The Vatreni just keep getting hotter as Croatia’s first EURO 2021 match is now exactly one month away. Brekalo scored a hat trick at the weekend. Budimir scored two last night. Tonight, it was Ante Rebić’s turn as the right winger scored three goals in a 7-0 AC Milan slaughtering of Torino. He also added an assist for all of his fantasy owners out there. He’s peaking at just the right time and is sure to be hungry as Rebić has yet to suit up for Croatia in 2021.
On top of that, Marcelo Brozović scored a goal in Inter Milan’s 3-1 win over Roma. Mario Pašalić joined in on the fun as well with a goal in Atalanta’s 2-0 win over Benevento. All three of these clubs are expected to be playing Champions League football next season.
I’d rather hear what Lovren’s wife thinks about Sosa trying to get into bed with Germany? Can someone please ask her?
Luka Modric – 9/10
Modric had a magnificent game. He dominated the midfield and ran circles around Granada. His movement and phenomenal finish to meet Gutierrez’s pass set the tone for Real Madrid. He had 122 touches, no one in the match had more, and he created three chances for his teammates
That apology didn’t need to be so long lol!
All he should of said was, “bio sam malen i zbunjen.” We all know that would’ve did the trick lol!
How come I can still comment by just putting in my username and a nonexistent email account?
https://youtu.be/X0qa8l1YppY
Modrić joining the goal scoring party.
Our boys are on fire!!
Rebic and Petkovic upfront with Vlasic as a winger
I think the HNS should cut him a break. He is still young and probably got starry eyed when a traditional football power sought him out. And probably pissed that he had yet made an appearance for the full national team. Let him sit for this tournament, and if he is markedly better than the other left backs, give him a shot.
Modrić scores to put Real up 1-0, about 16 minutes in.
The Germans are very smart they did this on purpose to keep Sosa from playing against them in the Euros
Nah. Germans aren’t some infallible race that are playing 4D Chess with everyone.
Bierhoff and Lowe (when he’s not scratch n’ sniffing his balls) are just idiots.
Germany winning the 2014 World Cup was credited as the government investing billions of public funds into their youth programs. I read a nauseating amount of articles supporting German footballing excellence after that World Cup.
Now what? Bounced from the 2018 World Cup by Korea and Mexico, unlikely to progress in these Euros as well, and are resorting to poaching players from a very small country, that invests no public funds into football.
LOL. Maybe they need to put in an Interpol request to extradite Mamic from BiH and have him run the German FA.
Borna needs to do everything he can to play for us now.
It’s the only way he can somewhat repair his reputation.
He needs to be the model player, and give his all every single time he plays for the National Team (like Modric always does).
He won’t get his chance for a long time (if he even gets one), but if he does, then he literally has to keep his mouth shut and give 100% constantly, or he will be destroyed by the fans if there is any moment where it seems like he’s not giving his all.
For now, he just needs to remain focused on getting better and progressing enough at club level where his performance would be too difficult to ignore…and where the HNS would be willing to give him a chance on the team. Then, he literally needs to be the best player on the field every single moment he plays for us (with no dropoff at any point).
He owes Croatia some tournament-advancing goals now as payment, just to maybe stop being called an izdajnik.
It’s a tough situation to be in, but it’s the only option for him.
Hey Sosa- in Lika , they fix these kind of acts of betrayal real fast – 2 guys named Bronko and some home made shuffles – gotovo!!!! samo hrvati!!!!!
‘…I dreamed of playing in big competitions.’
Hey, Sosa, stop dreaming and get back to reality. You want to play in big competitions? You need to see a hardcore, traditional-Catholic spiritual director to teach you about self sacrifice, humility, discipline, loyalty and penance.
God humbles the proud and raises up the lowly. That is the lesson Sosa needs to learn from this fiasco.
On the bright side for him if he ever does play for us, maybe covid will last for years and he won’t have to hear all the booing and hissing from the stands.
The ‘tourist’ is trying to save face. Interesting to see if they call him
up for the U21s.
Lovren chirped him on Instagram saying he should start by putting back up the pictures that he deleted.
Lovren needs to be quiet.
He also has an ego problem, and left us hanging at Euro2016 for similar reasons that Sosa tried to bail on us.
Lovren is too much of a patriot to ever try and leave the National Team for another one, but he did walk out on the team right before a major tournament (simply because he felt he was better than Vida and Corluka, which was not true).
Lovren essentially pulled a Kalinic (bailing on the team because he thought he was better than he is) so he needs to relax a bit.
Do you know what Lovren said, I haven’t found it
On one hand he’s right. Whatever senior players are left on the repka post Euro (once he potentially might be considered) need to have a behind closed doors chat with him and suss some things out.
Like you have said, Lovren shouldn’t be that person. Honestly, I hope he just calls it an international career post Euro and him and Borna won’t even cross paths.
Where did Lovren chirp him? I can’t find it anywhere.
Look at the HNS post that references the Sosa statement on IG and Lovren’s response is the most liked comment.
Well Sosa has done his mia culpa, so he’ll likely be back in the call-up mix after Euro 21, and especially so if there is a new head coach
It is still amazing though the idiocy of Sosa, the Croatian federation, and the German federation.
How someone from the German federation could’ve pushed forward with this and not known the rules is mind blowing. They went out and scouted him a bunch, got him German citizenship, recruited him… and they didn’t take this basic first step of checking the rules?
It is even more shocking that when the Croatian federation heard the news that no one in the organization said to some intern “hey, go check the FIFA rules…are we sure he can actually do this?”
And even more shocking yet is Sosa…knowing he’s making this controversial move…. not maybe taking a peek at the rules himself
It could be that the HNS knew that Sosa was ineligible, and that’s why they remained silent (leaving Sosa and the German FA to bury themselves into the ground).
I was kinda suprised at how nobody at HNS and Dalic himself, seemed so accepting of this without too much pushback.
I think they knew that this was a long shot for Borna, so they let him dig his own grave, then wait for the eventual apology without closing the door fully on him.
They played this well.
I agree, the HNS definitely played this well. Dalic and the rest of the federation keeping relatively quiet has just made Sosa and the Germans look even worse.
Yea.
Borna and the Croatian media tried to make the HNS look incompetent and corrupt, and the German FA tried to look savvy in making their team better by jumping on the opportunity to cap a talented player.
In the end, the Croatian media exposed themselves as still having that tired old Bojkot-HNS agenda…
Borna looks like a complete fool…
and the German FA look incompetent.
The HNS come out looking very professional and avoided being petty by trying to get into the whole ‘he said she said’ thing with Borna (which most people would have done).
They also look pretty good after having the Germans trying to do a stealth poaching of one of their players, and not even caring…saying things like “if a player doesn’t want to play for us, then you can have him”.
As soon as this news about Borna broke, I’m sure the attorneys for HNS were doing their research on Sosa’s legal eligibility on playing for Germany.
They probably advised HNS and Dalic to remain silent on his eligibility issue, as this is a legal issue the attorneys will handle.
Without a doubt, behind the scenes, the attorneys sent a letter to FIFA, saying “hey this guy can’t play for Germany because of rule so and so.”
The Germans didn’t care to do their due diligence because they figured FIFA would turn a blind eye and allow them to do it because they’re a “big footballing” nation. Besides the Germans tried, and risked nothing. The BIG LOSS is on Sosa who looks like a FOOL and now won’t be playing for Croatia anytime soon….he was an all too willing PAWN…
Let Sosa back, call him up for the U21s and let him sit the bench as punishment.
I still think he should run laps around the field after every practice and game, lol
Below is the message Borna Sosa has left for the HNS and Croatian Fans (translated in English for the non-Croatian speakers):
“A lot has happened in my life in the past few days that has left its mark on me, especially on my sports career.
I will not shy away from my own responsibility for the situation I have found myself in, although at the time I made the decision about my representative career I believed I was doing the right thing.
I made the wrong decision and turned out to be naive.
Like any athlete, as a child I dreamed of performing in big competitions. I still dream of them, without thinking about money or other material values, and of course I also dream of performing at European and world championships.
But even in that dream I have no illusions that many will not understand me and I do not blame them for that. The responsibility for this situation is mine alone; from the misunderstanding of what they communicate to me from the Croatian Football Association, to the decision I made, obviously motivated to reach the goal in another, perhaps shorter way.
I made my debut for the younger Croatian national teams in 2012 and played 56 games. There were better and worse performances, but I am proud of every game I played in the Croatian jersey.
The decision I made was wrong and I have to take responsibility for it myself. If the Croatian Football Association and the selectors believe that they can still contribute to the success of our national teams, I will respond to their invitation and make it available.
Finally, I sincerely apologize to the Croatian (sports) public, the fans of the Croatian national football team and the Croatian Football Association, whom I thank for the patience, understanding and correctness they showed me in this situation.”
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. Is it a sad apology just because he wants to play in a World Cup? Or is he genuinely sorry about abandoning his country. Or maybe he’s just sorry he’s caught and would be more than happy to still play for the Germans? He seems to have changed his opinion many times over the past few days. I’m still processing the message to see if it’s really genuine.
I say we definitely don’t call him up before the Euros. Afterwards, the HNS can assess and see where they go from here. I’d love to see big Joe Simunic’s reaction to this. Does he really think it is genuine or is he still very pissed off about Sosa leaving?
Ai dunno, Ai just think he got some really bed advice, mate!
Our boys are catching fire at the right time! Brekalo, Budimir, Kramaric, and Rebic all lethal. They’ll be in form heading into the Euros, ready to do some damage!
Add in one prodigal son, and boom! We win the Euros 😉
Rebic/Kramaric/Petkovic upfront with Vlasic as winger
Rebić dominated as a striker today. He held up play well, and made some perfect passes. It’s a shame that he only recorded one assist. He threaded a perfect pass for what would have been Milan’s 2nd goal, but the player was brought down for a penalty (which kessie scored). He also gave at least 2 more great passes that should have resulted in goals…one was an inch off side, and the other was “served on a plate” for a Kessie, who somehow missed the target from a few yards out. I know his natural position is wing, but it seems like Rebić is finally on fire as a striker.
I hope this form carries into the Euros and all the boys mesh together well.