Ante Kvartuč (CroatianSports.com) & Lovre Nikolac (CroatiaFooty) break down Croatia’s 2-1 victory over Czechia and 4-1 loss to Spain to open up their 2026 Nations League campaign. What went right? And what went terribly wrong?
PODCAST: Croatia 2-1 Nations League Win Over Czechia, 4-1 Loss To Spain
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Also – Spain also made 6 changes to their starting XI that played England – so they also fielded a B-squad too
Think we’re over doing this home soil let’s save the best team for Croatia, etc
Can’t we win on the road anymore?
Some of the most historic and memorable wins (Wembley 2007, Istanbul 2011, etc) have come away in hostile environments where we kicked ass and destroyed the opposition
Don’t think we should now all of a sudden be treating away games as some mystic thing we should fear and can’t perform
Is the team wanting to get 2nd? Who goes through the group? Idemo naprijed.
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I agree with everyone take on smolcic , I was pleasantly surprised and we have a legit backup to stanisic with him.
I agree pong had a bad game and in my mind was right to be taken off at halftime.
I though today Gvardiol wasn’t bad
Besides that I don’t agree with others with their takes and opinions on the game and overall Bilic situation.
1- I think the Šutalo criticism is over the top esp @ guest comments. How I see the game clearly is a lot different how most of you all see it. I don’t know how you look at the first two goals and be like yeah that’s all on Šutalo. ESP Goal 1, first pasalic is doing nothing not putting pressure on ball carrier or marking his guy he’s in no man’s land, Misic not reading play and slow to react no man’s land and Smolcic is not reading play and also in no man’s land.
It never should have gotten to the point that Šutalo has to now run to a ball in open space. Yes he losses the race to ball Spanish passes it to open player who is wide open because perisic is sleeping and not tracking back.
Pasalic misic Smolcic perisic I would all put ahead of Šutalo for goal one.
Goal 2 which didn’t count cause of offside. AGAIN Misic at fault and now with help from Pongracic as culprits but it’s offside but that’s 2 goals misic.
Goal 3 The header it was a well designed play which the team was slow to react with a perfect pass from one of best players in world. However the ball is in the 6 yard box and our goalie is on his line no where near ready or able cause he’s on his line to get the ball. Every good goalie would have tried to punch that as they would not be standing on their line. Livakovic contributes to our set piece issues.
Goal 4 yes Nico Williams is in open space against a CB and he won. Is Šutalo perfect no, does he deserve criticism surely but it’s too much from what I read.
2- I said when Bilić came out with his squad it was a failure and I was right. Losing is fine losing 4-1 is fine but I don’t see a team moving forward and it starts with Bilić.
We need more youth and he should call more kids from u-21. Misic was a bad call we don’t need budimir or Mario pasalic and we def don’t need modric or perisic. Either we are building for the next tournament or not. Yes perisic has two assists he still has a beautiful cross pin point, but he can’t track back and move forward just like modric. Also modric was poor in last WC so please save your comments we’ll look he scored last game.
We need 11 players all on same page able to do their job fast and move forward and back.
We will never do anything with modric and perisic in lineup not saying we will without them but the sooner we move on the sooner we will figure it out. Klopp called two teams he has in mind build a team for the euros and WC. That’s what we should be doing doing everything to build a team for two years down the line. I don’t agree with modric being a bench guy this team needs to move on. These players need to become leaders and they can’t if old guys are still there.
Perisic and gvardiol don’t work well together don’t communicate well don’t k ow what’s that about.
3- Back line needs to be fixed, this is on coaching previous and present. Pick a backline and stick with it. I find it weird that pong and sutalo played last two tournaments but before both tournaments they didn’t play together in League of Nations or qualifiers but boom they there CB pairing for the tournaments makes no sense. Spain backline very consistent Bilić needs to make a decision and stick to it my take which I’ve previously said is gvardiol as LB Šutalo Vušković as CB and stanisic as RB.
Until any or the others stated are REAL options like Mario vusko mlacic or pavic Šutalo is still best choice.
4- Marco pasalic is def nothing more tha. A sub please end that nonsense.
And final Bilić looked like a smotan on sidelines not much changed since turkey.