Domagoj Bradarić erased what would have been a disappointing day for Croatian soccer as they knew a 1-goal loss to England would get them through to the U21 Euro 2021 quarterfinals (with Portugal easily defeating Switzerland). A bogus penalty kick was given to England early in the first half and Croatia missed way too many quality chances to take control of the match. England would score in the 74th minute which would have put them in the quarterfinals – on goal differential – but the hard press finally payed off for the Vatreni as Bradarić sent a rocket into the top shelf from 21 yards out to seal the deal. Croatia lose 2-1 but will now play Spain in the quarterfinal in late May. Croatia have never played in the Euro 2021 knockout round before this tournament.
Would you have it any other way?
Croatia vs. England once again. The mini Vatreni will finish out group play Wednesday at the U21 Euro 2021 tournament against England at 12PM (ET). If Croatia win, they will book a spot in May’s quarterfinal round. If the match ends in a draw AND Portugal wins/draws against the Swiss, Croatia will also go through.
This is an extremely talented Croatian bunch which will undoubtedly bring 3+ players to the senior side very, very soon. Dinamo’s Luka Ivanušec and Lovro Majer have been carrying the load as Sosa, Sučić, and Gvardiol were all ruled out due to injury prior to the tournament kicking off. Striker Dario Vizinger has been a nice surprise as well but limped off the field later against then Swiss Sunday. Let’s see what the kids come up with versus England. The Croatia U21 team has never played in the knockout round of a Euro tournament.
We didn’t need Boksic in 98. We had golden boot Suker.
We were up on those French cunts 0-1. Bobon failed us
On that day. Oh well he did a lot for us. I don’t think we
Could have beaten Brazil.
Boksic wasn’t a great finisher either to tell the truth.
Jarni belongs up there somewhere too. Just below world class id say
Rebic is at an Olic level.
Similar finishers but with a nastier streak.
Suker Modric Boban Prosinecki Boksic Rakitic all world class.
Perisic Asanovic Kranjcar Mandzukic a step below.
Ever since Rebic found his way he makes teams better, to me that’s world class.
Mandzukic not world class I agree with, that was proven at Atletico when it was shown they were no better for his arrival.
Perisic? I wouldn’t argue with the person who called him world class.
Or if Ciro wasnt being so loyal to Boban. He should’ve played Zuti. I remember even Boban at the airport after the tournament saying something like maybe I wasn’t fit enough or should’ve come out early.
Ciro didn’t have the balls to sit his friend and captain for the man that wass supposedly never gonna make it as a pro.
In 1998 we would have been in the World Cup final if it wasn’t for Boban
If Alen Boksic wasn’t injured for 98 WC we would of won it all.
All i can say about those recent vids i have posted is dayum we are crying out for an Alen Boksic! As you say Rebic is the closest we have and we are kinda needy for him.
@ Iggy
Good on ya mate!
That video makes it clear why we do not dominate offensively.
Quite simply we do not possess that level of attacking group of world class players like the 90’s.
It makes Luka Modrić even more impressive in my opinion.
Him and Rakitić were our only world class players and unfortunately they played the same position.
Perišić, Mandžukić and Rebić were great compliments and I love their games but none are world class.
Modrić was needed to come into to beat Malta.
Rebić is the X factor.
If he takes these next two months to be healthy and lead Milan to the CL spots than he will be ready for us.
We need to maximize him while Luka is still with us.
U21 into the quarterfinals is a big deal for us as it will continue to squeeze out the best out of our talent pool.
We simply need to produce more world class players.
Very cool Iggy!
Okay we got it boys.. ROAD TO EURO 96 recorded by SBS on VHS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydHX-HwUfYo
^
Did you see Perisic’s hand move ever so slightly towards the ball in the WC final, because I did?
A lot of people thought it shouldn’t of been called because it was a final, not because it wasn’t a handball, which VAR clearly proved it was.
Croatia got a penalty because of a a hand ball the player literally punched the ball hard to see but once you see the referees angle he had no choice but to point to the spot.
Shit happens in football, like Malta not getting a penalty and Croatia getting one for no reason, if that gets you to the world cup I’m sure you’ll take it.
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You can’t let shit calls affect you because they’re part of the game, you move on like the Maltese, and claim a moral victory if that makes you happy, like you Croats did in the WC final lol!
https://youtu.be/NFI8UpT_Pec
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At Lille they were recently watching Jean-Pierre Papin videos, and if you watch Bradaric’s goal closely you will notice he used what we French call the Papin technique, his celebration suggests to those with a keen eye that he couldn’t believe that he just did a Papin. Good on him!
Dont forget england trying to score from the kickoff after Mandzu goal when no Croat players were even in their own half. They are dirty cunts for sure.
(always happy to join an england pile-on lol)
@Medo
And I’m not Serb, I’m a Catholic. Actually Serbs do call you Croats Catholic Serbs as someone else said on this site, so you can call me Catholic Serb if you want, but not just Serb, I reject that because that implies that I’m a krivoslavčina, which I am not.
I’m actually loyal to the white west, just like one of your own, that is if you’re Croatian?
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Hrvatski nacionalizam ne znači samo ljubav prema rodnoj grudi i Hrvatskim domovima na njoj, on ne znači samo lokalni patriotizam, već lojalnu službu čitavom bijelom Zapadu.
– Milan Šufflay
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I wrote a comment on this site where I made it clear that I’m a Catholic, I was responding to Slavonac’s claim that France’s religion is majority Mohammedan, which was a lie, he just assumed that all of the Africans in France were Mohammedan (he’s a simple man is Slavonac, but that’s ok it just means he’s still got a lot to learn about the world), but it was deleted because of some inconvenient truths.
Great point he ran off the field without shaking anyone’s hand even rakitic’s.
No class at all.
How you take an L says a lot about you.
Nothing was worse than Argentina imploding against us. I’ll never pull for those losers again. Messi might be the greatest club player ever but he’s garbage in the blue and white.
About the England match, they have a tendency to be very sore losers. It’s because at home, they get fed this notion that England is the greatest footballing nation in the world and that their young, diverse team is God’s gift to sport. The reality is that English football is ugly, and their national squads rarely do all that well in international competition. Even in 2018, they could have been eliminated by Colombia. The poor sportsmanship they’re showing after the game is fueled by a delusion of entitlement
Wow what a great read!!
@Andrej L
Great article. I loved reading this on Olmo, Dinamo and Croatia.
Thank you for sharing.
@ Iggy
People have been too hard. Hrv is in first place and will correct. A lot of teams have lost in this qualifying. Germany comes to mind. Everyone needs a glass of wine and to relax.
Sretan Uskrs everyone.
@Frenchman
French Goal my ass…what’s the goal Henry scored with his hand against Ireland called?
Me again
I’ve always respected Olmo for choosing Dinamo and making Croatia his home. You can’t buy that kind of publicity. I wish him all the best…until spain encounters Vatreni in the future.
@Anonymous , the chinese has a saying “Be Careful what You Wish For! You Might Get It”. You chose ANONYMOUS so brother just add the CLOWN to your name to make it official lol…just kidding.
I was hopeless after England score their second goal…let the boys take the game to Spain, am hopeful now.
Great article Andrej
@Iggy
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You’re absolutely right about us being hard on them. But it’s also warranted. It’s all about expectations. As a youth soccer coach, I was often much harder on my best players because I knew what they were capable of. Same applies here.
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Here’s what Matjaz Kek had to say about us:
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“Hrvatska je stroj I ima lijepu budućnost. Jeste li vi u Hrvatskoj uopće svjesni što imate.?”
Thanks for all your hard work Ante!
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Interesting piece by Dani Olmo; discusses his experience and love for Croatia
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/dani-olmo-soccer-common-goal
I’m thinking we should form a circle jerk square instead of a circle so Aussie Serb…AKA Frenchman can fight for an intimate spot in the corner..maybe “rubbing elbows” with a few of his favorites on here.
In an interview after the game the England coach said Bradaric will ‘never score a goal like that again’.
How does he know that, what a poor f’g loser.
All 10 of you guys will have a nice circle jerk
Club after the new site.
Anonymous posters are one thing, but keep Ziva/Truth and all his other alter egos the F out!
(I refuse to sign in as anything but anonymous until some sort of order gets implemented here)
Ante can you please get Ziva aka the truth back, he was so hilarious!
I think some of us have been too hard on the Vatreni over this last week, it is after all the usual Hrvat way to do things hard as possible. Every campaign we have slumps but 99% of the time we come through.
The other day i was with my father and he was driving, we were looking for a parking spot at Aldi’s. Anyways, there were a few available but he picked the most difficult corner one available, very hard to get in and out of. And i was like why did you pick that one of all the available spots? And he said, son, that is the Croatian way.
LOL It typifies our mentality and the Hrvat way of qualifying. I think we will be okay but of course we make it hard for ourselves like usual. We forget even in ’98 we barely qualified.
Favorite names for me
Fellow from the selo
Supak takur I think it was
Brilliant
Looking forward to the new site Ante
Thanks for the effort
I look forward to the new website and possibly changing my pseudonym to The Great Anonymous Clown
@soul
That’s a technical thing. I can access the website across the board. 5g WiFi. No issues.
I know most of these guys pretty well and have private conversations regularly. I would not call them anonymous.
@ Ante
Great work!
Will the new site allow me to post via my home WiFi?
For some reason I can’t access the website via my home WiFi?
@Ante, LOL! “anonymous clowns”? Everyone on this website is anonymous, using a pseudonym is the same thing. Have you ever said one think politically incorrect using your real name? And you’re always throwing the baby out with the bath water; erasing a lot of good, honest, important comments together with all the shit talking anti-Serb (for example) crap.
@becar and ALL,
New website will launch in May. You guys are going to love the new comments section under each post. It’s going to be very much like Reddit. A few more weeks. All these anonymous clowns won’t have access. Appreciate your patience.
I’ve said for some time that this forum needs a revamp. Having some sort of login system doesn’t prevent trolls, but it does slow them down. In addition to that, just stop feeding them. I’m almost more annoyed by the people who keep responding to a troll.
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I don’t use Facebook, so that wouldn’t work for me.
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@Ante
When is the “updated” website launching?
That was a screamer!
Multiculturalism used to be called Balkanization…we all know how that worked out. Bloody, tribal war!
That’s where the West is headed!
Enjoy the Apocalypse!
At least if we flop at the Euros, we’ll finally be able to make some much needed changes and call up some of the u-21’s for the World Cup.
we did it guys :)…
this week had a bad start for us, and somehow, it’s ended up as one of our best.. not sure how but happy to accept yet another elimination of engerand and first place in a difficult group, pretty nice 😀
This Curtis Jones is a piece of shit. Does he invade birthday parties of 5 year old little girls when his daughter doesn’t get invited?
Hej French guy, you forgot to mention Toma Basic plays in your league too. Been in poor form of late but so has Badelj minus that one sick goal a couple weeks back.
Thanks for visiting our site 🙂
Fuck spoiler alert dude!
In what league is Bradaric bettering himself?
I honestly hope he can bring the French way to your LB poistion! His goal looked French to me, good stuff, it was Jean-Pierre Papin like!
@ Pog
I consider that Bradaric already has a spot on the senior squad due to previous call ups. Euro U21 Final is June 6th while senior Euros start June 13. If we make the final, might be too close but I’d like to see Bradaric at this senior tournament. The experience is priceless.
Just a thought..
🙂
@Pog
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Whoa whoa whoa. Let’s not be hasty.
Bradaric showed he could potentially take Melnjak’s spot too
Moro and Ivanusec showed they could potentially take Badelj’s and possibly even Pasalic’s spot with Rog being injured for so long.
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However, today’s 2v1 counter around the 70th min which Moro and Ivanusec failed to convert is an example of why Dalic doesn’t believe they are ready. A lot of people wanted Brekalo to be consistent starter but he’s just not ready YET and I think even casual fans can agree on that now.
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Disappointing that Majer didn’t start the last two games; let’s hope he doesn’t turn out to be another Ante Coric.
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Croatia U21 v Spain U21 on May 31
To be fair, the English players aren’t the ones claiming racism…
It’s these media/Twitter accounts
I’ve looked at numerous clips I don’t see any evidence of it I think if you make a false allegation you should get punished as well
The Twitter account that suggested racism are just race baiting.
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They posted a video that just shows Croats celebrating, and a couple of them waving to (I believe his name is Jones) since he was being a poor sport during the game and almost got into a fight with Moro over some fake dive England tried to pull.
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I’m glad our players taunted them. England was getting too emotional and were acting like babies in those final minutes, despite being given two additional minutes over and above the five minutes of injury time.
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BTW, I like seeing Bradarić waving and mocking. Shows that he has a backbone. England was being classless, so give them what they deserve.
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Lots of people calling out that Twitter account, and just saying how it’s automatically racism when English teams get beat lol.
Boss Aidy Boothroyd said: “It got a bit heated. There has been no racial situation at all. The passion and disappointment of one team celebrating and our boys being devastated… it was something and nothing.
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” He got the blood on the nose in the game. All the players are very disappointed.
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” There was a team jumping around, staff on the pitch celebrating in between some of our boys. I will find out what went on there. It was highly emotive situation. Difficult things can happen. Both sets of staff sorted it out.”
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That’s from the Mirror.
@Slavonac
It’s the get out of jail free card for every black English player.
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They did this when Rijeka beat Man City in a friendly, then further review showed nothing.
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They’re just being bad sports and will do anything to justify their behavior.
Portugal was down 1-0 yesterday to Luxembourg at the half (with Ronaldo playing) and they ended up coming back to win.
Same story with Spain being down 1-0 to Georgia at the half, then Dani Olmo winning it for them in the 92nd minute.
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Portugal allso squeaked by Azerbaijan 1-0 on an own goal in their first game.
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Lots of elite teams struggling to win convincingly, yet when we do it, it must mean that the party is over for us and we will never experience any highs ever again (because we’re a small country, remember).
Curtis Jones went crazy and tried fighting some of our guys after the game….then, someone was trying to tell the ref one of our players used a racial slur…its getting some traction on twitter.
Wow Germany lost to the Macedonians and when you see the Portugal mess up again Serbia losing to Slovenia wasn’t so bad
he was apparently injured…or coming off an injury
Wow! a shot from outside the box. Didnt think we had it in our blood after this past week. Way to keep fighting when things look shitty.
Off topic, but times are changing. Not comparing any of these teams to Malta, but Germany just lost to Macedonia on home soil. Spain labored to a 3-1 win over Kosovo. France squeaks by Bosnia 1-0. Italy with a 2-0 win over Lithuania and so on. I know Malta is by far the worst of these teams named, but point is these games would have been 4-0, 5-0, 6-1 blowouts just a few years ago. Not sure if teams rotating their regulars because of the crammed schedule has to do with it, but somethings up. In the end, the big teams will still get through, but the days of blowing teams out are becoming rare.
I don’t watch all the U21 games, but I’m pretty sure Majer starts.
He’s arguably our best U21 player.
@BECAR
Majer is a starter. He got a small injury in the first game so he rested the second. He must not have been 100% today so he didn’t start. They subbed him in maybe because he felt better and thought he could play? Not sure. But he is the starting CAM without a doubt, nothing to worry about except a small injury he had.
Ha! Funny..
Don’t know much about Bradaric but from his goal celebration like he does that on the regular, to the #11 he was wearing, to his positioning on top of the box, he doesn’t look like your average LB. He must’ve been a great attacker at some point.
Again another dalmatinac or hajdukovac saving the skin for our reprezentacija
Congratulations to young Vatreni
Love the goal the timing of it and the against the opponent
Bradaric left back no way he can play anywhere up the field with a shot like that
Seriously Dalic is sleeping behind the wheel
Love biscans reaction hahaha
@Maminjo
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I’m not sure if you were answering me, so I’ll ask again. Why doesn’t Majer start for the U21’s?
I feel like the refs and linesmen are getting to used to leaning on VAR, and when its not used in a competition, they make more mistakes.
It was a soft penalty.
Great goal by Bradaric!
Yea. The fact that we’re still calling up Badelj, is a testament to this.
We probably have 7 or 8 midfielders who we are better off playing over him, yet somehow he is still one of our main backups.
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Our current A reprezentacija has too many of these “decent but not great” types like Melnjak, Barisic, Vida, Lovren, Pasalic, Budimir, and beta-Kovacic.
We simply cannot roll out a lineup that contains too many of these, and when we tried to do it yesterday, we couldn’t even create any chances against even Malta.
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At least an U21 player has that creative talent, with a high ceiling. The backups we have on our A team are lower talent, low ceiling players.
No long term benefit, and honestly, no short term benefit either.
There is nothing Badelj can do, than, say Toma Basic can do. Same as Moro.
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Playing a 30-something year old Genoa player on a steep career decline has no benefit over playing guys who are on better teams, are more talented, and are on an upward trajectory.
It’s strictly favortism by the coach (by choosing him over Toma) and managing a relationship with the youth team (by letting Biscan have Moro for the U21 team).
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None of the guys above would have been able to score a goal like what Bradaric did today.
None of them.
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Stopped the ball with patience (despite being under pressure)…Controled the ball (didn’t blow his load and try to smash it)…Dragged it to his left (causing the two defenders to follow it and unwittingly give him an opening)…and took a strong yet safe shot toward the right side of goal (away from the keeper).
Lovely news to wake up to! That has to be the most BS penalty call i’ve seen in a while.. that ref should be stood down and certainly never ref our games again. Here are goals for anyone who couldnt watch like myself given time diff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAqrU_-xpeo
What a bomb by Bradaric, the goal of the tournament.
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How does Majer start for Dinamo, albeit almost always the first to be subbed off, but can’t crack this lineup?
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I loved listening to Biscan swear at Vuskovic to get up off the ground and stop being a pussy in injury time, saying that he doesn’t need to waste time because the English can’t score.
There was an article recently interviewing the English U-21 coach who said the only team that needs to win is the Senior team. And the U-21s role is to get players to the first team.
It’s a travesty that we’re playing inferior players at CB, LB or CDM (when Brozovic sits), so we have a better shot at the U21 tournament.
But even if they were called up, Dalic seems obsessed with the ‘trusted veterans’ even when it’s clear they are not of the same quality.
where is my Frenchmen and Pigeon lover Matla man?! Must suck to be you!
Forget about the senior squad, let’s go all in for the U21 Euros!
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LOL. Fuck man.
They should be ready, this was a depleted side going up against England. With a fully fit U21 squad we can potentially go far. This team is stacked when everyone is available.
Why is there a huge gap between the group stage and knockouts? Will any of our injured guys be ready in a month vs. Spain?
Curtis Jones being a little sore losing bitch. Tried to start a fight with Bradaric but we kept on celebrating. Naprijed Hrvatska!!
The falcon feels NOTHING…but empathy for you feeble fools🦅
Couldn’t watch.. what were the English doing after?
That was a BOMB…not just a goal!
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even the pigeon from Malta felt that one!
Fuck the English man. Bunch of whining little bitches as usual. So sick of those clowns. Happy we got that goal at the end to send us through.
Hope Biscan gets a kick at the can on the senior level one day. Ive always liked him and his demeanor from back in his playing days.
The best part was that Bradaric planned to do exactly what he did.
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He received the cross, he controlled it, dragged it a bit to his left, and cracked it right toward the right side of goal (where there was a clear opening).
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90% of players (especially young ones) would have tried to one-time that, as hard as they could, with their eyes closed (resulting in it just being blocked, or fly well over the bar).
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He’s a quality player, who should not be wasting his time on the U21 team anymore.
Thoughts of 2018 are definitely in their minds. Fuck England!
Classy English as usual…get a gift penalty and gift two minutes of stoppage time and sob like fucking babies when a Croatia o it a up their asses AGAIN! U boj, motherfuckers!!!
I do agree about our finishing lacking at times. We had enough half chances/chances to put one in. Especially Ivanusec. But putting the ball in the net is the toughest thing to do.
@Mile
It’s the same guy who uses a different nationality as his moniker.
Nothing beats breaking English hearts!
Did you watch the game Stef? That shot didnt trickle through. And how was Bradaric’s shot? Was it satisfactory?
Toooooooooo ..
Bradaric with a world class golasso.
England BS penalty.
Then they bitch up at the end and act like the scrubs.
We get healthy and give Spain a late spring lesson in Croatian football.
Why is there a Maltese idiot on this site? Now I’ve seen everything. The Perisic goal against England was 100% legit. No referee would call that goal back. And they had VAR dumbass.
Isusa ti…what a cracker of a goal!
wow, what a BIG TIME goal by Bradaric.
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Eliminating England (no matter the level) from a major tournament never gets old, ey? 😀
Ironically, this means that Bradaric just lost his chance to be on the senior squad…as they will want to use him for the U21 games in June.
Cracked one outside the box, top right corner with ease
BRADARIC with the game winner!
We are an AVERAGE team why do you fools keep thinking otherwise???
It’s now clear to see we have a serious development issue.
It’s coming up from the juniors. No mind set to take shots from outside the box. We want to walk everything in. England gets one shot on net and it trickles through. This is definitely all on youth development and preparing the kids in this mindset. Shots create deflections, rebounds and lead to goals. You can see this continue right up to the senior level. You can’t win games like this anymore.
The victimization of the Croats is a thing to behold. “We’re small and everybody is out to get us…”. Every single time.
All you cry babies not one talking about my Maltese brothers getting screwed yesterday!
Did you get screwed against England when perisics boot was in the defender’s face when he leveled things up in the semi’s of the World Cup ?
Everyone thought it should have been waived off!
Bunch of 2 faced hypocrites!
Fly falcon 🦅 FLY!!
Respect to Stanko for calling the result today, all you know it all Google experts don’t know falcon shit
Croatia and getting jobbed, sadly a tale as old as time…
Not going to get fucked in June by the officials. We are just going to flame out. We are a mess heading into the Euros. Can’t score and struggle to even keep a clean sheet. Vida & Lovren have no business being in the middle of the defence at this point.
As usual Croatia gets the shaft.
Wait until June when we get fucked
Again
England will get another favourable call ina big spot if they need it, just watch 🤷♂️
A 1-0 loss still puts us through. And we’ve been unlucky in this first half. We’re still on course
Worst call I’ve ever seen…
Fix is in
TERRIBLE penalty call
I’ve written off any young guys being called up for the Euros.
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It’s a shame because these guys aren’t even THAT young and are experienced enough to help.
For example, Lovro Majer, Borna Sosa and Nikola Moro are 23 now.
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At what age are they old enough to be called up? LOL
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We have to wait until they’re in the latter half of their 20s to be integrated into the senior team (even as backups)?
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They would have been the perfect ‘B’ team to play against a team like Malta.
Instead, we went with our C team (or quite possibly our D team).
Stream below (HRT 2)
https://hrti.hrt.hr/live/
@ Maminjo
True, but if this last game wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for guys like Badelj, Melnjak and Budimir – I fon’t know what will be? As you mentioned, I truly, truly hope come the summer, we have guys like Sosa, Bradaric, Majer, Moro, etc. on the squad vs. these guys. I’d rather these guys have a stinker of a game vs. a Malta rather than come on in the Euro and potentially mess up our run in the tournament.
We lose but still advance.England are due to have at least one decent performance.
Good question. I assume they would.
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It’s good to see them playing well despite the loss of some talented players.
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Guys like Majer, Moro, Ivanušec, Sosa, Bradarić, Sučić, and Gvardiol are definitely senior squad material.
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Would have much rather had this group start against Malta over some of the players we rolled out in that first half.
Question. If they win and move on to the quarterfinals are the injured sosa, sučić and gvardiol eligible to play? Or no since the tournament started despite there being a pause