Scotland are going to the Big Dance!
The Scots defeated Serbia in penalties after playing out a 1-1 draw in regulation and extra time, and are now headed to EURO 2021, to join Croatia, England, and the Czech Republic. Scotland dominated the entire first 90 minutes as the Serbs looked like they were sleep walking before grabbing the equalizer from a corner kick in the 90th minute in Belgrade.
The Serbian contingent will have to be disappointed with themselves as they have not played in a European championship since 2000.
Croatia have never defeated Scotland in five tries and will finally look to break that streak next summer in (TBD). UEFA has stated they would like to move the tournament to a single host nation, but if they do not and keep the format as is, Croatia will have to play England in London and Scotland in Glasgow. Oh well for having a neutral tournament.
Serbia and Scotland will lock horns Thursday night in Belgrade (2:45PM ET) with a berth to EURO 2021 on the line. The winner will be placed in Croatia’s group alongside England and Czech Republic. The loser will watch next summer’s tournament from home.
Serbia are favorites to advance (-150). If they do, it would mark the first time in history Croatia would play Serbia in a football tournament. The match can be streamed on ESPN+.
Who are we rooting for here, guys?
Both Serbia and Scotland are average sides and should not, will not scare the mighty machine that is Croatia. Obviously there’s an emotional element for Croatia if we play Serbia – but I say – bring them on!
It could very well be Luka Modrić’s last tournament in the red and white checkers. What better way to go out than a W over the Serbs?
Good, didnt want to play Serbwanks
Lovren is better on the ball but Vida is the better defender. Respect for your service and forever legends but both need to step aside.
Lovren had a good 2018 year…but his kiks factor has been coming back.
Vida looks like he’s losing what made him valuable…his low-error steady defending. He’s been making errors now, so there’s really no point in even playing him because he has no technical or offensive skill.
I would be happy if at least one of them is not starting. Ideally both, but we really needed to test Uremovic and Pongracic more at CB. Caleta-Car should be a guaranteed starter. Two of those three guys may do the trick. They’re young, playing in good leagues, and are on the upswing of their careers.
Bradaric and Vrsaljko would be a dream at the Euros in the two fullback positions. Huge, huge upgrade to what we’ve been rolling out in these UNL and friendlies.
@ Anonymous
Tough one. It seems like they trade off, one has a bad game, then the other has a bad game or makes a boneheaded play.
Dalic wouldn’t dare do it, but I’d just rip the bandaid off and just roll with a CB pairing of DCC and Pongracic moving forward. I think most feel that is our future but even if one doesn’t pan out, then we can give Sutalo some time either leading up to the Euro or post Euro. Lovren and Vida are at the end of their international career. I’d love one or both of them as bench players and they’d be great guys I’d assume in grooming our younger guys. Ideally, I want to see this next summer in our back.
Livakovic
Vrsaljko (if fully healthy) – DCC – Pongracic – Bradaric
with a bench of Vida/Lovren (assume one or both would retire if they lose their starting spot), Mitrovic (once healthy and in form), Barisic, Uremovic and potentially Sutalo as the last bench guy for our defenders.
I’d feel really good about that going to the Euro…
We should have the following debate
Who is the shittier defender
Vida or Lovren
I am going with vida
Lovren publicly agreed with Kroos that he thinks players are overplayed.
Dear Lovren, there is a solution. You can just retire from NT duties. We’d be happy to go on without you. Especially if you are going to keep ducking out of the way of shots, like you did in the earlier UNL games for 2 goals.
Retirement, would give him about 1 and 1/2 weeks off every month. Ungrateful douche, gets tested for Covid nearly everyday. Gets to surround himself with tested people everyday, and gets to play a game with tested players.
#HangEmUpLovren
Miroslav Skoro will love it being in Russia.
Apparently it’s going to be in Russia
I have no problem with considering what happened two years ago
Srbija srbija srbija
Bye bye
@Razbijač
I still have doubts about the setup.
I think they may just do one single isolated location for all the games. Too much risk to have players travel from country to country, then have certain players sit out matches due to COVID. Scotland or Macedonia might win the tournament if that happens lol.
This is actually Serbia’s Golden Generation.
This team won the U20 World Cup several years ago, and they already missed 2 out of 3 tournaments (and got bounced in the first round in the one they made).
What’s worse is the Euros have been expanded to 24 teams, and they still missed it both times since the expansion.
They really now only have a couple more tournaments with this golden generation, and that’s it.
There will prolly be no fans at the Euros. So Scotland and England won’t have real home field advantage.
I think Stevie wonder could get a better beat on the ball than semper …he looked atrocious.
Serbia has to be the most disjointed soccer squad I have ever seen?
ZERO ideas in the middle.
BS header after a push to force extra time.
Croatia’s record at home and at neutral site major tournaments has been very good in the last 5 years.
Playing away in competitive matches and winning? I think maybe twice in that time frame.
Playing England and Scotland in their home stadiums is unlike any major tournament Croatia has been in. It’s a much bigger issue than most realize.
Quack quack quack
@ anonymous- That would be on top of Croatia having to play England in London.
Better start quacking.
@Andrej
Palaversa is still young and plays for our U19s.
Plus, we already have Nikola Moro and Kristijan Bistrovic starting for our U21s in the defensive midfield positions.
They’re both having great years on very solid clubs, whereas Palaversa is a backup at Getafe. He still needs a couple of years to get at their level.
@Bobby V
I think too much is being made about the “Croatia has never beaten Scotland” thing.
We lost to them twice, during our epic collapse with Stimac, where Lovren and Strinic were almost at fists. In the end, we still qualified, but that was the campaign where we had our most losses (3) and we broken our unbeaten home streak with two losses in a row.
We also played Scotland back in 2002 WC qualifying and drew both games (where we finished first, and it was Scotland needing the win, and not us).
This current team of ours is not our washed up 2002 squad, nor is it our 2013 Stimac-imploding squad.
I think Scotland will be a physical opponent, but they will be overwhelmed by our technical ability. People erroneously think Serbia is a technically good team. They’re not. Their central midfield is a disaster and both teams pretty much played long ball today.
I recall people being worried just the same when we drew Ireland for Euro2012 (since we never beat them either), and we dispatched them easily.
Re U21s
Every time I’ve watched Sosa, he’s been way too aggressive (potential to get caught out Vida style) and fouls needlessly. It’s seems to be apart of his game that he should work on. Real disappointing draw considering we were up 2-0 at half. We were missing Ivanusec too. Funny how Palaversa is not even good enough for our U21s but gets picked up by Man City. Let’s see if Sutalo gets called up to the senior team. I don’t watch enough Dynamo Moscow to know whether Moro is better than Rog let alone Basic.
Well time to break that hoodoo
Scotland is physical but we only need to finish 3rd
You are not lining up your ducks here bobby
Croatia has never beaten Scotland and now have to play them in Glasgow.
You’re not a very intelligent soccer fan if you were cheering for Scotland to win.
Would have much preferred Serbia.
Semper oh dear
Why can’t we find decent keepers
Can we please stop this talk about Modric being a Serb
I have never heard anything more ridiculous
He has shown what a true hrvat is he at all times
Poor Serbs..
Hopefully the format can be expanded again next time.
I just rewatched Sosa’s red card. It was the correct call. It wasn’t on the foul, it was on the stupid kick after the foul. What an idiot.
Modric does have serb blood, and thats fine. He obviously didn’t chose who he was born from. His parents raised him right and thats all that matters. He loves his country and his people.
I wonder how many tournaments Serbia has to miss, for the Brits to stop talking about how good they are.
That’s just KURIR.rs.
They also said that Mandžo’s real name is Mahir Mandzuka, lol.
yeah can you imagine all the serb journalist writing about how Modric is half serb
https://youtu.be/XFB6XRORCgc
U21 highlights
Very disappointing. It was a must win. Now we need a lot of help from the Greeks. We started a very good lineup (according to us here based on how highly we speak about them) and shit the bed. Šemper in particular looked bad, spilling the ball on multiple occasions with one of them resulting in a goal. The refereeing looked atrocious as well. 2 red cards that were yellows at best.
oh shit, completely forgot about Wales.
I just saw a highlight of the Serbian goal and it seemed to me that it was scored off of a corner kick that was incorrectly given. Anybody that watched, was that the case?
Four…Wales made it as well, crazy!
Wow. Crazy finishes to the 3 late games. Although we struggle with the Scots, glad to face them than Serbia. Not for fear of losing to them, but just the bullshit that wouldve went on for the next 7 months in the build up to the game. If this stupid corona shit gets under control and fans are allowed to attend, its gonna be one sick party with Scottish fans as opposed to having your head on a swivel because all hell could break loose with Serbs around.
Also, 3 teams from our qualifying group (Slovakia and Hungary) have made it.
I have nothing against serbs i wanted them to qualify i wanted the derby instead a brexit derby instead of yugo derby hahaha.
Serbian football team=Croatian Basketball Team
CHOKERS
yeah cedo’s are out and I’m happy they can’t qualify for another tournament!
The Scots had Ice in their veins. Great penalty taking.
For many of these Serbian players this was the most important match of their national team careers–and they failed to capitalize, even at home.
Chetniks out !!!!
So if covid is under control we have 2 road games at the euro show!
Since the england game at the world cup 2018 Croatia have conceded 41 goals in 20 games thats atrocious
Scotland prematurely subbed out their best players, and Serbia now has all the momentum with this game-tying goal…
Yes, Scotland has TWO very good shots on net and seem to be dominating possession?
Strange that Serbia is this passive, and can’t seem to complete more than two passes in a row. All their best players are out there.
Staring 11 Based on Dalic Logic Livakovic Vrsaljko Lovren Vida Barisic Modric Brozovic Vlasic Rebic Kramaric Perisic. Is the euro 2021 lineup.
My lineup Livakovic Vrsaljko Caleta Car Pongracic Bradaric Modric Brozovic Vlasic Brekalo Rebic Perisic. Subs kramaric budimir kovacic pasalic.
Omg I just imagined Serbia scoring off the corner in 90th minute and they do – wow goin to ET
Ha ha ha
I have never felt more Scottish in my life at the moment
Go the bravehearts
Freedom
@ Nido,
Fix our problems? What problems?
We have a world-class midfield. Krama will get the job done when he needs to. I agree our defense needs a tune-up but we have 7 months to figure that out.
Remember, Croatia did not play one meaningful game in 2020. Not one.
Serbia still in sleep walk mode, down 1-0, 80 minutes.
We don’t know for sure what Dalic’s plans are.
I hate his experiments and constantly calling up fringe players from weak leagues…but he’s also been calling up a few of the right guys too (Bradaric, Pongracic, Uremovic, Basic).
I also think he would call up Majer and Moro as well, but is doing our U21s a favor.
The good news from these bad games we’ve been having, is that it really shows us what DOESN’T work.
Guys like Rog, Badelj, Melnjak, Jedvaj, Kovacic, Pasalic have received a lot of playing time.
We know that Kovacic and Pasalic have limitations and cannot play multiple roles (and are backups).
We know Jedvaj should never play for us anymore.
We know that’s probably the same for Rog and Badelj too.
We know that Uremovic is a good stop gap.
We also know that Caleta-Car is our best CB right now, and the Vida/Lovren partnership is likely over.
We know that Krama is better than Petkovic.
We know that Brekalo is a game changer.
Dalic is a relationship guy, and he probably realizes that guys like Vida expect to start, or a guy like Badelj expects to make the team. But after seeing how poorly a lot of these guys are playing, nobody on the team can complain if he decides to bench or cut any of these guys.
I expect our Euro team to be a completely different lineup than what we’ve been seeing at Nations League. I can’t see him moving forward with any of these players who are giving us poor results.
Boli me kurac skime cemo igrati.
We have to fix our problems on national team beacuse we look terrible never been worse in defense and Dalic needs to wake up any
Vida is wasted opion for starting 11 id keep him as reserve not stating 11 anymore and lovren is also in a bubble imo. Back 4 when healthy Vrsaljko Pongracic Caleta Car Bradaric.
Midfield most likely moro majer will get call ups for 2022 not at euros. Badelj nema sto vise traziti He was a good team player 10 years time to move on.
Modric Broz Vlasic is the midfield no doubt with kovacic pasalic basic rog krovinovic as backups
Wings Perisic Rebic Brekalo sigurni Orsic looks dangerous and why not keep calling him until doesnt deserve it. Pjaca lets see what happens this season maybe earns a call up again sad that his career took down turn because of weak legs.
Fowards kramaric budimir are only ones at this moment Petkovic is lost idk what will be with him needs to get his head straight. Other strikers are not on horizon.
Goalkeepers Livakovic Grbic Sluga. Also have Kahilna form gorica great hnl season. Posavec from hajduk
Just dont need weak players anymore imo
Wow…Serbia down 1-0…they look horrible. Looking really good for the Scots.
Wow. If Serbia loses this in BG, people should go nuts on them.
After winning that tough match in Norway for this, it would be a crazy choke job.
I wonder if they’ll all blame SMS for this.
Scotland just missed a very good chance…the guy side footed the ball into the 23rd row!
Serbia looking awful so far in the first half. The weather is also shitty in Beograd.
Definitely not a cakewalk.
They’ve got starters at Arsenal, Man U, and Liverpool. Them playing England would be a great distraction for those two.
that was me above
I don’t see a positive side to playing Serbia at all and I don’t think playing them would be a cake walk either…we’ve had troubles against weaker teams. Overall, we are a better team but in a 1 game situation, many things can happen and I really do not care to add any extra attention politically, for sport!
Scotland is a physical team. They run hard, work hard and use breakage in the play to try to stop our flow…it would also be a tough challenge but without the politics.
Whup the Serbs that is.
Scots are alright with me.
As much as I’d like to whup em I’d prefer they dont have the satisfaction of qualfiying.
Also Scotland qualifying would be a nice distraction for the English which benefits us.
@ARMADA87
Yup. The only real negative for playing the Scots were possible cards and injury (as it would be a physical affair) and the fact that they would have had home field advantage (with the original Euro2020 format).
The positive was that they are offensively inept (making it easier to plan against them), and they would have caused England more problems due to their history together.
Serbia may result in some heightened emotions, but not like in the past. Still, the shame of drawing or losing to them is much higher than against Scotland.
I can see 2 trains of thought in terms of who we want to win the Scotland vs. Serbia game.
-From a TV product and entertainment POV, you would have to say Serbia. I think it’s a game the world football community would circle on their calendar and there would be an ungodly build up to it in the Croatian media. Would be euphoric to whip them at a group stage game of a major tournament. But as others have mentioned, if we don’t figure out our backline issues, they could very easily put 2-4 goals in our net and beat us. High pressure game and high risk/high reward type of atmosphere.
-From a pure footballing POV, it would have to be Scotland. Would just be another group stage game vs. an opponent with less attacking options compared to Serbia. We probably stack up better vs. the Scots and I can see us easily beating either team, I think the likelyhood of us beating Scotland is just higher. Plus, there wouldn’t be all that attention, pressure, etc. on the guys to get a result.
So…I guess Macedonia just made their first tournament with this win?
Pandev secured it for them too.
Even though they only got in because of this weird format, I’m happy for them.
Here are the goals for the U21 match.
https://sportske.jutarnji.hr/sn/nogomet/reprezentacija/vruci-biscan-nakon-kiksa-jako-sam-razocaran-nedopustive-greske-u-ponasanju-i-disciplini-a-bolji-smo-15031043
The two goals we scored (Moro and Bistrovic) were awesome.
Honestly, Lovro Majer and Nikola Moro are National Team caliber. These guys are much better than players like Badelj and Rog. I would pick either over Pasalic as well.
I can only assume that Dalic hasn’t called them up yet because of U21 commitments, but there is no reason to not have these guys on the senior squad.
Haha gbvh why would you watch that game
Unfortunately at this moment with Croatia’s defence being sooooo bad I would like to have Scotland rather than Serbia
I could not handle seeing is getting hit with 2 or 3 goals from them
Because let’s face that’s the current trend friendlies or euro nation games or not
That Georgia-North Macedonia was unwatchable.
id have to imagine they would have a bubble if the sentiment around covid is similar to how it is now. too much at stake to have nonsense disrupt things. but there is a lot of time in between so we shall see
We would be big favorites against either team.
Since three teams can advance, the group stage at the Euros have not been that exciting.
Our England re-match is overhyped as both teams are sure to make it through, and the match against our war rival Serbia is not going to be as high drama as both teams can qualify even if they were to both finish behind England (especially with a very weak Czech in their group).
Either way, this is a weird year with COVID infections possibly causing players to have to miss games, even during these Euros.
Unless they do some sort of bubble (like they did in the NBA) this could be a big factor that results in matches lost because of several missing key players. Anything can happen.
Scott’s are a lot of fun at the bars. Wouldn’t mind walking in with my Cro Jersey when we play them.
U21s draw Scottland 2-2… they needed a win there. Appearance in the Euros next summer is now very unlikely
I’d root for the Scots
Rather lose to Scotland if the game is either:
a) meaningless, and Dalic rests our starters ie Iceland WC ’18
or
b) Croatia is riddled with injury, suspensions, or illness.
Any “pravi Hrvat” would never consider rooting for the serbs.
That being said, we would destroy either one in the Euros.
FYI for people in Canada: On live on TSN2.