Croatia opens the World Cup group stage in Group L against their toughest opponent, Thomas Tuchel’s England, on Wednesday, June 17th at 4 pm ET in Dallas. The Vatreni are coming off two mediocre friendly performances, having used two different formations. The big question is whether Dalić opts for the reliable four-back, or was he truthful in his press conferences and lines up with three defenders?
Croatiansports.com believes that Croatia must play a 4-2-3-1.
Defence
This is a pretty straightforward selection, with superstars Joško Gvardiol and Luka Vušković at the head of the defence. Josip Stanišić has had a great season and is our best right-back option, and Josip Šutalo offers speed to complement Vušković in the centre-back duo.
Midfield
Mateo Kovačić is not fully fit and is not complementary to Modrić in a dynamic midfield. 22-year-old Petar Sučić is an elite talent and offers incredible legs, control, and decision-making next to Maestro Luka in the middle of the pitch. He is a must-start, and Dalić would be making a grave mistake dropping him for the likes of Kovačić against a quick English side. He would be the perfect Luka sub at the 60-70th minute mark.
Martin Baturina‘s breakout season with Como and his great performances in the friendlies (bar his unfortunate mistake against Slovenia) should have earned him the 10 role spearheading the Croatian attack with his creativity and ball retention. Do not be shocked to see veteran Andrej Kramarić start in Dalić’s team however.
Attack
Ivan Perišić is a lock, and so should be the only right-winger in the squad — Marco Pašalić — right?… Well, you never know. But I’d go for the quick, creative youngster from Orlando, as he has yet to put up a poor/mediocre performance in the checkers.
Up top, we need speed. Get the Moose in there. Petar Musa has the legs, the touch, and a striking shot to be at the head of our attack. Ante Budimir may have scored 17 goals in LaLiga, but he only has a mere six with the National Team in over 30 matches. I understand he is the likely starter, but I prefer Musa’s toolkit. In all honesty, the three strikers will probably not be the source of Croatia’s goals this tournament, as many will be chipped in from midfield and defence. Thus, I’d rather have the best profile at the 9. Musa can press, link up, and provide a healthier-looking Croatian attack, rather than Budimir’s slower play.
How would YOU line up in this 2018 semi-final rematch? What are your predictions for this crucial first match, which will likely decide who finishes 1st and enjoys a lighter knockout path, and who finishes 2nd, facing the Colombia/Spain gauntlet?
Warned all u MORONS to stay away from Stubhub – don’t cry if u get shafted – it’s ur own fault
🚨 WARNING about StubHub 🚨 We purchased 4 FIFA World Cup tickets (France vs Senegal, MetLife Stadium June 16) for $2,189 back in December. Three days before the game, the seller “couldn’t deliver.” StubHub’s so-called FanProtect Guarantee? When we clicked the link — ZERO replacement tickets available. The same seats are now listed at DOUBLE the price. Oh, and our $300 non-refundable parking pass? Gone. This is a deliberate bait-and-switch scheme and we’re filing complaints with both the NJ and MD Attorney General. Do better @StubHub. #StubHub #FIFA #WorldCup #BaitAndSwitch #ConsumerFraud
Bruno Durdov off to some random Polish club for 900 thousand euros and done bonuses. All the hype as a 16 year after he score led those really nice 2 goals for Hajduk. Unfortunately he will probably end becoming nothing like most Hajduk talents. Nothing will ever change at that club as it’s run by criminals.
Nice to see all the Croats get drunk during the day at the hotel as usual 7 days a week – can Croats go 5 minutes without alcohol ? Pathetic
***.jutarnji.hr/sportske/nogomet/sp2026/john-malkovich-primio-hrvatsku-putovnicu-uz-vatrene-u-alexandriji-15717976
In any event – if u wondering who Igor, Luka Sucic, Pandur, Marco and Kotarski (especially Kotarski) and completely confused about why Croatia is fawning over John Malkovich – it’s because by his own admission and DNA testing his “50% Croatian” side is actually ROMANIAN GYPSY that transplanted to Malkovići (hence the name Malkovich)
***.youtube.com/shorts/KIP3j7tW6mA
FFS – can’t Croatia find a “famous” Croat that has 100% Croatian DNA to promote its country – it’s a complete embrassment choosing a Romanian Gypsies
And u wonder why Anonymous calls everyone a MORON – fucking dumb @asses can’t even use their two brain cells – to figure out “Hey, maybe we don’t pick the Romanian Gypsy to promote our country?”
Facebook post from the Romanian Embassy
Bhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha
How MORONIC is Croatia to pick a Romanian Gypsy to promote itself ???!!!!!
Bhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha
***.facebook.com/romanian.embassy.us/videos/we-learned-with-great-joy-that-american-actor-john-malkovich-with-croatian-and-c/1519797602768264/
We learned with great joy that American actor John Malkovich, with Croatian and Czech ancestry, is nearly half Romanian.
A very fortunate news on the backdrop of his future role played in the upcoming biopic The Yellow Tie, which tells the story of the famous Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache’s extraordinary life and career. It brings back to us the notion of extended, but yet so profoundly tied, Romanian – American connections.
The movie is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 14, 2025, in Romania.
It gets better – John Malkovich from 2018 DIRECT QUOTES from his OWN MOUTH – his own dad said his grand-father was a LIAR – of course he lied – bc he knew he was really a ROMANIAN GYPSY – then his mother pretends it’s Montenegro – everything but telling him the TRUTH – that he’s a Romanian Gypsy
Someone should make a movie “Being John Malkovich Part 2” and traces back his Gypsy Roots
***.slobodenpecat.mk/en/so-godini-se-zboruvashe-deka-dzhon-malkovich-e-srbin-hrvat-crnogorec-akterot-mu-odgovori-na-celiot-region/
“They can also talk about my origin The Croats и Bosnians и Montenegrins, but above all, I feel like American, because I was born in America”said the world-famous artist John Malkovich at the time, and then added: “Yesterday I visited the supposed village of my grandfather’s birth, but I don’t know if it’s true because they told me many things about my ancestors. “My father always said about his father that he was the biggest liar in the world, so he lied about our origins.”
However, he recalled that after his father’s untimely death, his mother told him that some media wrongly wrote that he was from Croatia, so she revealed to him that his grandfather was from Montenegro.
“When I came to Bosna, everyone told me – it’s you Bosnian”, the actor continued, revealing a story from his childhood: “My grandparents did not want their children to learn Serbian-Croatian, they always spoke that secret language somewhere ‘in the corners’. I never had a strong family relationship, firstly my father and grandfather were not on good terms, because my grandfather made my father work in the mine, which my father did not like.”
What is certain is that John Malkovich speaks an artistic language that the whole world understands and that his works belong to the world, and the reason for the interesting origin story is clear. Who wouldn’t want John Malkovich to be their countryman?
There are indications that, according to the census of residents who immigrated to America, his grandfather was actually called Mane Maljkovic and that he was born in He giggled in Senj and that he left in САД in 1913.
Dude, it’s an actor doing a video promoting tourism in Croatia. Who cares.
Moj Hrvati! Možete baš govoriti grube stvari!
Who cares if you care or not?
Nobody!
It poor Luka Modric is forced to meet the guy and take pictures then it’s 100% it’s fair game
Do better
Can you go five minutes without posting drivel on here? Pathetic.
Nice Irankunda goal
But yet another seemingly fake asylum/refugee claimant
DR Congo refugees fleeing into Burundi – so how bad can it really be, right ?
Many former Burundi refugees/asylum seekers who left – 100k to be exact in recent years – who went to Tanzanian (like Irankunda) have RETURNED to Burundi – bc it ain’t so bad
Are there any LEGITIMATE asylum/refugees claimants these days ?
Seems like one big musical chairs in Africa – thinking the grass is greener in the neighbouring country and pretending to be a displaced person – but then they just return to where they came from when a sucker country like Australia doesn’t accept them
***.unhcr.org/where-we-work/countries/burundi?dataset=POP&yearsMode=range&selectedYears=%5B2012%2C2026%5D&level=OPR&category=PTY&fundingSource=ALS&compareBy=%5B%22category%22%5D&levelCompare=%5B%5B%22OBDI_ABC%22%5D%5D&viewType=chart&chartType=bar&contextualDataset=BUD&tableDataView=absolute
Glad to see Kova riding the pine where he belongs. Australia kicked Turkey’s ass which was good to watch on a Sunday afternoon with a couple of beers. Don’t much care for Popovic but at least the Serbs that are in the squad are not seeing time on the pitch. Goes to show that ball possession and poor defending are not a recipe for success. Just ask the Turks.
We need to do what Australia did against Turkey and play 5 – 4 – 1.
If we play three at the back, we’ll get destroyed by their pace.
We need to defend deep and in numbers with the back five never crossing the halfway line apart from set pieces. The only problem is that we do not have any quick forwards like Australia to catch the opponent on the counter.
It was funny on HRT TV when they had the Turkish captain pre-Australia match saying that they were better than Australia and were going to win. Total disrespect for your opponent which backfired big time.
Yea this England game is risky and we need to avoid a repeat of Euro2024 where we came completely unprepared for Spain in our first game (and went down 0-3 easily).
It’s not out of the realm of possibility for this to happen again (with Tuchel in charge) and we end up losing a place in the third placed teams due to goal differential.
Dalic era best 11:
Perisic Mandzukic Rebic
Modric Brozovic Rakitic
Gvardiol Vida Lovren Stanisic
Livakovic
https://croatiansports.com/croatia-2026-world-cup-preview-formation-starting-xi/#comments/528042
@A Tin U, to you my fellow fool and to a great start for Croatia!😁🍺
🍺👍🙏🇭🇷
Australia rocks!
I like that line up posted
You have more then competent subs off the bench if it’s not working and need to shake it up
Krama, vlasic, super sub Mario can all come on if needed for some later game magic potentially
I
Sad to see Tony Popovic shit on all the Croats at his disposal
There is not even one Croat in the squad
Segecic, Ante Suto, Dani Juric, Fran Karacic, Anthony Kalik, etc etc
Maybe the Serbs got to him like the Croatian Six in 1979 ?
To be fair, injuries and poor transfers cost Australia about 3 potential Croatian call ups.. and other than segesic nobody had a good season
England is getting their equipment stolen is absolutely hilarious. Balls, cleats, etc you name it lol. Saka is dealing with an achilles issue. They also had a shooting near their camp that left 9 people injured…shocking! A shooting in the mid west. Meanwhile Croatia is quietly training in Virginia.
And the England personal chef got banned off a train bc he tried to carry his cooking knives with him LMAO
***.thesun.co.uk/sport/39403792/england-chef-banned-train-carrying-knives/
Honestly what kind of German efficient is Tuchel ?
Last game the players didn’t know who would take a penalty bc Tuchel and his staff forgot to bring a piece of paper with them and share it with the players – so they didn’t know the order and it was chaos on the field
They don’t make Germans like they used to
Anyone know what Sportske Novosti‘s hit rate is with predicting or leaking lineups? I really hope what they are floating is just Dalić throwing England off the scent
I would hope that Dalić is playing games to throw off Tuchel, but very often he has shown his cards well in advance of games.
The kramaric disrespect always interesting
Croatia is a team that can’t score goals and this is the one guy that can ever score them
Krama doesn’t really score in tournaments unless we play a weaker team where we dominate possession and he’s fully operating in the opponent’s box.
He’s only ever scored against Canada (twice), Russia and Albania. All inferior opponents.
So he’s scored in only 3 games in the 25 tournament games he’s played in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024.
That’s 4 total goals in the 14 World Cup and 11 Euro matches (and none were scored against top teams).
How is Embolo starting ?
He’s a convicted criminal I thought we don’t let those in the US ?
Weird
Also concerned about his refugee/asylum claim from Cameroon to France then Switzerland
Cameroon is home to 500,000 asylum/refugee from CAR and Nigeria – so it follows that if Cameroon is safe enough for them – then it’s not dangerous enough for native Cameroon to flee ? Just stay clear of Boko Haram and ur all good
It’s too bad Croatia isn’t a desirable country form fake asylum / refugee claimants – hopefully one day that will changes 🤞
Even Canada isn’t letting in Partey in for the Ghana Panama game
Beyond ironic
Well he’s charged with sexual assault so I hope not lol.
But he’s pleaded not guilty – trial not till November this year – there used to be a time where u were innocent until proven guilty in a court of law
Meanwhile
Embolo’s buddy broke a guy’s nose at 5am after they stole a strangers girlfriend at the club (the girl’s BF got a broken nose) and Embolo was saying crap like “I own Basel” “I’m going to beat u up” “I’m going to have u finished” etc and was CONVICTED of a criminal act and the CONVICTION was upheld despite numerous appeals – so he’s a convicted criminal
So
US freely lets in convicted criminals
Canada bans accused perpatrators (lots of these r@pe and sexu@l @ssault cases are getting thrown out the last 5 years bc bitch@s make up sh@t all the time – they F a footballer – hope u gonna put a ring on it – but it’s a one-night stand for him – next thing u know they scream “r@pe” – 95% of the time it’s a bitter/disgruntled women)
Markus –
This looks like who you want to start rather then who will start
Dalic has already confirmed that Modric, Kova, Perisic, Kramaric and Budimir will all start
Dalic respects seniority and hierarchy and we should respect Dalic and his decisions
He’s also said Vuskovic isn’t ready to start at the WC so that ain’t happening either
Read the title. “Croatiansports’ Recommended Starting XI”.
wink
“Croatia are expected to face England with the same starting XI that played against Belgium.
Predicted XI (3-4-2-1): Livaković – Šutalo, Vušković, Gvardiol- Stanišić, Modrić, Kovačić, Perišić – Petar Sučić, Baturina – Musa.”