Call me controversial. Call me a kook. Call me whatever you want.
But when it comes to things like this, you got to go with your head and not your heart. And although my heart says Croatia will beat Italy 1-0 in Milan this Sunday to stay perfect in Euro qualifying, my head says it will end in a 1-1 draw.
And if that’s the case, you can easily double your money in 90 minutes time.
Croatia-Italy Draw: +215
It’s going to be a conservative first half with both teams going into halftime scoreless. Croatia will break the deadlock through Mario Mandžukić with Italy scoring a late equalizer, possibly through a penalty kick.
What say you CroatianSports Nation?
^ ^
Great job boys!
Might have to actually start listening to you…
I had Hrvatska to win and TUR/KZH draw.
Ambitious, but I only put $10 on it.
Thank you Ante for the $50….
I put $10 on Malta-Bulgaria draw. Who knew? Lots of luck for me this week.
How you like me now folks?
CroatianSports.com still undefeated in our picks this year.
Svircic, you’re up.
How can you put Kezman in the group……that kid was all media hype. Did nothing in Europe.
Bobby
Honestly, you’re probably right with that list, and sadly, that’s a very mediocre list.
Mijatović was awesome…but he’s not Serbian.
Piksi Stojković was a flop in Europe, and spent his entire career in Japan.
Kežman was a flop, period.
Đžajić was from a different era, so who knows.
Savo and Dejan, in my opinion, were the only two star offensive players in Serb history. Everyone else either sucked, or was a Crnogorac.
Dragan Stojkovic and Predrag Mijatovic were Serbia’s best at their positions in the past 25 years.
Savo Milosevic, Dejan Stankovic and Mateja Kezman were also decent, Dragan Dzajic was probably their most talented ever.
Ivica- Excellent post and couldn’t agree more with you. You were spot on with everything, except Serbia not having talent in the midfield. Tadic has looked incredible on Southampton. Gotta give him his due. Other than that, looks like Serbia can’t even make a major tournament when half of Europe qualifies.
@DannyJ
It wasn’t meant to be a lineup, but yea, the four of them could make a decent backline together.
Reason being that Schifo, Jedvaj, and Vrsaljko have all performed very well for us. Strinic has made a few mistakes, but nowhere near as many as the other LBs on our team. It would have been nice to give these guys some minutes over these past three qualifying games…especially against teams like Malta and Azerbaijan.
Now it seems like we will have to stick with the Pranjic, Lovren (or Vida), Corluka, and Srna lineup just not to experiment before a big game like this.
its the same lineup vs Bulgaria tommorow,
Ivicia posted…Strinić, Jedvaj, Schifo, and Vrsaljko
I actually like the way that all sounds together
over pranjic, corluka(still love him) lovren, and srna
Pirlo – Intelligence
Balotelli – speed
Ogbanna – power
All out for tomorrow.
ZDS :
_____Kramaric___Mandzukic
___________Kovacic
___Perišić ___Modric____Rakitic
Vrsajlko – Lovren – Corluka-Srna
________Subasic
Subs – Olic , Jedvaj , Halilovic
Need to go with two up top with Kovacic right behind them.
@ Mazzari
Sretan put !
Same lineup that played vs Bulgaria imo.
Love to see Jedvaj over Lovren.
Lovren seems to be too much of a liablity.
Should be a good game.
I’d be surprised if Italy beat us tomorrow.
My only worry is our back line. We have some decent defenders, but we still seem to stick to a rotation that only includes Pranjić, Vida, Ćorluka, Lovren, or Srna. Pranjić and Lovren are very shaky, and so is Srna lately.
Strinić, Jedvaj, Schifo, and Vrsaljko should all have been at least give some minutes during this campaign (even off the bench) but they haven’t so far. At least a couple of them could have been useful for this game, but now it’s a tough call to just throw one of them into Italy for their first full game in a long while.
Beat me to it CroatHrvat
Croatian papers asking for Jedvaj to start over Lovren. Apparently no Croatian will be allowed to be in the stadium unless they are with the Croatian fans. If they sit anywhere else you must have an Italian passport. We’ll see how that goes.
Balotelli out.
You serious?????
Your comparing Walcott’s speed to Giovinco.
Giovinco is a poor mans attilio lombardo with hair
Italy will do nothing, they are young and without any X factor.
We will beat them comfortably
I’ll say it again 3 thing’s are for sure Pranjic starts, Kovac gets out coached, Kovac says this was the prava Hrvatska how great they played after a loss.
Italians will overload the right side and put pressure on Pranjic.
They will copy what Cappello did with England.
Look for Sebastian Giovinco to play the Walcott role.
………….Mandzukic…..Kramaric……………
……………..Rakitic………Perisic…………….
Strinic…………….Modric………………..Srna
……..Corluka…..Lovren……Jedvaj………..
…………………….Subasic……………………..
subasic
jedaj srna cokrluka pranjic
modric ratakic sharbini persic
olic mandzukic lets goooooooooooo 2-0 olic olic croatiaaaaaaaa
^ ^
All good points!
For me it’s as simple as them being too hot headed and stupid.
They’re a fucking subspecies.
I think I’ve talked about this before, but the problem with Serbia is that even though they have some talent, they never have talent in the right positions.
People assume that a superstar defender or goaltender is equal to a superstar midfielder. It’s just not true. Yes, Serbia always seems to have an abundance of world class defenders, but I would trade them all for one Modric or one Rakitic or one Mandzukic. Heck, I would trade their entire backline for Perisic considering how he’s been finishing lately.
The value of a creative midfielder or a lethal striker that can score at an efficient rate, is worth way more than a world class defender. Great team defense is more achievable with average defenders than great team offense is with average strikers and midfielders. Our historical defensive record in qualifications (as a team not really known for producing great defenders) is proof of this.
Serbia has never had good strikers nor have they ever had creative midfielders. As a result, they can’t win games on a consistent basis. We may bash our team a lot, but unlike the Serbs, we actually qualify for every tournament…and the two times we didn’t, we only missed out by a single point in both situations.
any time the serbs lose is a good day.
@ all you guys who said Serbia was good and who said they had good young players lost to Denmark 3:1 @ home still laughing.
Ziva’s daily email
“Twitter” Please confirm your account… shit or get off the pot
The Serbs make our team management and organisation look like the Germans. They’re a fucking joke and won’t qualify!
Stupid me actually thought there would be 40 posts about betting on this link…
@Ziva
“a transplanted hercegovac family turned into dalmatinci is about as bad as it gets”
I always thought those were the only good Dalmatinci! 😉
“One more thing to add before I leave the confines of the fortified basement and head out to teach religion class to the lost souls.”
Faaaaaak…
I hope you’re full of shit on this one.
@ Ziva Istina
In response to your question, no I don’t follow Croatian politics and only follow the sports at face value, I don’t have a grasp of what’s going on behind the scenes.
I may not be aware of the facts but I don’t doubt when people speak about Mamic’s influence.
@zagi
Oh yes. Just go back to the posts. Quite a few were preaching about the players they have and the fact they have a foreign coach now. Blah blah blah and now they are in last place and we are first. Of course they are silent now. 🙂
greece lol haha :>
Just watched some highlights from the games today. Anyone see the marking on the second and third goal for Denmark against Serbia. Don’t think I’ve seen a national team’s defense look that disorganized besides the likes of San Marino and Faroe Islands.
Speaking of Faroe Islands, LOL! Serbia and Greece losing on the same day. Wine will be needed for dinner.
@nk
Come on. I don’t think anyone was saying that. Most people were saying that Serbia had the toughest group and could very likely end up missing out.
It was extra bad that they drew Albania, as the Albanci would be extra motivated against them. Looks like that’s exactly what panned out.
I feel bad for Armenia. They deserve more points than what they’ve achieved so far…but that just means that they will go on a late run now that their schedule is a lot easier (their two close losses were in Portugal and in Denmark). Armenia will probably get that third place spot.
Ziva,
your Beli Orlovi lost today at home and yet you always seem to find that silver lining and focus on Cilic’s loss (even though he’s still on his Grand Slam hangover).
I wish I was as positive as yourself.
🙂
Friends,
One more thing to add before I leave the confines of the fortified basement and head out to teach religion class to the lost souls.
Doper Cilic lost again today, which means he lost all three of his matches at the Masters finals. Not ideal, but I still give him the benefit of the doubt still on his honeymoon from winning the US Open. I just hope these results dont make him go back to his doping methods.
@CroatHrvat………legit question for you. Do you follow sports and politics in Cro? I mean, follow it enough where you consume the news in croatian and watch croatian tv. I’m not being judgemental here if you don’t. But, I have a feeling you do not and are unaware of the influence Mamic has in Cro soccer.
Go back a few years and read up on how he manipulated the federation election leading up to the vote between Strucnjak Stimac and Markovic. Strucnjak Stimac should have won (and I am in no way advocating for him to have received the job; a transplanted hercegovac family turned into dalmatinci is about as bad as it gets) and Mamic manipulated the results in his favor.
And that is just one example………I don’t have the tme to list it all and bore everyone here. If you want to know more than you should consider engaging me on twitter at @ziva_istina. I have yet to fully embrace twitter, but will take the time to educate you.
@Faux Cro You could mention the Coach they signed… Inter signed Roberto Mancini, who was their coach from 2004-2008.
Kovacic’s 3rd coach at Inter. smh
I posted that ^
Coach Marko:
4-4-2 (diamond midfield)
————Mandzukic-Kramaric—————-
———————Rakitic————————-
——Perisic———————Brozovic——–
———————Modric————————-
—Vida——-Lovren-Corluka——–Srna—-
——————–Subasic————————
I’d put Strinic at LB, but i doubt he plays…and i don’t want to put Pranjic in ‘my’ lineup when we’re playing Italy in Milan.
The only problem with this lineup is that it doesn’t real suit Italy’s 3-5-2 formation, but whatever.
Gotta laugh at the dummies on this site who were saying that Serbia would qualify easy and take first place in the group.
Serbs lose at home again.
So does Greece… at home against the Farski Otoci lol
Unrelated.
Inter have a new coach.
They fired the Italian Alec Baldwin lookalike.
Hopefully it works out well for Kovacic.
Fun Fact: Croatia has never lost to Italy.
I mean who needs Google Translate when you have Ante B.
actually, now that I think of it, a good chunk of this site needs google translate ha
It’s a gift and a curse. My prediction is that we win tomorrow.
Croatia 2 (Perisic and Kramaric)
Italy 1
@ Ante
Thanks for the education and yet another demonstration of your excellent Croatian.
I had a dream last night that we hit the post four times on the same possession before we finally scored. I was saying “u pi… materinu..” four times in four seconds…
This game could go either way. No way I put any $$$ on this game.
Heart says 2-1 Croatia, brain says 1-1, if shit hits the fan we lose 2-0.
As much as the Italians claim that they don’t care about their winless record against us, the young players will be ready to put their names in the record books on Sunday.
If Lovren starts we lose(just kidding, maybe)
He’ll be a solid depth player, but we have too many players in the central midfield for him to ever lock himself into the starting lineup for us.
He’s decent, but it’s obvious that they want to give him some exposure as these transfer talks with him begin to heat up. They have interested buyers but want to start a bidding war.
i really hope kramaric starts and olic is brought in just for the final 30. i feel that’s probably not the way its going to go as kovac continues to have comfort in olic
kovacic is no longer a starter. i wouldn’t expect to see it. perisic is needed on the wing. raktiic and modric are locks. kovac has settled on brozovic as the worker
@Croat Hrvat
Brozović, to me, is no bigger a prospect than Badelj.
They’ll probably have similar careers.
CroatHrvat,
There’s this thing called the internets and the HNS has its own website. There’s a section usually called O Nama (About Us). When you click on it, Zdravko Mamic shows up as Prvi dopredsjednik (First Vice President).
http://hns-cff.hr/hns/o-nama/izvrsni-odbor/
I think Olic and his ability to stepover the ball will be key in this game.
@ Maks
This is what frustrates me the most. I 100% believe Mamic pulls the strings, that there is no doubt. But I have asked more than once in here for anyone to please tell me what is Mamic official role on paper with the national team and no one can give me any insight. Surely he is not pulling the strings in secret meetings, he has to have some position in the HNS or something. He is always sat with Suker and co. at the games. Somebody please tell me how he gets his players onto the national team and what his role is.
Also, regarding Brozovic, do we think that is a Mamic move or is the guy a legitimate candidate for the First XI? I’d like to think Kovac plays him because he believes in him.
As long as we don’t play Olic and Srna at the same time we will be ok. Our game dissolves when those two are in together because all Srna wants to do is cross and Olic just keeps making that run.
The reason we did well against Argentina is because these young kids enjoy playing on the ground. That is modern soccer and once we get rid of these cross happy players we will be extremely good.
If anyone who thinks that mamic does not pull the strings you obviously have no clue what is going on or you are delusional.. Same goes with ziva if anything he sounds like a real loving croatian who is frustrated with how things are runned in croatia in general he is just keeping it real.. lets face it our president is a yugo commie who could care less about croatia, if you relli love hrvatska i would be upset of how croatia is runned as a whole.. Herceg-Bosna, Lika, to je nasa dika!!
an interesting stat line, we have never lost to italy since our independence
@ Ziva
Can you please help me out and answer me one question?
What is Mamic’s official role within the national team and HNS?
I hope you’re right !
a draw away would be fantastic !
@ Ziva
you know what’s a stone cold lock?
that you’re not a paid poster
If I were coach,
………………Mandzo…….
……………..Kramaric…..
Perisic..Modric..Kovacic..Rakitic
Strinic..Jedvaj..Corluka..Vrsaljko
………………Subasic……
Očekivana postava za nedjelju je: Subašić – Srna, Ćorluka, Lovren (Vida), Pranjić – Modrić, Brozović – Perišić, Rakitić, Olić – Mandžukić.
I really hope this is not going to be the starting lineup.
Pranjic? Lovren? Brozovic? Olic?
No Kramaric? No Kovacic?
Prediction the refs give the game to Italy with bogus calls as usual. 2-1 Italy.
Hey man, I just call it like I see it. No homer glasses, just the Ziva Istina, if you will.
I don’t alienate, I fail to see how a paid poster can alienate. If anything, I get more people on this site to comment.
And for the record I never said we are losing on Sunday.
2-1
Vatreni
Duša Hrvatska
This game brings stability to our national program.
We fine tune over the next 18 months.
We return to France and cause a breakthrough for the Nation of Croatia which lives on the four corners of the globe.
@ NEGATIVNA
I am proud to be “typical diaspora Hrvat” who offers positive support to the Croatian community.
Uvijek ZDS for any Đubre who hates Hrvati.
We are dwindling population in Croatia proper and need all the support we can get from everywhere and you alienate half the hrvati that come to this site to connect to their own expression of being Hrvat?
Kreten.
My dream said 2-1 Croatia…so I will stick with that…plus according to http://www.zivabettingfromthebasement.com the odds are a much better payoff. The problem is that the site may not pay out what it promises to 🙂
If Pranjic doesn’t start, I think we win.