The 2022-2023 UEFA Nations League will be the third time Croatia competes in the newly formed competition, in which we provided quite underwhelming results in previous years. June to September 2022 is the group stage phase, where we will be drawn into a group of four as we battle it out for the sole playoff spot.
Although it may seem as though this is just some meaningless tournament, I believe this can be an excellent opportunity for Zlatko Dalić and co. to experiment with young fresh talent, new formations and fixing our striker problem ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Although this will mostly be trial and error, getting results can be beneficial in two different ways:
- These games affect our FIFA ranking, and losing can result in us being placed into a lower pot in a World Cup or Euro draw. Winning against some of the strongest nations in the world will help us climb back into the top 10 quite quickly.
- Winning your group in the Nations League means more security when it comes to World Cup or Euro qualifying. If we ever slip up, our Nations League results can help us get into the playoffs.
But enough about qualifying. We’ve made the World Cup, and not through the play-offs. Let’s talk about preparation, and the Nations League tournament is a great chance for us to get some chemistry going and try to fix some of our problems (as of now, scoring seems to be the only one.) So, who do we want to face?
Potential opponents from Pot A:
France
Spain
Italy
Belgium
There’s no easy team here, obviously. Ideally, I’m taking Italy or Belgium. Italy was hot coming off a huge loss-less streak after being trashed out of World Cup qualifying by Sweden back in 2017 and have since won a Euro, in a very difficult path to the final. Since then, they’ve tied Switzerland twice, tied Bulgaria and Northern Ireland, and lost to Spain. They seem to have lost their groove and I think Croatia’s style of play can outmatch them.
Belgium is strange. They sit atop the FIFA rankings every new update but they just never seem to get the job done against strong opponents. I believe Croatia can put up some good results against them.
Potential opponents from Pot B:
Portugal
Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
Again, these are all tough opponents, however I’d like to stay away from Portugal (our bogey team) and Germany, as the Germans finally seem to be getting it together and look pretty dangerous in recent matches. Denmark is the weakest team here, on paper, which means nothing. The string of results they’ve put together is extremely impressive, considering they were in a pretty tricky group. The Dutch remain inconsistent as always, and by having them in our group, I think we can add to their misery. They just don’t impress me and seem to wince at the thought of competition. We all saw how the Czechs took them out in Budapest, like a routine clean-up job.
We are in Pot C with England, Poland and Switzerland.
Potential opponents from Pot D:
Wales
Austria
Czech Republic
Hungary
I’m okay with meeting any of these teams, except maybe the Czech Republic. None of them should be putting up any kind of result against us considering we want to prove ourselves as a top tier team. And to do so, nothing less than 6 points in 2 games is expected against these sides. If I had to choose, I’ll take the inconsistent and ever so disappointing Austrians, please.
So, to round it all up, my ideal picks for our opponents are Italy, Netherlands and Austria. Who would you like to see us face up against? And what would you do with these six games if you were Dalić?
The official draw takes place in Nyon on Thursday December 16 at 12:00pm (ET).
Perisic with a nice header off a corner in the 11th to put Inter on top early.
Nicely placed by Ivan
On another note, I had no idea Ribery was still playing
This is a great group for us with the different level of competition. With the amount of regular season games being played, Dalic is forced to switched things up. But let’s face it, these are still glorified friendlies and like the rest of the coaches, he will be experimenting to see who fits best. A lot up in the air at the striker position.
After crushing it with Malmo, maybe Colak makes a move in the winter transfer window. Budimir is also stuck coming off the bench behind Garcia and Avila, so maybe he makes a move too. Maybe Simic is ready to play for the senior squad with Sucic. Although, I’d prefer for him to stay with the U19s where he actually gets to start. Otherwise, it might be Krama, Petkovic, and Livaja as our main strikers.
I think Budimir is fine where he is, the guy was off for last 4 months with injury. He started yesterday in copa and scored. I see him slowly regaining starting minutes.
I’d try out Musa as a backup striker.
He was a regular with our U23 team, and he plays in a better league than several of the guys we keep talking about (Colak, Simic, Petkovic, Livaja).
He seems to fit the bill, in terms of what we are looking for up top (tall…and not a midfielder posing as a striker).
5 goals across 10 games, with no penalty kicks (or hat tricks against one opponent) in the Portuguese league is not bad.
It’s nice to see Colak as one of the top scorers in Sweden, but that league is a big step down (and he’s already 28).
I’d want to see him in a better league before calling him up again.
The good news is that we will know by June if guys like Musa and Simic are just on a current streak…or if they actually are having good goalscoring seasons.
Simic will hopefully get promoted to RB Salzburg next season, and we can start calling him up for Euro 2024 qualifiers if he continues his scoring.
Ya good point, saw that last goal by Musa. Pretty tidy finish for a big guy.
The schedule of games was released and we have 4 games in June (2 against France) in a 10 day period. I would use those 4 games to try out a bunch of youngsters and fringe players. It also comes at the end of a long season, so not sure the veterans will have there heads in it with not much to prove. The last 2 games are in September. That’s when Dalic needs to start molding his 16-18 players he will use at the World Cup 2 months later.
No .^. |{ don’t expect so much from stupid Dalic
| He will try partnering Lovren & Gvardiol (CB)
or Gvardiol – Lovren – Vida ( 3 – 5 – 2 )
moreover -> there will be no Marco Simic & Musa |l
but instead calling -> Petkovic, Livaja, Colak, Budimir
Wow.
Nations League games are only in June and September?
Pretty much a couple of 4-game mini tournaments.
Regardless of this fact, we should take this more seriously and understand that these guys play just as often for their club teams.
I hate the idea of us ‘resting’ a player like Sosa, just so he’s fresh for some bush league team like Stuttgart.
Let him rest a couple of the 50 games he plays for them every season.
Could have been a lot worse. We have never beaten France, so maybe with a bit of luck we can finally win. Denmark is a good side but I feel we can match them.
Austria by far the weakest team in the group.
I’m confident we won’t be relegated from this group.
Budimir scored the winning goal for Osasuna today. Hopefully he’s back in form and will keep this up
He definitely deserves a chance If he gets back in form
I know some said he didn’t do much in nations league games but really did anyone
He’s played well in a top 5 league for a while now
He is hungry I’m sure to play for the repka
Only good performance I can remember in the last League of Nations is the kovacic brace I think it was
I actually thought Budimir was excellent in the friendly against Switzerland, which I believe was his first cap, and in our qualifier against Slovenia, and in our Euro game against Spain. He was a substitute in all three and made himself very present, especially in pressuring the opposing defense (which is what we need most of all now)
Denmark was the one team that I didn’t want
Other than France the group is not too bad for us. Denmark has had some outstanding results lately so i can see why they are in pot 2 and won’t be easy even without Erikson but of course them and Austria are beatable. And if we can please not lose to France by 2 goals in both games again that’d be nice.
How many times do we have to play “France” ffs…sick and tired of playing them.
Denmark, horrible anti football…will be boring as hell.
Austria, garbage team, so should be a cakewalk…and some of our diaspora there will at least get to see us play…and the next Sucic will play for us down the line…
Denmark anti football?
Geez Americans really know fuck all about football.
Good draw hope we play france in june so poljud will be full vs them denmark probably in osijek and austria rijeka or pula maybe.
Hope dalic learned from mistakes uses this to build team even more and waste it like 2018 and 2020
We are in Group 1 with Austria, Denmark and FRANCE
I’d like to see any combination of games and I’d like to see the majority of games played with players we will most likely see in the upcoming World Cup. For example, if Dalic, for some reason, decides to try Roko Simic as a striker…I want to see Roko between Perisic and Brekalo/Vlasic…or whoever we usually use on the right. If we are testing out players, I feel they need to play with the regular team and not use 7 subs or fringe players.
If by chance Luka Sucic plays in the midfield, he should play with a lineup that we’d start against any team at a major tournament, its silly to start him with surrounding subs…we will never really understand how these guys adapt to the first team if we are playing them with the 2nd team players.
I agree with this line of thinking. These matches should be used as a tune-up for the world cup. We need to use every opportunity to build team chemistry, and try out players who will realistically play at the WC.
Yup.
You have to do things that you would actually do in a tournament.
For example, we played Pasalic during UNL and he looked like crap.
But we played him in random places (the wing, CDM, and CAM), and we played him without Modric or Brozovic.
I would have never guessed he would be this effective at scoring for us…until you realize how good he moves without the ball and pounces on chances created by other (more technically gifted and creative) players.
How do you assess anything under those circumstances?
The friendlies were worse.
Yes, I understand that your core players probably should not be risked for friendlies…but then what is the point of rolling out a misfit roster of Rog, Melnjak, etc…when you know that (under no circumstance) would you ever play those guys?
Hopefully we actually take the UNL seriously, and use an 18-man rotation that we actually plan on bringing to the following tournament, and rotating between these players to see what works and what doesn’t.
As for the friendlies, I would stop wasting time with the Estonias and Georgias out there and try and schedule decent teams on pitches where your players won’t get injured.
In these friendlies, I would still start several rotation guys from the 18-man squad, and maybe a few of the intriguing young guys who could realistically crack the rotation in the near future (i.e. Sucic, Simic, etc).
I absolutely do not want to see some kind of All-Star HNL lineup with Kristijan Lovric, Dario Melnjak and Mile Skoric…paired with veteran journeyman players (like Antonio Čolak)…in some pathetic attempt to find a “diamond in the rough” and fix a problem we do not have.
I would prefer something like:
Pot 1 – Italia or Belgium. Would like to see Vatreni versus teams we haven’t played in a longer time (Italia was 2015, Belgium was 2013, 2012 for competitive fixture), than try to get revenge against France or Spain who we have played recently. Don’t like the risk of losses versus Italia though as I do like having the ‘we’ve beaten you and you’ve never beaten us’ card over my Italian relatives and friends 🙂
Pot 2 – Germany or Netherlands, for same reason as above haven’t played them since 2008. Germany could be especially interesting as I have a good buddy in my neighborhood who is German and that would be fun
Pot 4 – Austria, we have played them since 2010 in a friendly. The others we played with in 2019 or 2021
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/rh84v5/bruno_petković_dinamo_zagreb_gets_second_yellow/
How has sosa been doing ? I don’t recall hearing much of his club play the last little bit
he has been out injured the past 2 weeks
Anyone have a clip of this penalty??
Couch said he was having back and leg problems. He’ll be back soon though.
https://youtu.be/Lqpo1_UUNIk
That Petković penalty was a work of art. I don’t know how the ref could give an ejection for that. Petković never went backwards, so where’s the problem? It was brilliant in all respects.
Gvardiol… no words. Yet another man of the match performance from him and he’s a central defender! Top 3 defender in the Bundesliga EASY. What a talent, our one true wonder kid.
I saw on the live updates he had a good opportunity to score. I feel he will have his fair share of opportunities with his strength and size. Wait till he is like 25 and more properly developed physically
I want them to personally play Italy, considering we haven’t played them since 2015 in euro qualifiers. We’ve had enough matchups with Spain and France. Perhaps Denmark would be interesting, not much history between us and them aside from the shootout. Netherlands and Germany are on the decline. Austria is another team we’ve haven’t played since Euro 08.
Have we not dropped down to B groups yet? Damn, honestly it would be better to drop down, win the lower rank group thing and then you are assured of qualifying to whatever next major tourney is, arent you? Some of the nations league winners came like 4th in their qualy group and still got into the WC!
Yea, but all the teams in the A League get a second chance to qualify, whereas only the ones who top their groups in the B, C, and D leagues get a second chance.
Also, the Euro seeds are determined by Nations League ranking (I believe) which would screw you over for the actual tournament.
they haven’t confirmed yet how it will play into the Euro qualifiers but it may just get you into the playoffs as an unseeded team like this years was I think?
it’s a tough call as winning, as we would expect to do if relegated to League B, would help with FIFA points etc. for seeding purposes but it’s nice seeing us play better teams and probably better for team development to be more challenged?
Petkovic just got his 2nd yellow and ejected from the game, for taking his penalty slowly? I’m not even sure what the call was but this is pretty funny!
In the game against the group D opponent, Croatia should start all 11 players who have not earned their first cap and lock them into representing us in the future.
Even if we never call them again – take the top 11 prospects.
Don’t be stupid and let a Borna Sosa situation arise again.
Yes, that would be a good idea…if that was still how it worked.
Now it’s a bit more complicated than just one cap. I’m not even sure how it works anymore. You can still change if you have 3 or less caps if you were already eligible for the other nation at the time of the caps and you were under 21 for all of the caps and none of the matches were at the final tournament like the World Cup.
The beginning of this article explains it well:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveprice/2020/09/19/fifa-eligibility-rule-change-offers-world-cup-hopes-for-one-cap-wonders/?sh=89670e6511e8
I will always be exicted when the national team plays and always want them to win every game, but I would personally rather use these games to test REAL strategies (not Pasalic at DM and Rog at RB) and some young/fringe players to see who would possibly be useful for the World Cup. Try out some new formations like a 3 defender formation
At the very least, we should have Modric play very minimally in this tournament. We always say we need to protect his legs and then he plays all season for Madrid and is just fine, but at some point his age will catch up to him. I would like to see a few different combinations in midfield to see what works.
Sure, we want to try to win the trophy, but I’d much rather it be a Euros or World Cup than the Nations League. I guess it’s something, but the problem is yes we have some good depth nowadays, but we don’t have the depth of some of the top nations and likely never will simply because we are a much smaller and less developed soccer country. So we can’t just wheel out our back ups and expect to easily beat the mid-level teams like the others can. If we have a couple injuries to key players it kind of screws us.
As for who we want in our group, I don’t personally truly care who we get, but I always want to beat the best teams, but I also like to have to best chance of winning. So either way it goes I won’t be happier or more upset, but I guess I’d prefer maybe a mix. I’d go with something like France, Germany, and Wales.
Going back to players getting chances with the national team, I think maybe a good way to do it would be have a set of something like 15-18 players who are called every time so long as they are fit and not playing horribly and then the rest of the positions are shuffled so Dalic can get a look at a few guys in training at the very least. I still think we should always be calling up 25+ players every time in order to keep competition high and checking out as many players as we can while also being able to cover when players get hurt mid-break.
So to summarize, sure, I’d love to win the Nations League or at least do well in it, but I’d much prefer the making a run/winning bigger tournaments so I think we should use it to test strategies and players while still trying to win as much as possible to prevent tanking our FIFA ranking and player morale.
I would like Portugal and France in our group. We’ve never beaten them, and we need a challenge in the Nations League to motivate us.
I really do think we are on the rise with the incorporation of several youth players…so it will be a different kinda party this time!
Dalic struggled to beat Russia and Slovakia both times, and you think we could go up against Portugal and France? For the Croatian National team, trying to beat a mid-sized NT is very challenging.
I think we’re on an upswing, so i’ll take anyone.
We have a lot of talented youth in spots where we generally had problems. Sure, our striker position is still an unknown, but we’ve taken a step forward this season with a lot of intriguing younger pieces that will really help us (mainly Sosa, Gvardiol, Duje, Juranovic, Majer, and maybe one of the goalkeepers) and a couple of vets who look like they may be taking a step forward with their role on our team (Kovacic, Kramaric).
I think I would like to close the loop on a couple of teams like France or Portugal.
Our winless record against Portugal is unfair, largely because we only seriously played them once (at Euro2016) where we were the better team and they got extremely lucky winning at the end of extra time.
Every other time we played them, we rolled out a B squad against them (Euro’96 and UNL).
For Pot A…
I would like to be paired with France again. We lost to them too many times.
I also do like our rivalry with Spain and Italy. I think both those fan bases get PTSD when they play us. Belgium would be nice to beat as well, and I think they will start to decline soon.
Any one of the Pot A teams will be good.
For Pot B…
I would be happy with Portugal. Netherlands or Germany would be fun too.
I would like to avoid Denmark. They are a high risk, low reward team.
They have been playing extremely well for years now, and are still a bit underrated.
Winning against them will be just as tough as winning against any of the other Pot B teams, but you won’t get the same accolades for doing so.
I would rather face off against the other three teams for this reason alone.
For Pot D…
I don’t care. None of these teams are that good, and are moreso just annoying ones that can take a point off you.
Would probably want to avoid the physically imposing or hardworking ones like Czech or Hungary (due to possible injury)…but at the same time, we would fare better against these more physical teams than some of our Pot A or Pot B opponents would (like Spain or Italy).
So, the Pot D opponent doesn’t really matter for us.
Give us France, Germany, Czechs. We want to play the best and beat the best.
I cannot wait to slap the frogs for once. It WILL happen sooner or later.
Right now we have a great balance of youth and experience.
I predict that we are going to go on a nice run and will peak perfectly for the World Cup.
The boys just need to stay loose and confident…teams will tremble when they face us.
Ajmo!!!
Bog i Hrvati
Would love to get Italy, Portugal and Czechia. Italy because hell I just love beating Italy as much as I do Serbia. Portugal and Czechs because both are a boogeyman team for us that we can never beat. Would rather get a W vs. either team in a low pressure scenario like UNL and have that monkey off our back in the event we meet either team in a major tournament and there’s just less pressure to break a streak.
Modrić:
https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2021/12/15/61b9cd44ca4741af6c8b4596.html
I want Italy, Germany, Austria.
Big names and I think we can handle this group with our young guns.
Both of your Guys picks will be challenging but doable
I hope we can build on what we had going towards the end of qualifying and can of course secure a striker as the article said and can lock up a keeper
Secure the back line for Qatar as well
Hopefully figure out This right wing side
I feel certain teams will underestimate us again after a rough couple years
We can right this train and put the fear in grown men when the checkers lined up against them
All in all from how the year started to euro to now
We have to be pretty happy overall with the direction we are pointed
King luka is still king
Kova has established himself as probably what top 20 midfielder in the world
Broz, Perisic haven’t missed a beat
All sorts of options on defence now with a potential world class guy in gvardiol
With a much more balanced way that we can attack
There is hope friends
well you got 1 from your wish list which was one of my preferred draws too