After Thursday’s boring draw in Prague, Croatia returns home to Varaždin for what should be a far more comfortable test. On Sunday, October 12th at 2:45 PM EST, the Vatreni face Gibraltar in the next chapter of their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.
While Croatia’s fate will ultimately be sealed with wins over Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands, this match presents more than just an opportunity for points; it’s a chance for Dalić to test his depth and rotate key players.
All signs point to Dominik Kotarski getting the start in goal. With Livaković’s club minutes dwindling at Girona, this is the perfect time to give the young Copenhagen keeper a chance to prove himself. This low-pressure fixture could be his ideal introduction to international competition.
At the back, hope for the familiar partnership of Gvardiol and Šutalo. But, don’t be surprised if Dalić decides to hand Pongračić a start. The bigger talking point, though, is what isn’t happening: Luka Vušković being sent back down to the U21s for their “crucial” qualifying match, a baffling call. Vušković has been one of the Bundesliga’s best defenders this season and continues to show he’s ready for senior minutes. At this rate, I highly doubt Vušković will be properly integrated before this summer’s tournament, and we’ll likely have to rely on one of Ćaleta-Car or Pongračić. As we’ve seen before, you can’t make it far with that quality of defender in a major tournament.
Elsewhere, Smolčić could replace Jakić to manage rotation, while Bradarić has a strong case for a start at left-back. His consistency in Serie A suggests Dalić might want to test him there, allowing Gvardiol to shift into his natural central role.
In midfield, Mateo Kovačić looks set to be reintroduced after missing recent action. He’ll likely be paired with Petar Sučić, who’s been in excellent form and is quickly earning a reputation as one of Croatia’s next midfield stars. If Kova isn’t fully fit, expect Moro to get the nod instead.
Croatian fans may finally get their wish — Marco Pasalić is rumoured to start on the right wing. His dynamism and directness could inject some long-needed energy into Croatia’s wide play. Lovro Majer, who impressed in his cameo against Montenegro, is likely to operate centrally.
And then there’s Luka Sučić… will he be forgiven and given another chance to show his quality in attack? After being on the outs recently with both club and country, the young midfielder needs to find some consistency and stability in this stage of his career.
Up top, Ivanović is expected to start, providing fresh legs and a different energy from Budimir. His intensity and willingness to run the channels could cause plenty of problems for Gibraltar, against whom he scored his first two National Team goals.
Croatia knows the math: beat Gibraltar, then handle business against the Faroes, and they’re virtually guaranteed a ticket to North America next summer.
So, what do you think — will Croatia’s heavily rotated lineup continue to push forward in these qualifiers with a dominant win in Varaždin?
The reason sending vuskovic down to u21 is so stupid is because he’s a defender.
Unlike offensive players, defenders don’t really get subbed in. So if he were a talented winger, he could easily be given 15 minutes in future matches and even dropped in to World Cup games. No biggie
Integration is much smoother. The stakes are a lot lighter as any mess up or nervousness for an offensive player rarely results in a goal. And defense arguably requires the most chemistry
I don’t know if vuskovic is ready but it’s worth at least finding out. Gvardiol wasn’t much older at the wc. Yamal is 18.
And it is incredible that Croatia is given this crazy stroke of luck of facing 3 minnows in a row with qualification essentially secured where you could actually test out and integrate a young cb for 90 min.
But unfortunately for this round this crazy opportunity is wasted.
Olic had three CBs: Prpic, Mlacic, Katalinic (who replaced Zivkovic)
That’s not enough for one game – he demands Vuskovic
If he’s not playing Mlacic than leave him with the U19 who have friendlies this window (he needs to play more games)
Ridiculous
He’s one of the biggest risks to our National Team’s future since Joe Šimunić.
Like Joe, he has a lot of influence in the HNS family despite being extremely inexperienced and underqualified for coaching the NT.
Joe failed the licensing exam and the HNS still put him in youth coaching positions with our U19s…and then as president of Rudeš when he fuct up.
Luckily his incompetence heavily outweighed all of his undeserved privileges.
Olić is in the same boat, hanging around in some assistant coaching role for so many years… and only shortly tried his hand in head coaching with CSKA Moscow (where he was humiliated and never attempted club coaching again despite being retired for a decade).
He has his eye on replacing Dalić, and positioned himself to take over our U21s (for a short while before Dalić’s contract ends) so he can be justified as a potential replacement.
In his short stint, he already got our stacked U21s eliminated in hilarious fashion at home to Georgia last year. Completely fireable offense, but again, has the connections and support to stay on and try again.
He’s constantly given senior caliber players, just to narrowly squeeze by teams who aren’t afforded the same benefit as him.
If he is ever seriously considered a replacement for Dalić, we’re taking a massive step back to the time we appointed Štimac as head coach.
The problem here is that Perišić is gassed out and that leaves no natural winger to play on the left and now because Dalic didn’t take this into consideration, we have that gap. Majer isn’t a bad choice there, I like him in that role, Kovačić would be a good choice. Modrić, Perišić should sit out on this one unless they need to be subbed.
Honestly, I would put Ivanović as a winger but because Dalic doesn’t call an extra striker we don’t have that option tinker so Ivanović will.likely play as a striker which I think is fine.
In all honesty, we should be beating Gibraltar today if not we have other issues. This isn’t to underestimate a team, if we are calling ourselves top quality in the rankings it shouldn’t matter if we are playing the B team or A team.
I would like Ivanović to be the starting left winger from now on after how well he played there against Czechia. It was an automatic chance or corner kick every time he got the ball on that flank. Perišić is an excellent clutch player and penalty taker, so he would be a good strategic substitute in the actual world cup. He could be to us what Ricardo Cuaresma was to Portugal in 2016. Likewise, I would make Beljo (or Matanović if he raises his game again) the starting striker because he is fast, a good dribbler, and creates space for himself when on the pitch, which we saw the last time he played for the repka when he was not yet as good as he is now. Budimir being a smart and clutch player and also a great penalty taker would again be a useful strategic piece off the bench. I’m hesitant to take Kramarić out of the starting lineup because he usually makes a significant contribution to the game over long stretches of time, holding possession dropping back to defend, closing off passing lanes, and creating chances or scoring from them. I think there’s no harm in having Marco Pašalić start on the right wing because he’s obviously an attacking menace with a very high level of physical fitness. My guess is that he doesn’t start because of not maintaining possession as well as Dalić would like, but he looked good against Czechia.
If Dalic could drop Fruk and Moro he has the option of calling up more options and reinforcements in the final third. I would choose Oršić at this point to have an extra winger that makes 3 wingers and one of Matanović or Beljo, for an extra striker. He needs the extra forward. Ivanovic seems pretty versatile, even he could be used as winger from what I can see.
He needs to drop at least one CB, preferably two. Four CBs are enough. Moro is a solid player who’s shown against France that he can come off the bench and lock things down, or even chase the victory and score a penalty. He’s on the team as a backup when a truly defensive midfielder is needed, in case Jakić has to play RB, which he should do because he’s been excellent there every time. The players who should not be considered guarantees are Fruk and Luka Sučić. Fruk is not proven to be a difference maker, and Luka Sučić is not playing at his club. So take away Erlić and Pongračić and Fruk and a Luka Sučić who is not playing at his club, and you have four spots that can be filled with central strikers and wide players.
Interesting thought. Given that Vusković had to go play for under 21 I dunno that he had to drop that many CBs. I don’t mind Eric personally, but it’s fair to say the playing time is an issue with him.
It’s unfortunate that Luka Sučić isn’t getting any time at his club, it seems very strange to me. He really should have skipped the wedding or told his sister to change the date. He does look like an exciting prospect.
3-4-3 (in possession)
Kotarski
Sutalo-Pongracic-Erlic
Jakic-Kovacic-Majer-Bradaric
Marco-Fruk-Ivanovic
Subs
Smolcic for Jakic
Baturina for Majer
Modric for Kovacic (Luka will come on to add to his cap/appearances #)
Budimir for Ivanovic
5th sub (maybe one of Marco or Fruk come off or maybe Moro gets some minutes)
Olic said Zivkovic got injured so he needed Vuskovic (not sure what Zivkovic was doing their anyways as he’s not playing for DZ)
Why didn’t he have to call up one of the CBs on his stand-by list to replace him though ? There are two…
Here’s an interesting stat (@Truth: why didn’t your Mark Rochon inform us of this?) but 33% of goals in football are from set-pieces (!)
Luka Vuskovic is a set piece monster (both offensively and defensively) – seems logical you’d want him on the pitch
x.com/PedMenCoach/status/1977091679497994440
Marc Rochon from John O Groats should be fired immediately.
Rochon is a Non-resident, non-citizen, non-speaking, non- catholic who has a bronze medal of ours around his neck.
Holy what the….
Gvardiol will not play in this match, he missed the start of the new season with injury and will be rested.
Some of our players are on yellow cards like Petar Sucic so he is another one that should be rested.
Defence shouldnt be out concern but i just prefer gvardiol to stay put at CB.
For LB, we have melnjak, pajac(experience in serie A), bradaric, goda who is playing well. So in terms of defence we are covered.
CM: We can push jakic to DM together with sucic brothers, modric, pasalic, kovacic, vlasic, majer and baturina
Wingers: this is our weakest link. we have marco pasalic, perisic, ivanovic and kramaric maybe? We can add orsic, lisica and pjaca maybe? Brekao seems to be in poor form..lowest rating and got sub off at HT in last game.
Striker wise, we have beljo, petkovic who is doing well now, budimir and can consider musa too since we considered mario pasalic
Anonymous said Peretz not playing for club but playing for NT is not uncommon, but Anonymous didn’t say it’s a good idea – he let in 5 goals today
Serbia gave 18 y/o CB Veljko Milosavljevic his debut today, he played 90′
This, despite only playing 95′ for Bournemouth this season
Sad
That same Milosavljevic gave away a dumb free kick almost on the half way, with seconds left before half time which resulted in the Albanian goal.
Serbia started the match with two youngsters and finished the match with 5 debutants. The post-match panel in the studio were fuming that for such an important match Piksi chose so many inexperienced players. Not sure why ? maybe they had injuries? nevertheless, dumb decision which in all probability cost them the match and possibly a play-off spot for the WC.
I hear Spain is sending lamine yamal down to the u19s to help them with qualification and he’ll skip the next senior game
Albania 1-0 in Serbia !
Albania now 75% to finish 2nd in their group (Serbia 25%)
What an embarrassing campaign for them so far. Anyway Italy didn’t slip up v Estonia unfortunately.
Stojkovic has resigned (a bit late for that lol)
x.com/SerbFootyScout/status/1977129328405365244
Yeah, Italy got the job done, unfortunately
Took Portugal >90 min to get a goal vs. Ireland (too bad a tie they would have lost a tone of points)
Turkey’s two 20 year olds Guler and Yildiz destroyed Bulgaria today (yet Olic needs Vuskovic to play in U21)
Some thoughts . . .
A good suggested line up.
Disappointing that Vuskovic has gone again to the U21.
The November games against Faroe and Montenegro will be bigger tests than Gibraltar, and let’s hope Vuskovic plays in those two games.
Looking ahead to World Cup, if we are healthy we will have one of the best defences in the world. Period.
The midfield will be very solid and will have depth. . . where we lack is our attack.
There is no Suker, no Mandzo, etc and while Perisic, Krama, and Budimir will provide quality, they are not getting any faster. Despite all the affection for Marco Pasalic, he simply has not yet proven that he can be an effective attacker in a top five league, or even a top eight league. And until you prove you can do that . . . Yes, an in form Ivanovic should help. But unless I am wrong, we will not be as dangerous as we would like to be on the attack or on the counterattack at WC 2026.
We will therefore have to be great defensively, limit our goals against, and I expect we will . . .
But we have to get some goals from somewhere, and while we have to be great defensively, it seems the reality is that the back four will have to also chip in offensively, and give us at least one or two really big goals along the way to take us deep into the WC 2026 tournament.
And again, the reality is that the two who can really contribute in that way are Gvardiol and Vuskovic. They both have a great nose for the net for defenders, they both are dangerous offensively and know how to score . . . I watched Vuskovic in the Belgium League which is a quality league, and it left little doubt in my mind he would transition well into the Bundesliga once he made the decision to go there. I think he has surprised some people, and one thing about him is his ability to chip in with goals. . .
I accept that Gvardiol is a great center back, and he was great for us in that role in 2022. He and Sutalo would give us a fantastic pairing in the middle. But, and this is the BUT. . . if you put Gvardiol in the middle, it does two things: first you lose him on the attack up the left side, a role he knows, where he has shown in the past he can be dangerous offensively at Manchester City, . . . And second, you remove Vuskovic from the starting line up.
Vuskovic can score and he can be deadly in the air on set plays. He and Budimir up front will be dangerous big targets that will have to be covered by opponents, and they will get their heads on their share of corner kicks . . . . .
But what sets Vuskovic apart is that he can score goals. DCC is a solid defender, proven in in big five leagues, but his offensive contributions will not be what we will need.
I respect the fact that Dalic is loyal to his veterans. We have to show respect to all our players . . . But Dalic is smart and I expect he will come to the conclusion that he needs to come to: that the back end is going to have to chip in some goals at WC, and the lineup that will make the most sense (by far) is:
Stanisic-Sutalo-Vuskovic-Gvardiol.
That is what everything points to.
I think as we get closer to World Cup, the case will become more clear. Stanisic and Sutalo are world class defenders when healthy, and are very underrated. Vuskovic will be improving and better than he is today. Gvardiol is Gvardiol, enough said.
So while this test against Gibraltar is not a tough test, I would have liked to have seen Sutalo and Vuskovic play together in the middle as the two centre backs, at least to see how they do as a pairing. It would be a great game to begin that integration.
That Vuskovic’s integration into the line up will not start is disappointing.
In the absence of that, if Vuskovic continues to perform well in the Bundesliga over the next few weeks, we should be confident enough to pair him with Sutalo against both Faroe and Montenegro in November, and if not start him at least give him some time off the bench in that pairing. (I would be prepared to start him, especially against Faroe and their bunkering defence.)
But as Vuskovic is not available, the back four selection is good.
The other key here is Luka Sucic. Let’s get behind him, give him some support. Things are not going well for him at his club, and he has obviously had issues with Dalic at the NT.
But again, we need goals and this guy can score goals. We are going to need an in form Luka Sucic at WC 2026. Dalic has shown he can be a tough disciplinarian, he has also shown he is a winner as a coach. He will realize he needs L. Sucic in form and he should support him with a start against Gibraltar. The guy needs something positive right now.
People I respect on this board, knowledgeable regulars, say they aren’t sure what Luka Sucic has to offer. Again, I agree he still has to prove himself. He has to learn from Modric, our leader who works so hard each game. But I will say two things about Luka Sucic. First, he can score goals and we need our goal scorers going and in form at WC 2026. Goals are likely to be hard to come by for us. Second, I watched him destroy Midtjylland last year in the Europa League. For those who saw that game, including his two goals, they know the potential of this young player.
So Luka Sucic should be given the start here. But not up on the left wing as suggested. Rather, Dalic, after making his point and he has made it, should help Sucic get back on track . . . and start Sucic in his natural midfield position along with his cousin and Majer, and leave Kova to come off the bench . . .
Looking forward to the game. . .
I dunno, in the 30 minutes they had both Ivanović and Marco Pašalić proved that hey can be effective in attack. Marco Pašalić had an attempt and a great assist to Perišić, which almost resulted in a goal. Not sure what game you were watching but from my vantage point Marco Pašalić was effective. Before those two players were on we had absolutely no offense, aside from the two missed shots by Perišić. I think Modrić had one opportunity if my memory serves correctly. Bear in mind none of those opportunities came close to the header Perišić had with the assist from Marco Pašalić in the latter part of the second half.
That said I do agree with some of your points. For example, that the younger players do have to prove themselves. The problem, however, is that they cannot do that if they don’t get any time. Up until this point Marco Pašalić had only ever had like 5 in game minutes to make a difference. Who is gonna prove themselves within that kind of a time constraint?
I think Luka Sucic’s issue was that Dalic put him in the doghouse, and now his club isn’t playing him either which is not good. Last year, he was named Real Sociedad’s best young player of the year. So I don’t think it is fair to say he didn’t prove himself, I think that he did.
I think the circumstance is dictating things against him.
The players that I question at this stage are Fruk and Moro. Dalic seems to pick players in such a way that the midfield is saturated with players that don’t fit his system. This is an issue. He has like 5 players that could have played in Kramaric’s position against Czechia, who were probably better suited for that match. However, Dalic is all about seniority rules. So that means he often picks the wrong player in certain circumstances and in certain games. I get that hindsight is 20/20 but he has to think about this ahead of time or at least be prepared to make substitutions exactly at half time. I am a fan of Kramaric, but he was invisible in that match and overwhelmed and I think it is because of his height and stature when compared to the tall and aggressive Czechia players.
I honestly think that if Dalic chose Perišić on the left, Mario Pašalić in middle, and Marko Pašalić on the right for the last game that our result would have been different.
Instead, Perišić gassed out because he had no support on the other side and we had no attacking strategy at that point. We were very close to losing that match in the first half, and to top things off we had 65 minutes of horrible game play.
—————————Kotarski—————————
———————————————————————
———–Smolcic—–Erlic——Pograncic———
(Juranovic)—————-—(Jakic)——————
Marco.P.——Kovacic——Moro——Bradaric
—————————(Majer)——————————
————-L.Sucic—————-Baturina—————
———————–—-Ivanovic—————————-
3-4-2-1 and nutin butt
Math lesson starts
Prize money for winner
4m U21 Euros (if win every group game too)
vs.
40m World Cup (Argentina 2022)
Makes ZERO math/economic sense to focus on U21
Math lesson ends
Please get a human being friend or something. This comments section has gone to shit.