Are you ready? Because they are.
The day is finally upon us. Croatia will open up the 2018 World Cup against Nigeria in Kaliningrad at 3PM (ET). Manager Zlatko Dalić has said his piece on the projected lineup; but will he change anything up in the next 24 hours?
Three points out of the gate is a “must” if the Vatreni want a comfortable ride through group stage with Argentina awaiting them five days later.
I have Croatia beating Nigeria 3-1.
What are your predictions?
@slavonac
Great post. You called it. Disgusting. 24 hours before a match anD they try crap like this.
You have to hold your breath that these retards don’t do something In the stands.
What position is Perisic playing? Nothing on our right side except shitty crosses and shots from Vrsaljko.
Iggy u guys were robbed … he had a toe touch enough to slightly change the balls path .. surprising they didn’t get it
@bz
hoyl crap my bad bz
I read it ” it was not a clear pk” hahah
anywho I have goosebumps about today lets go
Iceland are the new Greece.
Exactly BZ, let’s look at what we do and focus on a win, we can’t control the other results! One game at a time, the focus has to be like that otherwise we end up playing for ties or panicking cause we need a win! That’s not smart…we just have to focus on what we do and the rest is irrelevant.
All we can do is control our own outcomes. This result makes it significantly more possible to win the group. Let’s put up a huge goal differential on Nigeria today.
Prediction:3-1 Croatia.
@Rocky- Tough to beat?
Q:How do you beat a bunch of vikings?
A:You send a bunch of Croatian vikings, & kick their asses!
Truth aka goof! Argentina is light years ahead of everyone. Croatia will control possession and not score…Dude has no clue about soccer. Argentina played well and couldn’t break the defense of Iceland.
IM SCARED
Washington DC area…
Agree this group is going to be as tough as it looked.
Epic defending by Iceland, much more organised than us. They will be hard to beat.
Anything can happen in this group, take nothing for granted. Gonna be tough against Nigeria.
Biggest bus parking I’ve seen..75 to 80% of ball posession for arg…our team is in the drivers seat now.
Good point brkic
Are u from Vancouver brkic?
I think a draw is good for us, but agree Argentina will be under high pressure if they don’t win today. More likely to keep them honest for their last game vs Nigeria though.
We got this group! I can feel it! Be positive fellas.
Oh penalty for Argentina
Saved!
He ain’t no Ronaldo!
Ya do we want a tie?
Argentina will play harder vs cro
Man that Iceland D is tight
If we could do that we would be unstoppable
Iggy we got this…for all the people saying we can’t score goals..Mandzukic etc…what about Messi thus far? It’s hard to break down organized defensive teams.
well if u think we can win the group a draw is okay for these two
Fuck 1-1 now…good game!
Argentina just scored
As fans of Croatia, who should we hope wins the argentina iceland game?….currently scoreless.
i was under the impression that var was for clear and obvious mistakes. apparently the ref didnt see the camera angle in which the defender touched the ball first. after griezmann lost control of the ball and wasnt going to recover in time it seemed to me that he dragged his foot to make contact. sketch decision. i doubt if a cro player got fouled in a similar fashion they would go back and review it. also umiti, the french defender who conceded a penalty after he touched the ball, didnt get a yellow card.
I don’t want to hear any sociopathic cetnik infiltrators on here either..just positive ..vatreni will win today..cheers to all us hrvats.
i mean the second french goal was fine, a fluke obviously but fine.
But the first one was complete and utter BULLSHIT
What’s the point in VAR if the coverage shows more angles that are better than the ref receives? Why didn’t the ref receive the front on angle? Why did we get better angles than the ref himself who’s making the decision?
Some serious Qs to be answered about the VAR, which yet again – like the A-League final – has intervened to cost a team the game, where the ref had initially made the correct call
Without technology being involved, Australia wins the game. Both French goals not given initially.
the other stupid thing about that VAR call on the penalty, the france one, was the replays shown were the wrong angle, we saw the better, clearer angle BEFORE the ref looked at the VAR, and then for some reason when the ref checked he got shitty angles and made a shitty decision
absolute garbage that VAR was. He initially made the correct call, no penalty, and then got fed bullshit angles and made a bullshit call, so VAR fucks up what was an otherwise fine game at that point
Umtiti just pulled a Lovren 1-1. Iggy, Australia looking like Brazil ..jerseys and all!
Okay explain the VAR now…
France just got a BS penalty via the VAR that the ref had waved away
WTF WAS THAT?
53 mins in and France 0 – 0 Aus
@ BZ
Well said.
Costa elbowed Pepe in the head to gain space to receive the ball. VAR did have an opportunity to prove its value.
MANdzukic gets fouled ALL the time.
Ronaldo drew a legit penalty.. years ago they would have never called that .. seems VAR is working in a way that refs know that they will have a second set of eyes and can freely make an authentic call early in the match.
Nigeria will foul us the midfield as most teams do.
With VAR there will be more accountability.
Midfield of Nigeria are tough but clumsy and not creative.
Without VAR they would get away with more BS.
VAR favors Croatia because we are the more technical side.
Plus it gives more assurance that BS refereeing doesn’t sabotage our play.
T – 9 hours!!
Need to start off aggressive and match the intensity of Nigeria.
@Iggy- that is your opinion, and that is fine, however VAR IS IN FACT supposed to review the sequence of play in the build-up to a goal in this World Cup.
I get it, maybe the foul is not clear & obvious to all, but to me, Costa accosted Pepe. Clearly & Obviously. That said, Pepe us a pussy for embellishing the foul & not getting up quicker to help his teammates.
Lesson to our backline: Don’t lie on ground after getting fouled, VAR “should” be there to help if Nigeria ends up scoring after you are fouled.
T-12 hours till HRV but you know what’s in 3 hours?
AUSSIES GONNA CRUSH LES BLUES !!
It’s a sure thing !
LEL 😉
You don’t want them combing all the way through the preceding passage of play to TRY and find something to discount goals for, though. They do that in the NRL here tbh and it’s a bit of a trainwreck to the degree that when a try is scored, you don’t celebrate, you wait, and wait, and wait cos the VAR system there has to have it’s exhaustive attention on trying to disqualify scores.
It should just be used for stuff in the box and/or goal over the line and that’s it imo
^^clear foul…
@Idemo – not sure if your response was directed at me, but I agreed that it was a clear PK.
I brought up Pepe foul, because I thought the VAR team could have established themselves as legitimate if they negated Costa’s goal after he jumped into Pepe hitting him on the head/neck with his arm. Pepe still won the header, which is even more reason to say it was a clear penalty in the build up to the goal.
Truth je cisti srbin…odjebi troljak
@Iggy
To lazy to click on Goku’s link, here it is.
Naravno, netko od engleskih medija pitao je Luku i za Zdravka Mamića, koliko mu odmaže i smeta što se to cijelo vrijeme spominje.
– Nemate ništa pametnije za pitati? Koliko ste dugo smišljali to pitanje? Znate li da je Svjetsko prvenstvo – naljutio se Luka.
I gotta say, I like the way Luka handled himself against the stupid Englishman! Especially the part where he asks the dumb English journo how long it took him to come up with that doozy of a question!
What was this stupid Q asked of Modric you are referring to?
We will control the ball the whole game and nigeria will hit us with a 1-0 at the end counter attack
Just a recap of what I think.
As we all know, the world looks at Modric as our key player. This is true to an extent but he’s the link from defense to attack. Anytime we’ve been very successful, it’s because Perisic is greatly involved and he tends to enjoy the competition between himself vs his opponent down his side. Perisic creates momentum and chances by making those runs from a standing position or on the fly in a transition. If he’s feeling good, I honestly feel we are 30% better than we are when he’s average.
When Perisic is on, the entire optimism and mood of the team is positive and we usually carry a fair percentage of the possession and chances. Everyone just seems to be better, they all make their runs, the attack is more lively and this is crucial for our success…just my opinion but I feel strongly that it is the way things truly are.
After Perisic (in that good form) all our other options are that much better because everyone expects to get in on the play…the anticipation is his, the mood is great!
I’m praying Perisic eats his Cheerios tomorrow! We go how he goes otherwise everything is always so much harder.
Nigeria have some speed and talent but not on our level. We have this game. We just have to execute. I’m not trying to sound confident ( I know we can easily lose) I just think that’s the reality of the two teams playing tomorrow!
Let’s all throw in a prayer for our repka!
Svi za jedan, jedan za sve!!
Ivan nothing to fear but fear itself. We are ok and will control the game.
Croatia 2-0
I’m scared .
We gonna be ok.
Slavonac, your the man! We need positive energy and unity to do anything. This is our year!!!
Furthermore here is more clear evidence it was a PK
https://twitter.com/samjr08/status/1007703593363869697
FURTHERMORE PART 2
VAR was so quick on it I actually began to think VAR was good
if anything that was a sof foul from costa on Pepe, and may I ask what does that have to do with Ronaldo PK? Pepe was pushed in collar bone area grabbed his face
it was a pk.
the ball was there
the ball was gone
the player stuck his leg in
did not get the ball got the play Brought him down
thats a foul
a foul in the box is a pk.
It was not only a clear PK, Costa subsequently fouled Pepe en route to his first goal. VAR is supposed to be used to negate that goal, but they set a precedent early that VAR will not be used properly.
3 things that are certain:
1) We don’t get that PK if it were Mandzukic instead of Ronaldo.
2) If Pepe were Vida/Corluka/Lovren, Costa’s goal would stand.
3) If Mandzukic were Costa, the goal would be negated.
Ante, we need to protect our own and not let shit disturb the harmony amongst us. We have to unite, not join the agitators…
I’ll calm down but that really does upset me! We have to come together and put everything aside!
@ante
thats a clear pk
@ Slavonac,
Jesus man. Calm down. I don’t mind criticism but you’re over doing it. All Zoric did was post the video. You know why?
Because it was news. National news. All over Croatia today.
I want you to kick back tomorrow, grab a beer and enjoy the game. We’re all in this one together.
Love the count down ante!!!
@Maminjo
HAHAHA!!
Tomorrow’s match is not important enough.
That card should be played later.
I was looking through twitter and noticed a few people enjoying the stupid question Modric was asked. I ask myself…what Croatian is happy and feels that type of question is relevant and respectful at that moment, less than 24 hours prior to the game. Well, low and behold our own Zoric tweets it and so did a few others. I have zero respect for these retards, all of them! A bad day for Modric is a good day for a Hajduk fan…we all know why and I’m so sick of this.
I participated in watching Ante’s Facebook live conversation he had with Leno and Zoric…I gotta be honest, Lebo is at least credible while Zoric can’t answer a damn question with an answer that comes from knowing something. I’d rather have Iggy answering questions…at least he’s honest about his cluelessness but Zoric knows zero about players and the game…all he does is repeat the same generic shit day in day out! I can’t watch that!
I’m afraid our country is filled with haters that have their agenda! At this point, they don’t openly say they’re only here for their preferred players but events like today, where Modric gets asked an idiotic question, it’s obvious how much they salivate and enjoy watching Modric deal with this bullshit. After all, Modric is a Mamic guy and not a Hajduk guy!
Pathetic!!
Tomorrows looks good 3 Catholic refs..head ref Brazilian and 2 line refs from Spain.. Frig there are 2 Serb refs in this worldcup 1 head ref ..Watch our luck we make it to final game with head Serb ref throws the game like we never seen before..cros raid the pitch..joking..should be sane refs tomorrow.
@Goku
If giving Ronaldo a jail term hours before the match resulted in Ronaldo bagging a hat trick, I hope the courts sentence Modric to Goli Otok.
That’s a nice photo of Croatia with all the players, but…
1. Why does Pivaric (of all people) get to be in the center of the photo?
2. Why does Strinic look like he has down syndrome?
Nacho Fernandez actually got called up and played for Spain?
For those who don’t remember, his brother Alex played on Rijeka a couple years ago when Rijeka was a rising football power (before the new Mamic took it over).
It was a pen on cr7. Nacho stuck out his leg, missed the ball and fouled him in the box. He’s not like-able, but he took that game by the scruff of the neck and wouldn’t let his team lose… would be nice to see that from a few of our boys tomorrow.
Do they use VAR for penalty calls?
Wow …
An in shape and healthy 33 yr old .. Ronaldo . Spremni !!
I bet Mandžukić gets hype after that display.
T – 20 hours …
U boj ..
but canuck there is VAR, no harm can be done now 😀
I definitely want the Vatreni to have a comfortable “write” through group stage. 😉
Spain still way better than port..posts a free free fake dive by ronaldo..anything can happen..hope we don’t get suckers calls against us tomorrow ..practically in the box like that shady acting dive.
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Need to try to finish first in the group. Can’t see France not winning their group and don’t want to meet them in the round of 16. I believe the data analytics shows that our odds of winning the WC go down by a significant amount if we face France versus any other opponent from that group.
Mamic sh*ts gotta stop.
https://www.24sata.hr/sport/modric-doslo-je-vrijeme-da-svi-vide-koliko-smo-zapravo-dobri-578320
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a Grb day, ere the sun rises!
2-0 Croatia
The penalty and De Gea gaffe were pretty soft but the Nacho strike and Ronaldo free kick. Oh my!
Unreal ante!
Who’s watching this Spain/Portugal game?!
Absolutely nuts! Ronaldo hat trick off a beauty free kick in the 88th minute.