not have been able to help us out? Not in a million years as he is a terrific player! However, he does bring baggage. We have a good team with a great nucleus of players that seem to get along with each other and they seem to have great comradery, but when you bring a cancer like Ibrahimovic in the locker room than you are asking for trouble. He left his national team and came back three to four times already and although a wonderful talent, coaches cannot stand him and Guardiola is not the only one in that line.
The guy we were really missing in the 08 tournament was Eduardo as he was one of the best strikers in the world prior to his injury. If he was there we win the tournament.
Ibrahimovic can go take a hike! Never wanted him and we don’t need him. Not going to say he is not a great talent as he is just unreal and if all things were equal he would have helped us out beyond description. However, he is a complete and utter asshole as well and not a team player. A sociopath to the extreme.
You guys saw what he did to Lovren right? And yes that was intentional please do not suggest it was not. Don’t really care what the review board said. Gimme a break.
One break commin up……..
Change, ain’t nothin’ stays the same
Unchained, yeah ya hit the ground runnin’
Changed, ain’t nothin’ stays the same
Unchained, yeah ya hit the ground runnin’
Thank U Valentina . Hajduk Wins 2-1 . Very close game . Bog, Hrvati, Hajduk , i HNS !!!
I hate Messi with a passion
Any of you dumb-ass Croats that disrespect Hercegovina need a serious history lesson!
EVO ZORE, EVO DANA!!!
Zivio Deseti Travanj!!
I don’t care how he scores, as long as he scores.
This dude is the best defensive striker in the game. Man, this guy wins more aerial battles than a fighter pilot.
http://bundesligafanatic.com/performance-analysis-mario-mandzukics-importance-to-bayern-munich/
modric should get the hell out of madric……and Mandzo is impressive
@Bobby V
Re: Zlatan
We would’ve won Euro2008 with him on our squad. The only thing we were missing in that tournament was a striker.
Shut the fuck up Ziva Idiotina
Pogledajte spektakularnu bakljadu u Krešimirovom gradu:
http://www.dalmacijanews.com/Ostalisportovi/View/tabid/90/ID/116206/Sibenik-gori-Tisuce-baklji-obasjalo-Kresimirov-grad-FOTO-VIDEO.aspx
@ sismiss – thanks, funny stuff from Barton
@ vatrena cast – yes, you can. Galatasaray was denied yesterday.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/champions-league-yilmaz-miss-real-madrid-match-appeal-083049194.html
In the other treads Vrsaljko was mentioned he was pushed into the Dinamo team too young hes a ok player with potential to be a good player.
@19Miro50
Agreed about 2008. He shouldnt have been trying to hold that ball up. Just put it in the f**king corner!
The reason I said it was an Ivica Olic-type of goal is because it was an Ivica Olic-type of goal.
I have repect for Mandza. He is in the perfect system with Bayern.
once again they cannot appeal a yellow card.
U prvoj utakmici polufinala Hrvatskog Kupa
Hajduk je pobijedio Slaven Belupo u Koprivnici s 2:1,
Hajduk je poveo golom Tina Susica u 56. min, a izjednacio je Davor Vugrinec u 77. minuti. Pobjedu Hajduku donio je Danijel Stojanovic u 92min!
Za sve Hajdukovce:
http://hajduk.caster.fm/
The reason i say Ivica Olic type goal im speaking for myself is because ive seen Olic miss so many chances when he played for croatia and only scored tap in thats why ill take it a goal is a goal but Mandzo is a beast great CF.
I’m tired of hearing the “Ivica Olic type goal” bullshit.
Mario Gomez scores these goals all the time, so did Crespo, Shevchenko, Shearer, Fowler, Van Nistelrooy, Ian Rush, and Lineker
Its typical goal for a big, hard working forward. Most great strikers who score a ton of goals are fantastic goal poachers (like Mandzukic). And in reality, Mandzukic doesn’t have the skill to beat players 1v1, so he isn’t going to juke 3 guys before scoring a goal. He also doesn’t play deep enough on the field to be hitting shots from 20 meters, it’s not his job.
His job as a high striker is to be an outlet, to hold possession and wait for help, and finally to be opportunistic in the box.
Anyone who keeps on with this “Ivica Olic type goal” bullshit hasn’t watched or played enough soccer to know how a striker is supposed to play, and how a majority of them score goals.
http://tinyurl.com/d7rtpz4
@Bobby V
As much as Joey Barton is an idiot personified, I still think this is awesome! LOL!
ttp://tinyurl.com/d7rtpz4
Harsh booking for Mandzukic – Bayern will appeal the suspension and probably win it, allowing him to play in the first semi-final match.
PSG the better of the two teams over both legs quite arguably. Barcelona not as strong as a few years ago and needed Messi to bail them out – you can almost start calling them now a one-man team.
Zlatan still a punk, will always be, but a fantastic player. Wish he would have considered Croatia. With a different personality and upbringing, he might have. How good would we be looking for WC2014 with him in the lineup?
Mandzo plays defence mid and attack for this team hope they reach Finals.
@ Ziva Rakitic header doesnt bother me i know that we still would have lost that game 2008 bothers me more that he didint kick the ball to slovenia.
i dont think they can appeal it since it is a yellow card. you can only appeal red cards. spanish ref was looking to book him so i call absolute bullshit on that.
Perfect Ivica Olic-type of goal. Also, Rakitic thinks that was a hard header and is wondering out loud how Mandza was able to get that in.