Photo: FootballJustice.com
Looking forward to Euro 2012 Group C, involving Spain, Italy, Croatia and Ireland, a majority of the world consensus has already given top spot to reigning Euro champions and current World Cup winners Spain. With that said, second place is up for grabs and is a virtual coin-flip between Italy and Croatia. With less than two months before kick off, Slaven Bilić’s Boys should all be healthy and ready to go. Eduardo is in the final phase of returning from a hamstring injury while defender Vedran Ćorluka is already back after a leg injury he suffered in Croatia’s friendly defeat to Sweden back in February. The seldom played Niko Kranjčar picked up a knee injury last week but is expected to be available for the tournament.
The same cannot be said for the Italian squad. 25 year-old striker Giuseppe Rossi has officially been ruled out of Euro 2012 after he re-injured his right ACL in training with Villareal last week. Rossi was optimistic to play for the Azzurri after rupturing his ACL in a match against Real Madrid in October, but his dream is now dead. Where does that put Italy scoring-wise and how can Croatia capitalize?
Photo: MirrorFootball
With the bad comes the good for Italy. AC Milan striker Antonio Cassano has been cleared to play in Euro 2012 after suffering a stroke in November of 2011, which caused temporary cerebral damage. The 29 year-old Cassano may be good to go but how much of an impact can he be for Italy after sitting out nearly eight months? Italy is low on striking options at the moment and may have to push Cassano to play, at full health or not. A recent Uefa.com article states that Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has “waited for the return of Cassano.” He will surely be utilized by the Azzurri boss.
Photo: InThe Stands.co.uk
With one Italian in, and the other out, the big question involving Italy this coming tournament is: Which Mario Balotelli will we see? Croatia must deal with the greatest wild card in today’s game in order to reach the quarterfinals. Balotelli, at his best, can be a lethal scorer and a pain for opposing defenses. His arrogance transcends the modern game, knowing that the world is watching, not just for his next goal, but his next meltdown. The man has proved that he is a ticking time-bomb with no filter. If he’s not happy, he’ll tell the whole world, while on the pitch. Balotelli leaves little to the imagination, but which face will he show Croatia in June?
Croatia will have a tough battle with this group. A win against Ireland is expected, but even a draw will get the job done for an epic encounter with the Italians. How will the Vatreni fair against 2012’s edition of Italy? And will the Joker have the last laugh?
Mikulandra? Is that you?
At the 2008 Euro I was handing Germany the group before the tournament started. Look what happened. I think the NT has a legitamete shot at winning the group and not just making it to the quarter-finals. Spain will not have David Villa who has been their top scorer at the last two major tournaments.
@ Anonymous , Me TINK u r bullsh-ting us . That me tink u . No good u lie me . Bye u see
Irish pundits are already shaking in their boots over the prospect of Ireland facing an in-form Jelavic in their tournament opener. I foresee a victory for Cro barring an unlucky day. I want to see if Bilic will set up the offense similar to Everton having midfielders with pace on the wings setting up Jela in the center. Perisic and Pranjic are the key guys to fill that role. Jelavic’s brace against Man U was pure class.
I’m not sure why armchair coaches are calling for Kranjcar as a starter. When he has played for Tottenham he’s looked slower than ever and not up to any sort of world class standard. He should be on a bench spot opening up a starting spot for Perisic who scored today.
Cro will progress if Bilic gets the formation, lineup and tactics right.
Lots of Bilic bashers on here as well, here’s food for thought: When Cro beat the Turks in the former Constantinople they registered zero shots on goal. In a home game. Has a home team ever failed to get a shot on target in a play-off? Bilic had our boys ready for that match. I rest my case.
Italy no good
Me tink croatian can make de upset on italia have no seen hows keepn ball make strong. Contra contra have heart go in can make troobal italia defrenz. Same espana hawv team better better but it football lukky lukky and in contra attek goool! same as from swiss 2010, espana danger keep hard get ball but lukk cans happans no? what you say?
LOL at Joey. Thanks for support and believe me i didn’t get bullied. I’m a loud mouth and I’m proud to admit that. I’m just really down on the team especially from a defensive stand point. I really can’t see Croatia pulling a Switzerland with the lack of quality defenders. Unless they park the bus which worked against Turkey but that’s Turkey which was a mess. You do make valid points but I’m not high on Croatia at all. I’m not doing full predictions till after friendlies in May. I’ll do a huge post and it will be something all you guys can see. I know Croatia will beat Ireland that’s a fact and they will lose to Spain. The Italy- Croatia game is going to be interesting and I’m going to have to see how the friendlies play out to make that pick.
I’m going all out for Croatia games don’t worry. I’m taking a week vacation telling both of my jobs that I’m going to a wedding in Croatia for a week. No way in hell would I miss any of those games.
Italiance nema pamet , sranje .
@ Allen outraged sorry about spelling error’s…my fingers are 2 big 4 my bold 9900..lol
@Allen outraged,I like reading most of your post’s!! But bro you make it seem like we can’t play against anyone world class. I think you had bully’s @ school fucking with you 2 much as a kid..get some balls and belief in your own brothers!!!WTF…when croatia plays as a team they can beat anyone.I’m not saying we will dominate spain or have more possesion.But we can grind out a win…remember switzerland?they beat them @ the world cup!ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!I would be more concerned if we had any easier group..like with poland etc..croatia has to much pride to be smashed by the spics and wops..they will put up a fight!! And hopefully have a little luck.One more thing bro,I’m on your side!! I got your back lol…
If we can’t beat Ireland, we should be there to begin with.
Russia not very good in 2008? Last time i checked they beat a Holland team that demolished Italy and France with ease. Hiddink was managing and they were a force to be reckon with. Spain’s 2010 performance wasn’t all that special but in 2008 they were scary. With Spain’s ball control, Croatia doesn’t have much of a prayer.
@ Ziva – Not knocking Spain, just saying people give them more credit than they deserve because of their two recent trophies. How’d they get those?
WC 2010- grouped with Honduras, Swiss, and Chile. Advanced with two wins and a loss. Beat Portugal 1-0, beat Paraguay 1-0, beat Germany 1-0, and beat Holland 1-0.
Euro 2008 – grouped with Russia, Sweden, and Greece. Advanced on 9 points. Played Italy to 0-0 and advanced on shootout, Rolled Russia (not very good) 3-0, and beat Germany, surprise surprise, 1-0.
Spainish soccer is the reason the game needs to add a shot-clock. Once up a goal, they possess around their own half way line till the match is over.
@ Ziva – I agree, I think Germany takes this one.
Ziva,
Was that a Herm Edwards line reference? Amazing.
It can be done. Slovakia did a number on Italy.
@Seattle……Everyone is beatable. That is why they play the game. But for anyone to knock Spain is a bit comical to me. They have won the last two tourneys.
Do i think Spain will win in June. No, I like Germany this time around. But the clear favorites are Spain and Germany with Holland just below them. After that you can lump half the teams, us included.
Barcelona need Messi to win CL and La Liga…
Spain has NO Messi to win matches…
They do not have one on form striker…torres? villa? Will they be even called up? Who can they rely on to score? Xavi or inesta?
By defending well, I am sure our NT can get a draw…
@Ziva Istina – I remember Greece being Euro Champs as well. Were they unbeatable?
Spain is totally beatable. In my mind they play just like Italy, but instead of defending 80% of the game, they possess the ball in non-threatening areas 80% of the game. Let them! The key is not over-committing and pressuring too hard to get the ball back.
the key is the first round of games (sorry to sound so obvious). a win there allows us to stay patient against the italians in that second match. we need 3 pts against the irish. if we don’t get it, then we will have to chase the 3 pts against italy and we could be exposed trying to do that on the counter attack.
i also think spain/italy in that first match is extremely important. i would hope for a spain win. therefore, if we can keep italy from beating us, the italians might only have 1 point after two matches, heading into the ireland match. and dont you think trappatoni would love to stick it to italy as irish manager by keeping them from advancing!!
we can advance out of this group. with health, skill and a little luck, quarterfinals can be in our future!
@IvicA,
i like your idea better. haha. Not impossible, but hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighly unlikely.
@LikaJoey,
I guess you can say that we look at it as a stock commodity. Haha. JK.
Look, “Spain” or Barcelona lost to Chelsea when the possesion was like 80%-20%, and the shots were 20 something to 1 on target for Barca. Soccer is a sport where upsets happen maybe more than most North American sports. Im not scared of them. On our day we can totally give them a game!
Many Croatians blow like the fucking wind!!! one day we are great!! two day’s later we suck…Bilic is great..next game shoot him..oh Modric is world class..no Modric is over rated etc..WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! We need to focus have each others backs…beat the Irish..out muscle the wops..and pray and gel against Spain…we are getting out of the group! Then daj Boze!!
@toronto croatia,i agree bro! we have more talent and tournament experience than ireland.I have a feeling we will get a penalty in our favor against them.Italy is always world class…but we can hang with them…i have seen spain get lazy and cocky..losses to u.s.a,italy,barely drawing costa rica a few months back in a freindly…ANY THING IS POSSIBLE…soccer is 80 percent skill and tactics and 20 percent luck…we need the nice lucky bounce to fall in our favor once in a while.
This should be Bilic’s focus in life right now…
WE MUST WIN 2 GAMES…..JUST 2 GAMES
BEAT IRELAND…. BEAT ITALY – Thats it.
Just win 2 games, get us out of the group stage and we’ll see where it goes from there. Hopefully thats not easier said than done. We all should agree that we HAVE the capability to beat both of those teams.
If Balotelli plays against us, were dead meat. I don’t care how much the guy is hated, he is a born goal scorer. Especially with our defense, it wouldn’t take long for him to get prime chances and convert. Not trying to put us down, but realistically it is what it is. Hopefully he gets a red card his first game or early on in our game.
@TheGoldenChild……I don’t put that much emphasis on Bilic for the Italy game. To me, its up to the players. True, if we come out with crazy tactics, then anything can happen. But, this is on the players.
Bilic is what he is…an average coach.
Too may times the uninformed fans (not saying you are one) equates a loss/win with the coach. if we lose = it’s Bilic’s fault . If we win = it’s Bilic’s tactics that worked. To me, its not quite that simple.
Lets also look at this from the opponents perspective. I am sure Spain is laughing and thinking this group is easy as hell. I am sure Italy is thinking, ok have to be careful, but we are favorites for second. Ireland has to be thinking this is a tough group, but the easiest and the best chance at a win will be against Croatia.
To me, Italy has the better players. I’m not sure if they have a better team than we do, but individually they have more skill.
@ Denis
What if they beat Ireland and Spain, but lose 3-0 to the wops?
Which would you prefer then?
😉
As long as we beat the Italians, I could care less about everything else.
One thing I always tell myself in regards to Spain or any other good team…Once on top, the only place to go is down. Not saying anything about their game, however as we’ve seen in soccer before, the game is never done until the final whistle blows. Croatians surprised the world of soccer more than once.
I will watch our Croatians and hope they make the best of these Euro’s. After all speculation is just that.
I know everybody is scared about losing to Ireland, but I’m gonna be realistic and put a W next to that game. We should and will beat em. If u want to disagree, that’s fine.
Italy vs Cro is going to, by all means, be our most important game for the beginning of this tournament. Not only is it our first real challenge against a strong group of players, but it’s going to be a test to our coaching staff and defense. Italy are the only team in the world playing 3 backs regularly (98% sure). This means they’ll have a lot of attack, a lot of possession, and a whooole lot of room to play a counter against.
I’m really curious to see how Bilic is going to handle Pirlo in the center of the field, while allowing Modric to play an offensive role.(not gonna be easy). I’m also curious to see how our back 4 will do against a barrage from the Italian midfield, that is the strongest attacking through the middle (somewhere we’re very weak)
If I was a mathematician, I put all my money on Italy winning this thing. Balotelli is obviously a factor, but he is not the end all be all of the team. Believe me, they have enough young talent to carry that team. Same goes with Rossi…when was the last time he played?
We bunker…we lose. We attack to forcibly, and then we leave our defense open…we lose. So unless Bilic has some magic up that sleeve, I’m not liking our chances too much.
@Ante
Ivica Olic? I’m guessing him because of the debate not too long ago.
A new shirt IS on the way. some of you guys will love it, I’m sure others will think it’s too much for this Croatian personality. He may not be a legend, but he’s damn well a hero.
@Jaso.
I’m with you. If we don’t anything else but beat Italy, I would still be happy.
Forgot Fabregas
Spain Speaks for itself 11
Casillas-Ramos Pique Puyol Arbeloa- Alonso Busquets-Xaxi Iniesta Pedro(SilvaMata)-Villa(if healthy if not Torres Llorente Soldado
Itlay 11
Buffon-Balzarehtti Chiellini Bonucci Maggio-De rossi Motta Pirlo- Giovinco Pazzini Matri(Casanoand Balotelli depends)
Ireland Starting 11
Given-
Ward Dunne O Shea st Ledger
Duff Mcgeady Whelan Hunt/Andrews
Keane Doyle/Long
We need to beat italy just need to i cant stand those zabari uske majce gajovi kad dodu ode i pravu se ,dodu kao turisti isti pizzu i spageti umisto djandje i nasu hranu,all kidding aside i hate italians i am sure you diapora who live in Nyc chicago LA know how aragant italian americans are???
Gotta agree with Ziva on this one regarding Italy. It’s not a question of mentality, it’s one of relevance.
Also, what’s with all the non-chalance about the best team in the world? If we need anything more than a point going into that final game, god help us.
And yes we all know “anything” can happen. Presumably it’s one of the major reasons we all follow sports. But we’re here to speculate on likelihood. And calling Spain evenly matched in this group is just not even close to realistic.
stop giving Spain too much credit??????? They are the defending Euro champs and current WC champs.
@JP…..I never said anything about the mental aspect. If we would have played Italy 4 times in the last 5 years and beaten them, that is one thing. But, the last time we played them in a game that counts was 10 years ago. That result means zero going into July. We could win against Italy or we could lose, but the history against italy has nothing to do with it. Hell, if we want to be honest, go back to that game 10 years. We were outplayed excpet for a 10-minute stretch.
Anything is possible we can lose all 3 games we can win all 3 we can draw all 3. Reallity is a win againt ireland 1-0 on a freekick or penal. Againt Italy it all depends what they do againt Spain so icant predict the italy spain games when we play them. 1) Itlay beat Spain they will play easier againt us and they only need a draw at wort with us as they believe they can beat Ireland in last gam, If Spain beat Italy they come out full on us and need a win, Our last game against pain all depends on Ireland if we face a A pain Or A- Spain either way thy are better than u but thn again anything can Happen! The Quarterfinals either England Ukraine France Sweden.
@Mysterion – Not sure about the t-shirt situation. I contacted the site a few months ago because I was going to CroatiaFest in Seattle and wanted to advertise the site. My sister rocked the Crottenham T.
@CSR Fans – Anyone going to Euro? I’ll be at Croatia/Italy if anyone wants to meet for a beer.
I think we need to stop giving Spain so much credit. They’re a great possession team thirty yards away from goal, and that’s where they spend 80% of their time with the ball. Boring, and beatable. Just gotta be patient on defense and not dive in.
@ AZ,
I dare you to go up to any Irishman and call him British. Same as calling a Hrvat a Cetnik. Come on Buddy.
@ SeattleNate,
How’d you get the new CroatianSports.com shirt? Is CroatianSports making a new shirt soon?
We will draw with ireland, beat italy and lose to spain…thats my prediction..
————-Pletikosa————-
——Lovren–Simunic–Corluka—-
-Srna—-Rakitic– Dujmovic——–Pranjic–
——— Modric——–
———Olic—Eduardo———
I have this feeling that we will not beat ireland…The NT seems to have problems getting results against british teams who may be too fast for the NT….
If we rely on simunic or schifo, we may need a disciplined peformance and covering from dujmovic…
Is any one here going to this tournament? How can one go about getting tickets? I want to go undercover as an Italian fan and throw banana peels on the field!
Bog i Hrvati “We could win, lose, or draw against any one of them.”
Did you figure that out all by yourself?
We should be able to get out of this group. Ireland has to be a win and i believe history will continue and we can beat Italy. If worst comes to worst and we need to get points against Spain, it can be done. I’m not sure why everyone is so scared of them, they can be beaten – look at Switzerland in 2010.
I think we should go 98′ formation of the 3-5-2/5-3-2 hybrid.
————-Pletikosa————-
——Lovren–Simunic–Vida—-
-Srna———Modric——–Pranjic–
———-Rakitic—Kranjcar——–
———Mandzukic—Jelavic———
@Ana, I totally agree, especially about Torres 🙂
@Ziva, as always you’re absolutely incorrect. History matters. I’m not going to waste my breath explaining why, as it should be self-evident, but if nothing else, Olic played in and scored in that last WC game against the Digice. To say that history doesn’t matter is akin to saying that the “mental” aspect of game likewise doesn’t matter too. Of course it’s not necessarily the deciding factor, but it could be.
We need to pray that Italy does not come to thier senses and bring up miccoli for the tournament, one of the most efficient Italian scorers in the world and not even a sniff from the nt.. Thank god
Croatia can hold their own against all three 1st-round opponents as this group is very evenly matched — even with Spain in it. We could win, lose, or draw against any one of them. They will be wars, so it’s hard to predict the winners; but as an optimist I’ll still go with ESP and CRO to advance 1 and 2, respectively.
Italy never beating us in a competitive match means zero in July. Last time we played them when it mattered was in 2002, so at most they have a only a few guys who even played or dressed for that game.
I think we have a chance against Italy; they are beatable, but what took place 10-16 years ago has no impact on what will happen in a few months.
I’m kind of expecting us to pull a typical ‘croatia’ and loose to an easier team (ireland) and beat one of the big names (most likely italy) which is always how we do it for some reason…we can’t afford to do that however, im hoping we beat ireland as we should and get a good result against the italians…
as for spain maybe we can bunker down & not get massacred…but who knows anythings possible, not like we were expecting to beat germany last euro, start praying for their boys to get injured haha i mean if theyre forced to start torres we might have a chance
Looking forward to the Italy game just as much as I am looking forward to the Serbia qualifiers for WC ’14. I fucking hate the Italian NT; their style, their players and their arrogance. I hope we smash them but realistically, it’s gonna be a tight game and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends 1-1. I feel like whenever people don’t have Italy as one of the favorites, they have a knack for surprising folks… Hope that isn’t the case this time around.
Balotelli might not be called up, Prandelli already dumped him once. Though with Rossi injured, I think his chances improve
Italy is beatable, I didn’t mind drawing them, but it really depends on the first game. If Croatia fail to beat Ireland, Bilic will have to play open, and the Italians will like that.
The schedule is ideal, but lets be honest, Croatia’s tournament is the opening two matches. If they need a result against Spain in the final match, it will be impossible, even if Spain use their B team which is better than most teams in Euro anyway
Break Balotelli’s leg!!
Italy has never beaten us in a competitive match, and I don’t see it happening this time either
My comment above (forgot to log in)
I’m happy with the way the schedule works out. Ireland is not a pushover, but with our tradition of starting slow I’m glad we play the easiest opponent first. If we beat Ireland and then Italy, the Spain game becomes essentially meaningless. Short of that, let’s hope Spain has already qualified going in to that match, and that they rest their top guys.
I realise rakitic has been on the bench for past few games…not only the last game…in fact before the last few games, he is always subbed out early in second half….and his performance ratings is rather poor in most of the matches in whole season…
The Sevilla coach kept Rakitic on the bench the last game. I think this was the first time he didn’t play Ivan this season. The good news? They lost 5-1 to Getafe, so I think Ivan will play again next week. Rakitic is one of our players who can make the difference. He plays in probably the best league of the world and he has the typical croatian technical skills.