Petar Musa is slowly heating up for Benfica in Portugal. He scored the game winner Wednesday night in Israel as Benfica thumped Maccabi Haifa 6-1. The win and +5 goal performance means Benfica pips PSG for top spot in Group H (as both clubs finished level on points) and will now be a seeded team for the November 7th Round of 16 draw.
Musa came off the bench in the 32′ and scored the go-ahead goal in the 59th. He made a nice run to the near post and headed home from a sharp angle. This is the type of ‘point man’ Croatia is looking for in a striker. It’s too bad Musa doesn’t have another 4-6 months to prove himself. I’m sure we will see plenty from him in 2023.
Also not sure if it was talked about
Luka called out JJs Pk to his keeper
What a cheeky little bugger, got to love him
And hopefully didn’t squish JJ pk confidence for potential World Cup
I literally felt my stomach drop thinking of pks… barf
It’s one penalty, relax mate hahahaha
Thankfully Modric won’t be doing that in 2-3 weeks time
Croatia has a lot of good PK takers, fortunately. We have Modrić, Perisić, Kramarić, Livaja, Petković, Barisić, Juranović, Sučić, and Vlasić. While not all of these players will necessarily be on the field after 120 minutes, probably five of them can be. I also imagine Majer, Stanisić, and Orsić can score some good ones. If Vida actually goes, he’s had some PK success too.
Vida is a legend with his PK against Russia, lol.
The guy did not care and belted it as hard as he could, ha ha.
He pretty much did a PK version of the “Rebic vs Argentina” goal
I do agree with truth and teh doom
I think we can score by committee
And I feel a guy like petko, this is it
His true 15 mins of fame
Take Croatia deep to glory and be a legend and sign for a big contract and cash in or just be the guy forever who had the goods but couldn’t make that next step
I feel liva while will start will be on a short leash
We beat France with ivusic and truly with his limited play time with repka I don’t really ever saying what an idiot more then once or twice
Liva is good for three of those a match
Ivusic and grbic both have more presence
Liva as everyone says often is as you guys say a deer in headlights
I feel he is a great shot stopper cause of his natural reflex and athleticism
But when he has to think he gets way too into his head
Panics to challenge and often is too slow cause of the indecisiveness or and of course when we have him out with lovren and vida it’s a pass to lovren who passes to vida back to liva who boots it into the 18th row;)
I’m grinding him and having fun but let’s get behind him. He is our hope
But we can see luka will probably pull him when he wants not dalic;)
The Zaprešić Boys World Cup song this time is not good. A bad omen.
@ the truth
I actually watched the rest of those fifa captains episodes yesterday as well. I had to laugh at the editing of practice before the Russia game where Grbic was saving everything while Liva let in every shot.
Livakovic (like him or not) is actually a good shot stopper.
I have to say I loved when Modric pulled him aside and was straight with him. Everyone in the team was thinking it, but Luka told him in not so many words to stop being a bitch and man up. Show some confidence…challenge balls in the air…take command.
I think Liva responded by saying he didn’t get this far by being that way.
Either way that conversation should have lit a fire for Livakovic and sadly I don’t think it did.
Someone posted that he actually had a decent game against Chelsea and was being more commanding – I didn’t watch the game and only hope he was.
Everyone is concerned about our strikers. I think we will be fine as someone will show up. I’m more concerned about our goalie…..
My assessment of the striker situation: Petkovic is a damn good player who terrifies defenses and is surprisingly good at defending when he needs to (even the British commentators in the Chelsea match acknowledged his all-around excellence), and he will bring his best to the World Cup camp; Livaja is a damn good player when you look at his ability to maneuver with the ball, find space, and finish plays that should be finished, even though he is apparently quite unpopular among posters on this site; Kramaric is a damn good player who terrifies any defense when he has the ball or has any space, even if his role at Hoffenheim has shifted over the years; Budimir terrifies defenses because he dominates in the air, is very dangerous on breakaways, and doesn’t get knocked off the ball unless he is dragged down by an obvious foul; Colak is scoring left and right, so even though he may not have a big reputation yet, he obviously has something that you want in a striker. That’s five strikers who all bring different advantages to the position. The team is in good shape like that.
Petkovic will be good against Canada and Morrocco.
We should dominate possession, limiting Bruno having to run in open space.
They will crowd the middle, and he likes to operate in that tight space.
a couple more notes from the netflix captains documentary
They clearly did a hit job on Livakovic showing how bad he was and making it a plot line in croatia’s final qualifying. They have this great practice training clip where they show guys scoring on livakovic effortlessly and then grbic coming in and blocking everything
but more interesting was how in Luka’s private convo with him (recorded and then broadcast to hundreds of millions on netflix), modric gets on Livakovic that his lack of confidence and uncertainty is evident and it’s rubbing off on the team and how he can’t be so unsure of himself. It’s funny how from afar we all diagnose this problem that livakovic looks like a deer in headlights and is scared to come out of net… but to see the actual players feel this way is telling… and doesn’t make one feel great about him starting in net
on the final note, you see the players celebrating at the end after qualifying for the world cup and how much it means to guys like modric, and you can’t help but think…. ante rebic is a real hard headed idiot… he couldn’t just get his act together and apologize. although, part of the reason he’s not back is i’m sure that modric is really not itching to have him back
in that celebration i also think of players like brekalo who played throughout the qualifying campaign and got so excited to make it to the world cup, only to months later receive the note that says thanks for your efforts but you’re not coming
Notice it’s all the multicultural countries that are “taking a stand” against Qatar? Taking an actual stand involves risk, saying what the PC establishment wants you to say is being a sycophant toady. And you got some nerve complaining about another country’s supposed lack of freedom when your country is a PC tyranny that puts people in prison for PC heresy. “diversity” and free speech cannot coexist.
We have to rely on midfield goals just like euro 2021 imo. No target man look for shots outsode bix and some hockey goals off rebounds and magic from broz modric i cant see us going far without a striker unless we pull a spain win with a number 9. Two tournaments we went far we had a 9 suker mandzo.
It will be fun my expectations is quarterfinals anything after that is great extra
Is it even possible to bring musa in still??
Anyways i guess we all feel the pressure of not having a scorer
We have to hope one of krama, livaja, petko, budimir get hot
Krama hasn’t been playing too bad for us at all. Hopefully he can get hot somehow
But we more or less know what we can get from these guys
The musa, colak, ljubicic,simic are the near future
Dalic may burn another tourney or look like a hero
Either way I imagine he will depart after Qatar and hopefully new guy will be wiling to try some new blood
Hopefully we can get a bit ahead of the new qualifying group and be afforded to try some stuff rather then wait for a friendly and just throw a b team in rather then make really nice additions to our core group
I would love if we could see the B squads rolled out against hnl Allstars and things like this
I realize it’s not so easy to do but would be great
Its why I’m happy to see the u21s maybe qualify for olympics and such
Let the kids come up together
This new crop can’t be too far off skill level as bilic’s young guns….
Hi Dannyj,
No, Musa can no longer be included in the world cup squad according to the following from the sporting news:
The final 26-man roster will have to be selected from the 35-55 player list submitted to FIFA. That deadline is set for November 14, which is the Monday before the World Cup begins.
Oh Man….I’m actually shocked that we have a Petar Musa thread but ok!
In my opinion, Musa should have been called and HE WAS CALLED but got sick, Dalic did his part.
Look guys, we are like fish chasing the next shiny object in front of us. Last season we were already setting parade routes for Roko Simic to be our savior, before him it was Budimir, after that it was Colak and then this season it is …of all people….Marin Ljubicic! You have to…at some point…realize that we are just behaving desperate and illogical.
I watched Musa play last season and I like his style but I have faith that someone like Dalic has his scouts and they see a lot more than what we see!
I’m not sold on Budimir, Colak or Kramaric (even though Krama is far better than these two)! Roko Simic is still a young kid thats got a long way to go, Musa is doing decent, Ljubicic was loaned and Hajduk basically said he wasn’t a “talent”…”average”…I’ll give him another couple of years before I make a judgement call.
At the end of the day, we have some pretty shitty options at the moment and I’m going to be realistic and live knowing that. Our strikers suck badly and we need to accept that!
What if Dalic’s scouts are Ivica Olic and Vedran Corluka?
You still have faith? 😉
Lol
Mandzo too but it is what it is
We are thin we know that but let’s hope we can score by committee like Italy did during euro
They are proof riding a streak and good coaching works
We are Riding a hot streak so we have one;)
Maminjo, it’s Dalic’s team and so far, he’s done relatively well so yeah, I have to say I do have faith. I watch players play and sometimes I wonder if you follow the hype. You tend to overemphasize certain players and then you never back off, even if you’re blatantly wrong….ie….Vlasic, Brekalo, Lovren (I don’t like Lovren but you go over the top sometimes), Livakovic (he’s nowhere as bad as you make him).
We have to live and accept the fact that we are a good team but not a complete team. Sometimes we have to fill holes and thats ok…so do other National Teams.
Colak does sweet piss all for me, Musa seems decent, Roko Simic is instinctually a really smart player and can score but he needs time. I can’t fully support bringing in guys like Colak because he just doesn’t seem to make a difference except for with his club team in a league where Dinamo would be top 3 and Hajduk would be top 5. There will be time for Musa but bringing him in while he’s a sub in the Portuguese League just doesn’t say enough for me.
Its quite shocking we have people demanding these players be brought into the loop while they’re nothing special at the moment. I’d far rather see or rate Livaja to be honest, he’s probably better than Colak and Musa is not making a good case for himself.
Remember this! I was more anti Livaja than any of you and yet I have acknowledged that he’s been in amazing form for Hajduk…he is Hajduk, they go as he goes. With that said, I think he’s better than Colak and if I can admit that, some of you have to admit you’re also not always right and stop repeating the same shit…day in, day out about you knowing better than Dalic or his scouts!
Well said Slavonac.
@”Slavonac”, what’s it like living under a tyranny? You haven’t noticed, right? And btw, there’s no such thing as an ethnic slav, and even if there was, wouldn’t that be “ethnicism”?
Should like to correct what I said earlier today: this game was not a pointless affair for Maccabi Haifa – they actually had a chance to qualify for Europa League over Juventus, hence they put up a decent fight in the first half before getting overwhelmed during the second period; on the other hand Benfica needed a result to grab top spot in Group H, so well done Musa on scoring the go-ahead goal in this match!
Gospodine Dalic… please, please reconsider Petar Musa for the WC.
I think some people are going over the top in regards to Musa. The guy has never played for our senior side, he is not a regular starter for Benfica, and people want him in our WC squad. Are people serious? Dalic did call him up for UEFA NL matches in June, however he unfortunately got sick with Covid, and missed out.
Imagine Musa getting a spot and one of our senior players missing out? Dalic is not stupid, and I’m sure that he has spoken to our senior players about squad selection. Do people think that Modric, Brozovic and Perisic would agree to have Musa in for Kramaric or even Budimir ? I don’t think so, you would have a revolt on your hands and disunity within the team. Musa, Ljubicic, Simic, Colak etc. will have to wait for their chance. If they keep on playing well for their club sides they will get an opportunity to represent Croatia in the future and possibly as early as the EURO 2024 qualifiers.
@MART
I understand how he doesn’t get a lot of game time at Benfica which is fair enough reason to not call him up. However, to say that if a player doesn’t get a lot of game time, they shouldn’t be called up because on the other hand Vlasic for example got no game time from September of last year to June this year yet he kept getting called up over and over again which is total hypocrisy from the selection and coaching.
Musa also did unfortunately get COVID when he got called in which no one could possibly do anything about in which I also understand. But the more frustrating thing about it is that he should’ve already been called up to the previous international break which was around the end of March because he was our most in form striker then, he had more goals then both Kramaric and Budimir in the lead up to those few games that were played in March.
“Imagine Musa getting a spot and one of our senior players missing out?” I’m sorry but what has our other options ie. Kramaric and Budimir done to prove that they still should be anywhere near the team? We shouldn’t feel sorry that either those two are going to miss out on a spot, they’ve been total shit for a long time.
Where you reference Colak should wait his chance, I don’t understand that. He is the top scorer in the league and there’s only I think him and 2 others in any other leagues that are top scorers (others are Ljubicic and Livaja), what more does he need to prove? It’s not like Kramaric and Budimir got any better from the end of last season or in Kramaric’s case, got any better from the Euros to now and it also isn’t like the both of them are close to top scorers in their leagues.
Hey Markus, yeah agree that Musa should have been called up back in March already. Perfect time to test him out in friendlies against Slovenia and Bulgaria. Not sure whether Dalic wasn’t following things closely or just didn’t wanna call him up. In hindsight, I think that was a mistake… by the time he wanted Musa in the June squad, he caught Covid and then came transition time in Benfica.
Exactly, that’s what really gets on my nerves with Dalic and the rest of his crew, they always look to do everything at the last minute unprepared and unorganised.
Look, we can all come to the exception that he will make mistakes cos it’s normal but when it keeps happening over and over, it’s a big concern and this mainly refers to selection from callups 2-3 weeks earlier from NT break to even the usual starting eleven on match day.
Look 👀… Colak is 29 years old and he is scoring right now and he already made the first preliminary roster and there was no revolt. How long do you want him to wait? Next WC he will be 33 and probably not needed. We need him to stay hot and score goals right now. Let’s hope Dalic brings him to Qatar. Give him a chance! We need goals.
For Musa You said it yourself? DALIC called him up already for the nations league which means he is good enough to be on the national team. Just because he tested positive for COVID a couple months ago, now he’s not good enough? He already proved he deserves a shot. No one on the team is going to be mad if he makes the team. No one revolted when he was called up for nations league games. Here’s a very possible scenario, it’s very simple So Kramaric starts the game and we are in 68th minute against Morocco. It’s 0-0 and guess what Kramaric hasn’t scored. Kramaric is running low on gas. So you bring in MUSA off the bench. It’s the 79th minute, Musa is hungry and gets service from a super smooth Perisic ball and Boom a header in the back of the net. He scores and we are up 1-0 against Morocco. Everyone on the team is going to go crazy and would be unified.. no one will be mad, believe me. Dalic would look like a genius. We have a scoring problem and like I said earlier we need some young guns ready to shoot and score.
Another scenario we are up 2-0. Modric and Perisic scored. Kramaric didn’t… we are playing well and dominating. You bring Musa off the bench and let him do his thing!!! He wants to prove himself and he could score either way he should be on the team and given a chance. He already earned it and proved he deserves a shot. The other players know he’s good. It’s not like he’s getting some free pass. He already made the team before why should he miss out again.
Trust me Musa is a good option to bring to Qatar. It would be a mistake not taking him.
I believe Ćolak should get a chance- he is playing well, he has been around long enough to expect him to deal with pressure reasonsbly well, and he has already played with our national team a few times (therefore, he is likely the easiest player to integrate and develop some sort of chemistry with only one freindly game remaining before the World Cup).
I don’t think Modric and the veteran players would lose sleep if Ante Budimir lost minutes to Musa.
Budimir has very few goals this season for Osasuna and played several Nations games without a goal as well.
Musa is pretty much just a younger, more in-form version of Budimir.
He’s already proven himself to most of us for a large portion of the year.
He’s 10x more valuable to the team than what Kramaric is or what Budimir is.
If we fail upfront cos we choose these shit players, it’s 100% on Dalić this tournament.
Why Musa isn’t on the roster is a mystery? He’s a young gun with a lot of potential!! DALIC added a bunch of useless backup of backups at other spots and isn’t giving this talented and dangerous striker a chance? We need scoring threats and this guy has that. Are answer to our goalie problem is let’s pray that livakovic doesn’t wet the bed with an overflowed diaper and are answer to our scoring problem is to put the same combination of players who aren’t scoring and expect something different instead of putting some new blood in there with something to prove. If dalic doesn’t take Musa which it looks like he isn’t and he doesn’t take colak or doesn’t play him and he puts in the same tired old story of Kramaric or whoever and they don’t score shit I’m going to be pissed.
This we don’t have a striker or scorer is ridiculous…Perisic is always stepping up but we should have multiple threats. It’s not like mandzukic just gave his two weeks notice and we can’t find another scorer on short notice. Dalic has had years to figure this out and he doesn’t even give a huge prospect a foot on the pitch???????????? Unbelievable his answer is … Let’s keep running the same non scoring players and formation and maybe they will just magically figure it out somehow. If the only Musa play you ever saw was this header goal right now that’s enough to give this guy a shot considering are lack of scoring options.
Let’s just hope that Dalic brings the right group of players and doesn’t bring players that aren’t going to do anything but waste space. I would love to see Musa on the national team in Qatar reAdy to play and score.
This past Champions League exposed the lack of any efficient offence. Dalic excluding Rebic did us a favour. Two goals for him? ..inexcusable. Musa should’ve been included. Dalic is stubborn not including him. Perisic isn’t scoring hardly. More of an assister. Why on earth is Budimir included? Kramaric is too inconsistent, Petkovic, is slow, Colak plays in a below average league. Orisic, Pasalic, and Vlasic should be our main options upfront. Anyways, not much to work with. But hopefully our mids can step up as per usual for generating goals.