Both Ivan Perišić and Marcelo Brozović got the start for Inter Milan as they took on Real Madrid in the Champions League ‘Match of the Day’ Tuesday. Luka Modrić started the game on the bench for Real as the La Liga champions took an early 2-0 lead against Inter Milan. However, Inter Milan would rally to cut the deficit in half immediately before Perišić would score the equalizer in the 68th minute as he cooly slotted the ball inside the far post to beat Courtois. Inter Milan had Real Madrid on the ropes in what almost a must-win game for both clubs.
Luka Modrić would come off the bench in the 78th minute – and although he didn’t do much in the cameo appearance – Real Madrid’s Rodrygo would score the game winner only two minutes later. Los Blancos are now only one point behind leaders Borussia Monchengladbach in their Champions League group while Inter sit two points behind both Real Madrid and Shakhtar with three games remaining. Both Perisic and Broz played well for Inter as a draw would have been fair for their efforts.
Perišić Goal
In other matches around Champions League, Mario Pašalić played 63 minutes as Atalanta were skunked by Liverpool 5-0. Duje Ćaleta-Car played the full match for Marseille as Porto defeated them 3-0 on the night. Ćaleta-Car was responsible for Porto’s first goal as he did not track back quick enough to block the pass across the box.
Good comments on both guys Maminjo, I see some of your points!
Be careful Maminjo
Slavonac decides on who is a bigger Croat or not
Rakitic is, without a doubt, one of our greatest players.
I’m just saying that he’s not as die-hard as Modric.
I’m sure he loves Croatia, and has loyalty…but not on par with Modric.
Rakitic is also a very indecisive person.
This was evident when he left Dalic hanging in the middle of our critical qualification cycle (and wasn’t sure if he should accept the callup or not).
His concern was his status at Barcelona (which turned out to be junk anyway) and he put that ahead of really helping us qualify.
Now, he’s lucky that Nikola Vlasic stepped up…but what if we had no Nikola Vlasic?
We would all be cursing Rakitic’s name right now if we didn’t qualify for the Euros.
Vlasic came in and scored 4 critical goals for us, specifically the one in Wales (1-1) and the game-typing goal against Slovakia in our final match (when everyone was nervous except him).
Rakitic is very lucky that his indecisive actions didn’t result in us missing a tournament.
Raketa probably was thinking about retirement, but wasn’t sure about it, and his decision came at the worst possible time (when his loyalty to Spaniards who make fun of him in the media, took precedence).
Then, he gives an interview with HRT stating how he’s always open to coming back, lol.
Come on man.
Great player, but he’s all over the place when it comes to this.
Re: Mandzo…
Call it ego, call it pride. Whatever.
He was mediocre at Euro 2016 and he scored 2 goals in like 10 games for us in qualifying for World Cup. He has no right to assume that his position should ever be questioned.
He ended up going to Qatar after Russia and still doesn’t have a club (because he doesn’t want to play for these smaller clubs).
Dude has a big ego.
Even if the ‘media’ (which is largely comprised of Yugo scum) gets under your skin, you essentially gave them exactly what they wanted.
They want a HNS bojkot and they want Croatia to miss out on tournaments. It was posted all over Index.hr as a banner, like it was a part of their mandate.
Why are you listening to them, and hurting all the proud Croatian kids and fans?
Mandzo is a great player, but he’s an idiot too. Not exempt from criticism.
He would have been useful as a backup, and at age 34 and playing in Qatar, he obviously cannot think of himself as a starter anymore. He didn’t want to face that reality and would rather bail on us than give us everything.
Had he stuck around with us, guaranteed he would have a contract with a good club right now. Clubs won’t give him what he wants after not playing serious football for over a year now. He’s gotta take a pay cut or something.
Slavonac
Are you talking personal experience about being pussy whipped
Rakitic, went through hell when he picked Croatia over Switzerland. Ivan Rakitic is a Croatian legend who was crucial in Russia for us.
I’m not sure I agree with you Maminjo!
Rakitic’s reason’s for leaving the team are very surprising to me as well but I don’t know why you’d question his loyalty to his Croatia…especially since he’s served the team for 12 years and over 100 games. At some point these guys have to make choices and their personal lives are all different. We really don’t know whats going on in their homes and I see it with my own friends where some guys are completely whipped and have absolutely no voice in their home while others seem to have a better and more balanced marriage.
In my opinion, I think Mandzukic has more pride than ego! He was constantly criticized by our media and the entire “should Kalinic start over Mandzukic” may have put him over the edge…I certainly would have had my opinions about that if I were him. Mandzukic is your typical lunchbox player where hard work and an appetite to succeed really drove him to where he became a major asset …thats not usually as appreciated as someone who’s more skilled or talented overall….just look at Olic as another example.
Both these players gave us good years, I don’t feel the need to criticize either of them for leaving when they did, I’d rather they leave when they feel like its time instead of them staying well past their due date!
@BZ
1) No convincing required. Modrić has stated many times that he’ll stick around as long as he’s needed.
2) If you read between the lines, in the interviews that I’ve read, Rakitić seems to suggest that if he was ever needed, he’d come back to help.
3) I’m sorry, but I can’t take this comment seriously.
Maminjo
I love you man
The good news about Modric is, that he is the type to play until he cannot give anything anymore.
THAT is exactly the kind of mentality all proud NT players have. There is NO retirement from National Team play. You do not ‘retire’ from being a Croat. You give what you can, until you are no longer needed (and an ample substitute can continue in place of you).
You can’t compare guys like Raketa and Mandzo to Modric.
Rakitic is a beta.
His choice to play for the National Team largely stems from trying to make his father happy. He was largely 50/50 on playing for Cro or Swiss. His dad pushed him over the edge to pick us.
His choice to live in Sevilla and devote his final playing days for Sevilla stems from him trying to make his wife and her family happy.
He’s nowhere near as big a Croat patriot as Modric is.
Mandzukic, on the other hand, has a huge ego.
He puts that ahead of his pride for his country. He would rather retire from the NT then be a backup.
He does give us an element of value, but it was time to move on from him. He should not be our starter anymore, although he would have been a good backup for us.
I think all of Mandzo, Rakitic, Lovren, Vida can give us value and really strengthen our squad…but as backups only.
It’s hard to transition from old to new, and manage egos. It’s likely you lose a few players, and some will go down kicking and screaming (like Olic did).
But you definitely cannot simply keep the vets on too long, our you’ll get burned. I’m afraid of our CBs doing that to us at the next Euros.
I care.
1) Will Dalic be able to convince Modric to stay on while the buffoons call for a premature changing of the guard.
2)If Brozo, Modric, or Vlasic go down to injury or yellow/red suspension. Rakitic can fill any role at anytime.
3) Mandzukic still our best striker, and he isn’t even playing.
With Mandzukic we would never have been served our worst national team setback/embarassment 6-0 to Spain.
Bašić and Pongračić are MUCH needed callups.
Kovačić and Pašalić cannot give us anything at CDM. Rog is also very mediocre.
Bašić is hot right now in France and still pretty young. He’s earned this and may surprise us.
Moro is another one we should call up too. They’re both probably better than all three of Kovačić, Pašalić and Rog in that role.
Pongračić any one of Lovren or Vida would be gold.
I agree that Dalić is too loyal and would never push a player to stay or leave.
Rakitić and Mandžo left, and Dalić accepted it.
Lovren does not know when to leave, and Dalić will accept it.
Who cares. Vlašić is exactly what we need right now in the CAM role.
I miss Rakitić only for the depth in the pivot (since I’m not liking our backups for Brozović and Modrić). Kovačić and Pašalić aren’t effective there, and guys like Bašić and Moro have yet to be tested.
But at CAM, we’re pretty solid with Vlašić there and Modrić, Pašalić, Kramarić and (soon) Lovro Majer all being able to play there in case we need them to.
Modrić and Brozović as starters in the pivot, are both better than Rakitić. Rakitić knew he was going to be a backup, so he wanted to leave on a high.
This is why I’ll always respect Modrić way more than guys like Rakitić and Mandžukić.
Puts the NT first and foremost.
Don’t look at rakitic sevilla performance and think Croatia is missing that. At this stage, rakitic could never give Croatia what he’s willing to give Sevilla
Becar, I agree I hope they both get decent minutes.
Ya Perisic had a great game. He was decent in the CF role on the weekend too. Lautaro was off and giving the ball away on a regular basis yesterday.
Kova’s a real talent, not world class as of yet. I’ll be more worried if Modric retires and Kova’s still struggling to get minutes on a Champs League team. Time will tell but for now he’s just a sub for the repka.
I’m excited to see Pongračić and Bašić.
Lovre Kalinić, Marin Pongračić, Josip Juranović, Antonio-Mirko Čolak i Toma Bašić priključit će se Vatrenima idućeg ponedjeljka u Istanbulu gdje je predviđeno okupljanje hrvatske reprezentacije za predstojeće ispite u studenom. Pongračiću i Bašiću to će biti prvo okupljanje s hrvatskom A reprezentacijom.
Dalić has many issues, not preventing Rakitić from leaving isn’t one of them.
He reminds me of Cito Gaston or Scotty Bowman. It really takes something special to coax the best out of a bunch of stars. There have been infinitely more failed coaches of teams full of stars than successful ones.
What I’d like to see is how he handles this transition. So far, I’m not impressed. I fear that his loyalty, which on the one hand can be an incredible asset, but can also conversely be one’s demise, will be an issue. Time will tell…..
Amazing how Rakitic can keep shining at a high level.
Dalic’s biggest issue:
Any decent manager knows that when a star employee submits his resignation, you do not just sit there and accept it. You aggressively convince that employee to stay. Dalic was unsuccessful at preventing Mandzukic and Rakitic from retiring prematurely.
Yeah things not looking good for Kovacic. He needs to play.
Kovacic bench again, ship has sailed.
That dipsy/doodle/cross Modric made late was poetry.
Perisic scores, then almost scores, and gets taken off for Sanchez.
Conte is a clown (except he doesn’t know how to smile).
Perišić is world class.
So many scrubs at Inter.
Conte is constipated.
I am always amazed by that left footed cross that Perišić drives in off his patented shimmy shake to the outside.
It comes in quick with precision.
I like the way Luka saves his legs at Real Modrić.
Comes in at 2-2, and as soon as he steps in pressure is released and the calm is restored.
Let all the midfielders run there legs into the ground to allow the magic man to create the difference.
I am actually impressed that he is able to be so effective off the bench for 20 minutes.
Vieri pumped up Boban though, and criticized Milan for what they did to him.
I don’t think he has it out for Croats, lol.
He’s just a footballer. Most of these guys are retarded.
This is typical. There are several parts of Italy that despise Croatia and they are very quick to call out when things go wrong for us. So funny they failed to qualify for Russia.
I saw a comment today from Christian Vieri saying Perisic isn’t a good enough forward/attacker…he’s a complete idiot! Perisic can change any game he plays in with one play…dumb wop!