PSV roar back from a 1-goal 1st leg loss to defeat Juventus 3-1 Wednesday night to oust the Italian giants from Champions League football. PSV Eindhoven will now play in the Round of 16 versus Arsenal or Inter Milan.
Over the 4-3 (aggregate) win for PSV, Perišić scored two goals and supplied a ‘hockey assist’ that would be the eventual clinching goal for the Dutch side.
Not only did he score, but he looks like prime Euro 2016 Perišić during these goals: composure, patience, confidence, shot is perfectly placed. Perišić is currently 36 years old. He would be 37 by the time the 2026 World Cup rolls around. Looks like he has plenty left in the tank regardless.
If you’re Hajduk or Gattuso right now, how ya feeling? You had a falling out with a Split legend. And now you have to watch him on tv scoring Champions League knockout round goals in back to back weeks. Bad for Hajduk. Great for the Vatreni!
Gaz, great work
Eldes Marque
Manager said Dr told him Sucic could go back in and Sucic wanted to return
But manager didn’t want to risk it as they lots of fixtures coming up
While he said he didn’t look bad Sucic will have an MRI tomorrow
Union were robbed at the end. Player heads the ball over the goalie who misses it and clobbers him to the point where he’s down with a bloody nose at the very end of the game and no penalty. Non existent Var. Do they not check penalties, am I missing something?
Agree with you, I was watching and was also amazed that VAR did not intervene and at least call the ref over to have a look. To me it was a spot kick.
Ivanovic had some half chances in the match but on three occasions he shot over the goal or wide of the mark. Sutalo had a solid match for Ajax.
He had been playing great. Two goals as has been noted. But he had other opportunities, was playing very well, working hard at both ends of the field.
What happened is he challenged for the ball charging toward the opposing goal, and his right leg got twisted in an ugly way when he made contact with an opposing player.
The play went back down the field, the other way, but Sucic did not get up. He grabbed his right knee area and looked in a great deal of pain.
It did not look good.
However, when they were tending to him he seemed to nod with some assurance and then, in time, he walked off the field under his own steam, walking gingerly but not limping too badly.
Obviously, I can’t tell exactly what the seriousness might be. But I am optimistic it will be okay, hopefully just a twist of some kind…..but that is just speculation, probably no one will know for sure until tomorrow.
But it looked a little better as he walked off the field than it did initially.
What no!!! Sucic is hurt – jebi ga!!!
You’ve gotta be kidding me sucic left injured?? How bad is it/did it look
Slide tackle from behind he hobbled off the field. Did not look good
Sucic is an awesome talent.
I hope it doesn’t get wasted by injuries.
Does anyone know how bad Sučić is hurt??
Per Spanish media –
Discomfit in the knee, trainers worked on him, then he left the field visibly upset
Thanks. Hopefully it’s not serious.
60′ minute Ivanovic almost broke Sutalo’s leg now !
Sutalo terrible box defending 1st goal
Sucic 2nd goal – nice to see him crashing the box like his cousin Petar ! Can’t say I’ve seen him do that before. 1st goal a bit lucky but had good direction (and some deflection)
Sutalo voted man of the match by Ajax fans
Ajax 0-2 Union SG
2-2 on aggregate into H2
Dirty Dani Silva just tried to break Sucic’s leg
Sucic’s lucky he didn’t just sustain an Eduardo-type careering “ending” injury (1/4 inch in either direction and his career would be “over” before it even started)
Off after 48′ min
x.com/_sistemablanco/status/1892682589795655782
Please look at photo 4
Mbappe throwing it in Gvardiol’s face
Wow
Pretty silly considering the March fixture
Anonymous predicts this will fuel Gvardiol and we’ll see the best of him in March as he’ll be super motivated to throw it back in Mbappe’s face
***.thesun.co.uk/sport/33465079/mbappe-real-madrid-gvardiol-man-city-champions-league/
Sucic 2 goals.
And he’s hurt – took off at 48’
Anyone know how bad ?
Half time and sucic has 2 already. I know a few have been a little hard on him for not scoring much but he’s much more than just a scoring player. His ball carrying and distribution (like another Luka) is what makes him so good
Seeing how effective he plays on the right wing makes me cry about Dalic’s team selection for the 2022 World Cup. Perisic on the right, Orsic on the left, and we could have had a championship winning team. This two winger formation is the formula that Spain used to win the European Championship.
With Budimir up front, Croatia would have had a formidable front line.
Great write up about Budimir in the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/feb/17/osasuna-ante-budimir-real-madrid-bellingham-la-liga
Thanks for the article…good read. Respect to Budimir. I hope he can top off his career with some big goals for the Vatreni.
Ivane vrime je
Perisic off the bench, that’s it. We have kids and it’s their time. I’d still like to see Ivan come off the bench with still some zip and rip that shot. Man, did Ivane score some big goals for us. God love him.
Put kramaric budimir perisic as front 3 attacker (34 34 36) based on current form.. If not we can put orsic livaja rebic 33 32 32
Perisic > Bakayoko PSV
21 y.o. Bakayoko 50+m value [Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Tottenham in Jan]
Therefore
Perisic Croatia vs. France
Watched some extended highlights
Perisic was actually very good – also defensively (see as e.g. in 34′ min in his own box running back to clear a ball off the line (which went wide))
Context is important – he is playing ahead of 21 y.o. winger Bakayoko already capped 18 times for Belgium [who is valued at 50+ m and wanted by Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle and Tottenham in January – but staying at PSV until summer]
For this reason alone – i.e. Perisic > Bakayoko @ PSV – Perisic should play for Croatia in March
Glad to see him playing well again, not so happy that he used Hajduk as a tool to go to the EUROS. In those matches for Hajduk, mostly coming on as a sub for the last 20-30 minutes the guy was just running in a straight line at 60% of his pace.
Cannot see too many other clubs giving him the opportunity to play with a dodgy knee.
Physically he was not ready and should have never been called up by Dalic for the EUROS nor the recently completed NL. Now that he appears to be physically ready again ? and in good form he deserves to be called up by Dalic.
When Perisic did his knee, medical specialists were saying that it would be in March 2025 that the knee would be back to its optimal. Looks like they were fairly close with their prognosis ?
How was he defensively today?
Did he also send in crosses and try to set teammates up in the box?
How he plays for PSV could be different than how he plays for Croatia.
He’s not at “senator” at PSV, like he is with Croatia. He’s had to work to ensure he plays in the first team.
When he’s been playing for us in 2024, he’s just parked himself in front of goal to try and score… and he’d never run back.
Hopefully we see him play well in the next UNL games. But I’d hate to see Budimir in front of goal, with Perišić standing right next to him.
I was watching Multiprijenos on ArenaSport5 and they were mainly focusing on Real v City and would cross to the other matches when a goal was scored or something else exciting. Do not know how he played defensively ? but from what I saw he played on the right wing and was subbed in the 85th minute.
I think that Dalic will most likely use him on the right wing against France and have someone else play as a right back ? possibly Juranovic or Stanisic ?.
If he returns to his form that he had in 2018, where he scored 5 goals in that tournament for us, and nearly had 7 or 8… Then I am not too worried. We need firepower up front, and Perišić poses that threat up front also leaving space open for other players. It could even be a help to Budimir in this way.
Plus we need a a natural winger on the left we have been missing that on our team and it has showed in previous tournaments so if he is back (as Ante says) then that is a good thing.
Happy that Perisic is finally back in form after his injury… but I’m still annoyed that he chose and was allowed to use the Euros as a personal rehab stint.
Gvardiol is a great defender but he is getting grilled online for what happened to him on the second goal. Which is sad because he was running to cover for someone else and ends up getting floored. He almost snapped his ankle if you watch the slow replay. Also, a cool picture of Kovacic-Ruidger- Gvardiol- Modric sitting outisde the locker room talking to each other after the game.
https://www.instagram.com/championsleague/ (scroll down a little bit and ytou will see it)
I wonder why Pep didn’t start kovacic for the match? Gundogen is too old and slow to be going against Madrid?
The last goal for Madrid was a bit strange because it seemed Gvaridol was out of position but he went into a cb position? He is still young and has a lot to learn but you can see a pattern of how he is getting beat by his opponents.
This is not great for Vatreni
This is terrible
This isn’t prime perisic (he has lost considerable pace and only going to get worse)
All this is going to do is keep one of our deserved youngesters from playing
God help us if Dalic starts Perisic Budimir Orsic instead of Ivanovic and others vs France next month
Having him in form again would make a big difference for the Vatreni!
I have to say I am impressed with how smart his transfers are. If only some other players took note of this, he has never transfered to a team that has not utilized him and he always seems to fit right in.