Luka Sučić nearly kept his RB Salzburg side in European contention this season with his 57′ goal against Benfica Tuesday night from the top of the box. The shot was deflected but had enough zip on the ball to freeze the Benfica keeper. It would have been the goal to keep Salzburg in the Europa League after the New Year, however, Benfica scored in injury time to take hold of the tiebreaker and shatter RB Salzburg hearts. Both Sučić and Roko Šimić scored in Champions League this season. Pretty cool for the future of Croatian football.
Luka Modrić got the start for Real Madrid and played the full 90 minutes in a “nothing game” as Los Blancos already secured top spot in their Champions League group stage. Modrić had his penalty shot blocked right before the halftime whistle but helped “hockey assist” Madrid’s second goal in a 3-2 victory over Union Berlin. He received a 6/10 grade from ManagingMadrid as he “Missed a penalty and forced too many shots over the net. Had moments of magic with the outside of the boot but were too few and far between.”
Ante pavelic would be proud 👏 =U=
Three second half goals see Dinamo record a comfortable 3 – 0 win after a poor first half. Did not see much in the first half apart from a chance to Baturina early on but the shot on goal was well blocked. Peric with a good header to give Dinamo the lead from a corner mid-way through the second half. Two quick goals after that to Petkovic one from the penalty spot settled the match.
Dino Peric best on the field for Dinamo. Baturina subbed at half time having just recovered from a viral infection.
Keeping the pressure on Hajduk til the end.
Yes, big match on Sunday against Hajduk.
Would like to view that game.
I will be watching it on Max TV and hoping that Hajduk wins.
What PST or EST? Hopefully they will have it on @ the Hall in SP.
Yes, I would not mind Hajduk taking the title or even Rijeka. Most of my family resides from split. Some parity would be good for the league. Don’t want to piss off any Zagreb fans though, I wish them both the best. I hope it is a relatively high scoring affair that goes back and forth.
Not really a big match. A win for either club or a tie doesn’t do much with so many games left.
So far Hajduk does well with the stronger teams. Let’s see if the trend continues. I think Hajduk needs to develop a big cushion to pull 1st place in the end. Dinamo is chipping away and biting at everyone’s heels as expected.
Does anyone have a good Dinamo stream?
https://vipleague.im/football/dinamo-zagreb-vs-ballkani-streaming-link-1
https://streamin.me/v/51ce6ce6
Ljubicic seems to be building some steam. Nice Perisic style header here.
they are grooming Rafael Gomez Cirino Belinho for the national team! didn’t we beat a whole team of Brazilians last WC! I rather lose with Croatians then my national team turning into a France/Africa team!
Amen!
If Eduardo hadn’t been injured in that disgusting assault in the premier league we would’ve won Euro 2008. And you would’ve been celebrating your ass off for weeks. If a kid grows up in Croatia, speaks the language, loves the country and plays for us with pride then he/she is welcome to represent us in my opinion.
We will never be like France or England, firstly because we didn’t invade and occupy half the world so we don’t have millions of people, RIGHTFULLY, following their own country’s stolen wealth to the place that stole it. Secondly, and related, we aren’t an economic super power that so many people from poor countries want to live in.
Thirdly, racial purity does not exist and never has, people have been mixing through marriage and conquest for millennia. Every single one of us has Turkish, African, Chinese, Scandinavian, you name it, in our family tree. Everyone, including you. Do the math
Fourthly, Belinho is a special talent from what I’ve seen, he is competing against lots of other Croatian kids, there is a long way to go for a kid that age and chances are it’ll be some other kid that comes through to be a star. But if it’s Belinho then I’m delighted, we’ll done Belinho and wear the chequers with pride I’ll say to him.
Maradona. Mixed Hispanic, indigenous Indian, Croat blood. The greatest player in history, nobody cares or speaks about his DNA. He played for Argentina, he’s Argentinian. Simple
X
Amen! Wow. Very good points, and all true!
History says you will get your wish. You are in the majority of opinion. My island is just a bunch of rentals and a ghost town in the winter.
You dream vision won out long ago unfortunately.
hey where is Eduardo de Silva now….living in Rio and his son plays for Flamengo youth academy that how much of a Croatian he is! While dressed in the checkers playing against Brazil he sang the Brazilian national anthem before the game. A piece of paper does not make you a Croatian!
Belinho didn’t come to Croatia to play football alone.
He’s an immigrant. His dad moved the family to Croatia because he works here.
Belinho has been in Croatia for several years and is eligible for citizenship soon, whether he becomes a pro footballer or not.
He’ll likely have to even waive his Brazil citizenship in doing so.
He has more right to play for Croatia, than Eduardo did.
So true! The only things that stay the same is change. Time is not a friend to people who have old traditional values. They die and are very boring…zzzzzzzzz.
In 2018, Marko Thompson, was singing songs including Geni Kameni with the whole team, a song that speaks to our exceptional genetics. with Modric, Brozovic, Dalic singing the loudest at the top of their lungs, with tears running down their face.
In 2022, they would barely let him on stage, let alone sing. Croatia has been successful sanitized and is now open for business. The war is over. Kolinda is vanquished. The new world as arrived.
Good-bye Miss Croatian Pogaca.
I guess my interest is going to start waning, when they have a token Croatian player and a mascot, dressed up as a little pebble.
When they finally win, ranked in the top #3, they will most likely be singing We are The World, with lead singers names of Olmo, Pakstas, Gomez, Belinho, Sammir, on the back of their jerseys.
It all good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh-6HCf9WMw
I dont get it why simic is so hyped up. Just because he scored 2 goals in austrian league and 1 goal in CL in the month of aug sep? And no goals at all later on. I agree he is young but we will need to monitor his development first.
If that is the case we can consider calling up robert muric too as he has two goals in turkish league which is a much stronger league.
Sucic i agree he is ready for national team as he is performing consistently for his club.
Penalty wise, i still love orsic penalty against brazil. He is expected to be back in jan but i hope the club will play him as trezeguet is taking up his position now
I agree with your take on Simic. We all want him to turn out to be an excellent player but aside from his Aug/Sept stretch he has been extremely quiet. I hope he scores some more goals and continues to develop. He is very young and I believe his ceiling is high but still a long way to get there.
Sucic is playing very well
Being from a small relatively small country, every crumb of hope seems like hype out of necessity, like a Croatia parent for his own child’s success. It comes from a good place and good intentions. I have no problem with that.
Honestly, I would still rather struggle to build within rather than looking for foreigners to be our saviors. A top 20 rating is a great season for us. Let the Olmo’s and Pustkas go.
The one’s that are our own, and have no internal allegiance, let them go too, including Ibrahimovic, Pulisic, etc. It must be humbling for Sosa, that he is not even starting for Croatia let alone his beloved germany.
Not sure where the foreigners argument comes into play here.
These are Croatian kids we are talking about in in most cases, Sosa is also Croatian and I would like it if we drop this conversation entirely. The kid made a mistake for fucks sake and people continuously crucify him for it. Let it go. If he isn’t doing what he needs to do then we have this conversation of dropping him but I would prefer to leave it at that.
To add to this debate, you may as well say that we are all foreigners at this rate. Sosa to my knowledge was born in Croatia, many of us on this site were born abroad so it’s dumb argument at best.
They are young but they are decent prospects. Sosa is having tough enough time and we will see if that changes. I don’t really see a better suited in the position he is right now as most of our left wing players are out and injured.
As for the argument on Simic noone is suggesting to toss him in the starting line up at group stage in the Euro or World cup. What I think people are arguing is that he get 20ish minutes of playing time in a friendly or during qualifiers had we won those two games against Turkey and Wales, instead of losing them. In this event it wouldn’t have been the end of the world to see the kid play.
People need to start realizing that we are in a period of transition. Noone knows how much longer both Modric and Broz, and some of the other players, may have left in the tank. Hopefully they can still last till the Euro or World Cup but it’s never a sure thing.
We need to also bear in mind, once again that we have a striker problem as well as a left wing problem. This leaves a lot of holes on the squad. Hopefully Budimir shows up, but this is a large “hope” I think because he still not consistently putting in 20 plus goals for club which is where you want a player to be in order to be inform for a tournament like this, if your a striker and frontman.
Krama at his current rate, continues to be our most threatening player upfront (Perisic would be beside him if healthy as well as Orsic).
So why wouldn’t be trying the youth like Simic??? I am not sure I understand and what I may be getting wrong here?
Oprostite! The germany reference was a cheap shot agreed. No issue with Sosa.
I just find it rather ironic and somewhat sad. Hope things work out for him, and he plays to his potential with Croatia national team. I really thought he was going to be a bright spot and still hope he arises. His assist to Budimir proves that again just recently.
Opet Oprostite!
Trying to say something bad about Modric, Croatia’s greatest player, is a futile and rather ridiculous activity. It is like complaining about chipped painted below the hull water line, on the most expensive yacht in the world, We’ll take it! He’ll get the next one most likely.
Way better he miss for Madrid than for us cos you know it’s gonna be a huge game if HRV are having penalties.
LOL…..I like to believe he is purposely getting the misses out of his system, to save the makes, for the Hrvat games. The shot would have worked if it was elevated two feet from the ground, he made the goalie to commit to the right which with master craftsmanship, so he was half of the way there.
The younger Luka seems to have more pace on his shots, but no one has shots with accuracy on the outside of his foot, or on first contact better than the elder Modric.
I’m glad that Sučić is relevant again. I thought he would fizzle out. Adding Pašalić and Baturina, it’s great to see three young guys coming in at a time when our best midfielders are aging and on the way out.
As others have already pointed out, penalties were never Luka’s strongpoint. Kramarić and Vlasić are actually better penalty kick takers on the National Team.
Most Modric Penalties kicks usually have very little room for error, and they barely go in, but they always leave you biting your tongue.
His corner kicks were never to write home about as well. Still love the man, don’t get me wrong. This is where Sucic maybe superior, if he stays healthy, going forward, on the bright side.
Anyway, you put it, Modric was one of a kind, the likes never to be seen again.
Sucic got a lot of praise from the Salzburg coach after the game. Had some really nice passes to set up chances. I’ve not watched much of Sucic since his return but red Bull fans had have been very happy with his performances for the most part
As much as having luka retire will suck and kovacic really coming out of form and debatable performances anyway
It will be cool to see what baturina/suicic can do in the future
Maybe they won’t be a luka/rakitic type quality but heck for all we know maybe their individual forms might not be that quality but maybe they gel earlier and better to be a better combo
Either way, our midfield should stay better then average moving forward for a few years
Hoping Šimić really takes his game to the next level soon
We need him for 2026
We’ll be fine.
I know a few people on here feel otherwise, but that cynicism is in the blood.
Having almost teen-aged players in the Champions League (scoring and winning MOTM awards) is a good sign…especially after one of them only recently came back from a brutal knee injury.
Having Baturina progress like he has been is also great. Just need to be responsible with his next transfer and we’re fine.
Cynical? We are not cynical, how do you figure? But that Modrić penalty was the worst taken penalty kicks ever. We will lose everything now, the sky is falling, it’s all over!!! We are doomed! But why would you think that we are cynical? I just don’t get it? 😆 But seriously what a shitty penalty kick
To be fair, Modric IS a terrible PK taker.
Even some of the kicks he has made for us have been badly taken but somehow got in. Denmark in 2018 was a lucky one for Cro.
Canadian Press story:
There was a rare soccer sight when veteran Croatia midfielder Luka Modric — the 2018 men’s Ballon d’Or winner — missed a penalty as Madrid fell behind but won 3-2 at Union Berlin. Forward Joselu scored twice as record 14-time champion Madrid finished with a perfect record. Braga finished third to reach the Europa League playoff.
• •
Stats suggest he’s pretty good. I don’t need style points. Just that it goes in a pretty decent majority of the time.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/luka-modric/elfmetertore/spieler/27992/saison_id//wettbewerb_id//plus/1#tore
That’s my favorite Modrić PK.
It looked like he was trying to kick it at Schmeichel, but Schmeichel was too quick for him and dove out of the way (with the ball narrowly missing his toes).
Best PK shootout ever.
I agree
Every time I see luka step up for us it’s like I love the guy but surely if krama is on the field I want him taking currently
Kova was never the heir apparent to Modric. He’s not even 1 third the player Modric is. He’s a highly overrated player that was touted by the media who hasn’t amounted to much. He played his best in that season for Inter Milan and has basically done SFA for both club and the NT. His stats over his career suck for a midfielder and whenever I’ve watched him play at club level and the NT he has almost always underwhelmed.
Actually I think he sucked at Inter. Got pushed into the starting lineup too soon, then lost it, then was sold in his third season when the hype train started again with him as being Modrić’s heir (after Modrić started winning Champions League titles for Real).
He was only really useful at Chelsea, after he had a year under his belt there.
But at Dinamo, Inter and Real, he was always a non-factor in the team and was always regarded as a “future” piece.
Hopefully he continues to build on the improvement he had at Chelsea, but he’s taken a step back this season and he’s already 29 so it’s not ideal.
Again, he’s good enough to start but he’s not an impactful player.
We’ll need to see how Baturina and Sučić develop over these next two years to confirm how good our midfield will be beyond 2026.
So far the two youngsters are impressive and seem to be on track to do well.