Josip Stanišić is now the final Croatian remaining in the Champions League and the only hope for one of our players to lift the trophy.
After Manchester City were eliminated by Real Madrid, both Mateo Kovačić and Joško Gvardiol were knocked out, with neither involved due to injury. If they were fully fit, things could have looked different.
Now, all eyes turn to Stanišić. Vincent Kompany recently called him a key player for the squad, so the hope remains that one of our Vatreni can bring the title home.
Stanišić made his mark in the second leg today, registering an assist for Harry Kane on Bayern’s second goal as they defeated Atalanta 10-2 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich youngster Filip Pavić also made his debut, coming on for Stanišić. The young defender is currently a Germany youth international and is eligible for Croatia.
@Anonymous
Dalić said that Jakić is an option at LB, but not an ideal one. He said “Stanišić, Perišić, a može i Jakić, ali to nije idealno rješenje”. So it looks like we are going with Stanišić at LB (until Gvardiol comes back).
Also, he didn’t say he was going to play Vuskovic as RB. He said “desni stoper” which means RCB. He said that our RB options are Smolčić and Jakić (and also Marco Pašalić if we go with three CBs at the back)
He also didn’t explicitly say that Vuskovic “will be playing 180 minutes”, but he did say he wants to see him in both games. I do hope he starts and plays both full games though.
He metions that Kovačić is very important to the team and full expects him to be back in Man City’s squad after this international break. At the same time, he mentioned how impressed he is with Baturina.
I’m curious to see what happens if Kova just remains as a bench guy for Man City in these last two months of the season.
Anonymous now knows some of the take-aways were wrong – but please take it up with SN and 24sata as neither of their versions of the press conference were verbatim (why not?) and differed from each other (what they included, what they didn’t include (i.e. many parts with “….”), etc) – it was all very confusing and no clue how 2 newspapers can publish different version of Dalic’s same words (typical lazy Croatian approach I guess) – I even tried quickly listening to the Dalic press conference video quickly on 2x but he’s mumbling and so low-energy how he speaks and there was no volume (they can’t even set up the mics in Croatia) and I could barely understand the words coming out of his month – so that didn’t really help clarity (and maybe also explains why even SN and 24sata publish different versions of the same words) – not sure
Jakic LB – 100% agree he’s 3rd choice (I was being cute ;-)) but the point is poor guy first gets shoe-horned to RB and now why not throw him to LB – it doesn’t work like that (i.e. can Jakic use his left foot ? Don’t think I’ve ever seen him use his left foot – so if you put him on LB – and he only uses his right foot – it’s super easy to defend his runs forward as he will always turn inside and have to open his body up to make passes – see Djed Spence playing LB as e.g. of this)
Vusko RCB in back 4 (not RB) – got that one wrong – please blame SN for not publishing the right words (I was thinking Dalic saw visions of Corluka vs. Germany Euro 2008)
Vusko – 180 minutes – shhhhh – yes, I was being cute and manifesting 180′ it into reality 😉
@ anonymous
Watched the highlights, there are times saranic is walking with the ball like its beer league soccer. Guy reminds me of that typical Balkan who super talented but weak athlete.
This is what saranic does at lower slow level soccer he scores buckets of goals guy will never replicate it in a serious league. He will never play for repka also what’s with the pulse check you plays in the 2 nd div take it easy!!
Curious about dalic comments today, I did say as soon as Gvardiol was injured the best system to minimize his absence was to play 3-5-2 but I though that was done with we’ll see.
I know what you’re saying (and I don’t disagree – although in some of the previous games highlights he was making efforts tracking back) – but again it’s not like Kranjcar, Petko or Livaja were/are good athletes – all of them struggled with their weight at various times in their careers and none of them liked to run on the field (and all were/are slow!) – but they got by via their top-shelf technical ability (I remember when Niko was at Dinamo or Hajduk and in an interview he said (to paraphrase) “I hate running, I just like playing with the ball” – and the guy still made it to the PL (yes I know he got nepo’d on the NT but still)
Ironically, it’s bc of the pulse check celebration (he does that after every goal now) that I think he is locked in – you’d have to be a lunatic (by Croatian standards) to be doing that in the 2nd division after every goal unless you have higher ambitions – can’t imagine he’s doing it to be ironic, he’s doing it to show he’s locked-in (this is my interpretation of his body language – not just yesterday – but all the highlights I’ve watched) – maybe he has realized he’s not going to be able to afford more ink (and fancy hair cuts) on 125-250 p.w. in the 2nd division his whole life ?
Sesvete has won 6 or 7 games in a row – and now 1 point behind promotion – and Saranic doesn’t even look he’s out of 2nd or 3rd gear (out of 6) – and they are winning every game – and he’s scoring/assists almost every game in the last 12 games – he doesn’t need to try more (at this point) because this level of effort is getting results (i.e. Balkan mentality ;-))
He’s clearly talented – and it would be a shame if he pisses it away and doesn’t maximize what God gave him – we’ve had countless flame outs over the years (talent – but no effort – flame out) but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for there to be a redemption story (I mean what was Marco doing at 22 y/o – wasn’t he playing 4th division in Germany and laying bricks with his brother ? But he kept pushing and earned himself a spot on the NT/going to the World Cup)
Dalic has indeed back-tracked once again and said vs. Columbia he’s going to try a back-3 in order to accommodate Luka in his HSV position – he (Dalic) is learning that the personnel he’s got should dictate the set-up – but it’s not fixed as he said he wants to see Luka in a back 4 too (presumably against Brazil, but he could f around vs. Columbia and do one half back-3 and one half back-4)
Anonymous can you slow down a bit? I can barely understand what you are talking about
Ok
Sorry – too many topics to cover 😉
OMG
Saranic copied Suker’s Euro 1996 goal vs Germany against Orient
It’s identical
Fing impressive
2-1 win
1 point from promotion 😉😊
@Vlad – understand the PTSD on him and this cautious nature – but maybe after he spent a year in Saudi seeing Sheiks sh*t on girls – something clicked and he decided to get his as* back in gear and push himself – let’s keep an open mind
Lol he even his fingers on his neck to test his pulse like Suker did against Romania in France 98 on the pk. I want to see Saranic play this in the HNL where they play is much faster and you have less time on the ball.
England squad (12 days after Dalic)
x.com/England/status/2034932711228354667
Really hope Jarrod Bowen gets some minutes vs. Croatia 😉
Maybe Kota was right to ignore Vicario ?
He’s gone from being #1B Italy keeper – to not being called up – and they called up 4 keepers – so at best he’s #5
Incredible drop-off in his career – probably want to put pressure on him to move back to Italy (Inter) in the summer to get back on the NT
Kinsky also got dropped from the Czechia team since he arrived at Sp*rs
Sp*rs are killing keepers careers !
False alarm
Hernia operation over international break
That’s the reason for him not being called up
Dalic interview with SN !!!!!
https://www.jutarnji.hr/sportske/nogomet/sp2026/dalic-hrvatska-orlando-kolumbija-brazil-pripreme-gvardiol-lijevi-bek-15690820
Summary:
368,000 tickets requested by Croatian fans for Croatia’s matches at the WC (why don’t they mention how many private boxes have been “requested” ?)
Back-5 vs. Columbia
Vuskovic playing 180′ (check the tape – Anonymous told you Luka will play 180′)
Jakic as LB (check the tape – Anonymous told you Jakic will be shoe-horned (again) to LB – poor guy)
Smolcic as RB (check the tape – Anonymous told you Smolcic will play RB)
Vida didn’t reject being a coach
Columbia is prep for Ghana
Brazil is prep for England
Budimir, Krama, Igor, Musa – guaranteed to go – 5th spot open to DDB, Franko (he obviously doesn’t realize he’s not playing now lol) and Franjo [based on how he talks about Franjo last – it’s not looking good for Franjo]
Kova is staying at Man City not joining Columbia & Brazil
Impressed by Bati’s resurgence
Dalic mentioned Wedding Boy’s coach praised Wedding Boy – BARF (I mean they want to sell him to the next sucker so of course they say good things so he gets called up so he’s market value doesn’t CRASH further)
June friendlies to get Josko ready if he doesn’t play a minute for Man City before then
Review the press conference footage – the above misses some detail
Luka Vuskovic
vs. Columbia – will play CCB (his Hamburg position) in a back 3
vs. Brazil – will be RIGHT-BACK in a back 4 (hello Corluka vs. Germany Euro 2008)
From SN (that’s for waking up guys)
Realna je opcija da Dalić provjeri na visokoj razini mladog Luku Vuškovića, koji odlično igra u HSV-u, pogotovo u ofenzivnom dijelu. Protiv Kolumbije i Brazila može se vidjeti koliko je efikasan u defenzivi odmjeravajući se s brzim i fizički moćnim suparnicima…
@Ante
1.
Please see @Kromiza comment below
“3rd generation explains the total self-serving indifferent Croatian when it behooves me”
Remember last week ?
I told you to make a post about Olivia Vuskosa – remember ?
Anonymous can smell a winner – it’s one of their great attributes
Well sure enough
Olivia just won NATIONAL GATORADE GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – she went into the final round as #3 ranked – and SHE BEAT #1 and #2
She is also 3RD GENERATION which makes it even more special
So to circle back to Kromiza’s point – if you use CroatianSports.com as a platform to post how 3rd generation love Croatia – maybe you’ll have some 2nd and 3rd generation that realize what they are missing our not loving for Croatia
2.
question for @Truth pimply analyst – when people talk about Croatia’s population growth (or lack thereof) – that’s just the country – how does “Total Croatian” population growth look the past 20-30 years i.e. if you include all the main dispora (Germany, N.A., S.A., Australia) to Croatia country – what’s the trajectory ? It’s gonna be a bit messy when you have some mixed marriages and the like – but any sense ?
3.
Has Thompson’s daughter become a “Bunker Bunny” WTF ???
I just looked at a bit at the highlights of Filip Pavic. Seemed like he was playing a high-level Spanish type of Tiki-taka soccer, at gave me the impression of disciplined, smart, and cunning.
Spain teams in the past have dominated with that kind of patience control soccer, creating slow build up opportunities.
I think Croatia has had it’s own Modric driven hybrid form of ball control, a bit more spread out, a bit freer, probably because it’s the Modric style, where we go tiki-taka to long ball opportunity, in a second, if the opportunity presence itself. the true and ultimate Maestro.
Kovacic and Brozovic covered a lot of ground as well in there days.
Good performance by Rijeka in their 1 – 1 draw away to Strasbourg, going down
3 – 2 on aggregate.
Toni Fruk scored on 20 minutes to give Rijeka the lead and in the 67 minute he had a shot cleared off the line which would have made it 2 – 0 on the night. Rijeka unfortunately could not hold out, and Strasbourg got their goal around the 80th minute.
Good night for our players with Matanovic, Erlic and Pongracic all scoring for their respective clubs.
Pongracic came on as a sub for Fiorentina and scored from 55 meters out in the 97th minute on an empty goal when the opposition goalkeeper went up for the corner.
What was Fruk’s celebration about i.e. pinching his fingers together ?
Couldn’t figure out if he was mimicking people talking about him or signalling that he’s about to sign (for another club) for big money
Fruk played well in both matches, however not sure about future transfers ? Miskovic is not prepared to sell him for less than 10 million.
More realistic prize tag might be 6-8 million?
They were probably only receiving offers for 5-6 million.
They held onto him and made some prize money in Conference League and now he’s probably raised his price tag to at least 8 million.
Hajduk could learn from Rijeka when it comes to players sales.
Miskovic 10m was 2 years left on his contract
Now he has one year left
At this point Fruk might as well run down his contract and leave on a free June 2027 and will probably be able to get a higher salary and sign-on bonus (as clubs won’t have spend money on the transfer fee to get him)
I’m going to Orlando for the Brazil game… Any good Croatian restaurants or bars in Orlando that anyone can recommend?
Just for the heck of it I need a search of Croatian bars restaurants in the area. Nothing, but a Puerto Rican establishment came up call Crocante but seems interesting enough, not from the area., 4.4 out of 5, not a recommendation from my experience.
https://www.restaurantji.com/fl/orlando/crocante-restaurant-/
I think there is a Croatian community in Miami or Ft Lauderdale actually.
Why don’t you search online for the phone number of a community centre and just give them a call?
I’m sure they’d give you some recommendations or even some contacts.
Think this is the closest to Orlando – call them – but keep in mind probably older folk answering the phone (so don’t asked them tittie bar recommendations as e.g.)
***.croatiaclubtampa.com/about-us–o-nama.html
GL
If ever there was a croat name itd be filip pavic. Great job by the nt pushing hard in recent years to get these guys. Who knows if we’ll ever hear of him again. Gabriel vidovic was a bayern ii star. Now he sucks. None the less, you want to just get as many bites of the apple with these young guys as you can cause some might work out .
Croatia should also continue to open itself up to migration from both the Middle East and Africa. Many other nations football has greatly benefited by harnessing talent from these areas and have had societal benefits of a more diverse country bringing down racism and increasing fresh ideas, exposure and collaboration. Croatia which is in need of a population boost desperately needs this influx .
……said Marko Thompson, to Ivan Mestrovic. ……. Not going to bite,
Truth2 very few will agree with you …quality over quantity is the Croatian way I would rather be runner up every single time with “true!” Croats …oops does that label me Racist …then winning the WC with a team full of west Africans!
I was made to believe that Pulisic parents were Olib born. Many dalmatians are mixed Italian Croatia blood over the years. I will do better research. 3rd generation explains the total self-serving indifferent Croatian when it behooves me, I can do without your picnic blanket jersey attitude.
Trying to bring all these people back over the brink is not a long-term solution.
My dream is that Croatia somehow, develops an economy that let’s more people stay in the homeland. Croatia 1st movement is needed. If Slovenia can do it, Croatia can as well. AI with change everything as well, we don’t know the impact.
It is not easy, Ireland encouraged American Pharmaceutical companies to move to the homeland by giving them free tax existence, water, utilities, just bring the great jobs. Only thing is even Ireland way lose it traditional culture.
No easy answers. The only constant is Change, doesn’t sound like a good Marko Thompson song title.
Most Dalmatians do not have any Italian blood. There were some but a lot were pushed out by the Communists after WW2.
Costal Istrians do, but the inland Istrians do not.
We don’t really need to bring back diaspora Croats from faraway places like Aus, Can or USA. It would be nice, but if people aren’t moving back now they never will. Croatia’s a great safe place to live for a diaspora Croat, it’s just that people have established deep roots in their new countries so it’s difficult to go back.
Croatia will just always be a lower populated slower economy with a lot of beauty. HDZ is doing some good things economically, especially with energy, but people will always bounce back and forth between other EU countries and Croatia especially with remote working becoming a thing. I know so many who are just bouncing around between countries within the Schengen zone for work, but are still very much Croats and are in Croatia more than half the year.
Even though he would have helped us in 2022, there is nothing about Christian that would make you think he has Croatian blood.
Comes across as a typical spoiled American brat. I have my reservations if he can find Olib on a map if you gave him a million tries.
You’re thinking is too deep on Puli
He’s sexual preference is why he chose USA
You imagine him rocking into the changing room with Dan on his arm and Vida and Broz inside – he’d never hear the end of it – they’d chase him off the team the first day
Remember Dan took over his social media and denied (only after 1 day of rumour) that Puli isn’t banging Sydney Sweeney ?
THERE IS NOT ONE HETEROSEXUAL MAN IN THE WORLD – NOT ONE – WHO WOULD DENY THEY ARE BANGING HER
Re: “American Pharma cos “moving” to Ireland” i.e. tax inversions was shut down by the US in 2016 – please keep up to date 😉
Christian actually has a fair amount of family still on olib, and a lot that split thier time between the US and Olib, his dad never took him back, he was pretty deep in that year round soccer culture since he’s was small, so he never built that connection… Olibiani have been tracking his progress since he’s been a kid, but nobody really knows him other than his American based family.
People don’t realize that playing for Croatia is way more opportunistic. Teams like Germany, Brazil and Italy are falling apart because they lack structure and talent pool. Croatia is only going up. Everyone doubted us and thought our run in 2018 was a fluke when it wasn’t. The youth we have and now with this young star Pavic with potentially switching over to us is a blessing. Teams like Canada, USA and other smaller European nations are improving only because of importing. We are the only pure team that recruits and uses our own. I’m ok with a few here and there if a team wants to use some but at this point it’s unrecognizable these teams. No identity whatsoever. Croatia will be set for many years to come despite the declining birth rate. That’s why teams like Netherlands, France, Belgium, and others would h where they are if they were pure? Hell no. Same applies to Spain. Tamale and Williams off that team isn’t a championship team. We have a declining population but still manage to be there every year and beat major teams and get past the group stage to make deep runs.
I would rather grab bayerns “germatian!”goalie Leon klanac to flip allegiances but doesn’t look promising he is 19 and they are really high on him .even though he’s only 6’ tall.3 of our defenders are set in stone for the next decade in Luka Josip and Josko but our GK situation is wonky at best.
Leon Klanac has a Croatian passport, so that’s good.
The two CBs who start in front of him at Bayern’s U19 squad are both Croats (Puljic and Mijatovic) playing for our National Team.
We have so much talent coming up if this kid choose Hrvatska we would legit have a team that can go into multiple tournaments and have serious expectations to win it.
I watched him play today I can’t believe how he moves with such easy for such a tall player. He’s gonna choose us I mean either you play with a bunch of Turks or with hrvati simple decision if you ask me. Just follow the stanisic way.
He looked very comfortable on the ball, and it is obvious that he prefers to play as a CB. Apparently, he can also play as an RB or defensive midfielder. To me he did not look overly tall, but he is only 16 so he will grow a bit more.
I read something in the media a few weeks back that Bayern is putting pressure on him to choose Germany. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens in the future ?
He’s in the same boat as Stanišić was.
They’ll try and ruin his career if he chooses us.
He looked good
But to temper expectations Bayern has already given 7 kids their competitive debuts this year – that’s the context
Maybe 1 of them actually makes the first team eventually
We really need this Filip Pavić to switch and play for us.
Already in the Bayern first team and plays multiple positions (RB, CB, and CDM).
Would be a very useful piece in our backline or as cover for Sucic.
If he is first generation german or born in Croatia, hopefully we have a chance but if he is 1st generation fake Croatian, like Pulisic we have no chance.
Different situation.
Pulisic’s mom is Italian, and his dad is a Croat born in New York.
Pulisic is third generation, and only partial Croat. He was raised in Pennsylvania where there is a big Croat community, but I doubt he ever traveled to Croatia and he only spoke English at home.
Whereas, Filip Pavic’s parents are both Croats, and they spoke Croatian first in the house. His parents are only in Croatia as Gastarbeiters (workers) and they regularly go back to Croatia (as their family is there).
Pavic very likely wants to play for Croatia instead of Germany, but he’s under pressure from the German FA and Bayern for sure.
There is also the added complication that Croatia’s future backline will be much harder to crack than Germany’s, since we already have two established stars in Gvardiol (24) and Vuskovic (19) cemented in our backline…and we have a collection of other interesting prospects all vying for the remaining spots.
If this Pavic kid is focused more on his career than his homeland, this could be a factor as well.
Josko can move to LB (like Mickey VDV does for the Netherlands)
Sure, but there are others (like Mlacic) who are seemingly in a good spot too (playing Serie A minutes at age 19) that he has to compete with.
Either way, it’s pretty wild that we have 5 backline players under the age of 25 already playing minutes in the top leagues in Europe (most of them on top teams too) in Gvardiol, Stanisic, Vuskovic, Mlacic, Pavic…all this, on TOP of the additional prospects we have in Kumar, Jakirovic, Mijatovic, Puljic, etc.
Puli’s sexual preference determined why he’s playing for USA (hello Dan)
Came across this article on Seg choosing Croatia over Aus.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/mar/19/the-one-who-got-away-how-did-australia-lose-one-of-its-brightest-football-talents-to-croatia
Great insight from Didulica as to why players of quality and potential would choose to represent Croatia. Thanks for posting the link.
Tottenham (Igor Tudor) vs Atletico Madrid What a game that was! Tottenham was far better team and should have went through the Champions League. It seems that Tudor is giving the players confidence and desire to win games.
Tottenham (Igor Tudor) vs Atletico Madrid What a game that was! Tottenham was far better team and should have went through the Champions League. If you take this game, It seems that Tudor is giving confidence to the players and the desire to fight to win.