What more can we say about Luka Modrić? The man is 36 years old and still carrying Real Madrid on his back.
Real Madrid were up 3-1 on Chelsea after their huge first leg victory at Stamford Bridge last week. Los Blancos had one foot in the Champions League semifinals until Chelsea came out with three unanswered goals at the Bernabeu Tuesday night. Real Madrid were shell shocked and looked dead in the water with absolutely nothing going their way offensively. Mateo Kovačić would supply the assist on Timo Werner’s 75′ goal that would put Chelsea up 4-3 on aggregate with only 15 minutes remaining in the two-legged tie.
That’s when Modrić stepped up with one of the most epic ‘outside the foot’ assists you will ever see in the 80′. He perfectly looped the ball in to where only teammate, Rodrygo, could get to it for the volley. The ball easily sailed over Thiago Silva’s head – who was defending Rodrygo – and froze Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy on his line; being three yards out from the goal box.
The goal levelled the tie 4-4 on aggregate and completely revived a dead and hopeless Real Madrid team. Karim Benzema would score in extra time and the rest is history. Real Madrid are heading to Champions League semifinals while Chelsea’s European season is over.
The Modrić assist was praised by football fans and pundits worldwide and will 100% go down as one of the best assists of 2022.
for those who are a true Christian -[ don’t celebrate Easter ]-
then seek refugees – be wise – for your life to know the Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgX-G3XzWSI
Go preach elsewhere
Too late 🙂 lol!
We have 4 Croats in the semis for Europa
Guaranteed a cro winner
Gvardiol
Jakic
Vlasic
Barisic
And a 1/4 chance of a CL
All in all this is positive
Interesting read on Borna Sosa to Barcelona that be great to see
https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2022/4/14/23021644/bayern-munich-lewandowski-fc-barcelona-stuttgart-sosa-rb-leipzig-real-madrid-villarreal-nunez-muller
Jakic and Frankfurt give farca a beat down in the camp nou !!
I guess they didn’t need Rakitić?
West ham thumps Lyon
Not sure if vlasic played
He wasn’t on from the bit that I saw, he is been doing rather poorly actually since coming to West Ham he needs to change things around or else he may not get called up if his lack of form continues, it hasn’t been good.
Barca getting hammered 3-0 by Frankfurt in 80th min
Stick a fork in them
Hrvatska 🇭🇷 vs Ecuador 🇪🇨
World Cup Prep Friendly set
Are we saying Ecuador is similar to Canada style?
Who said Canada is similar to African countries? Yes there enough black players to say that but is it Truly a similar style?
I haven’t watched them play, but they’re more “hard work” than they are “natural talent”.
Outside of a couple of players, Canada is probably similar.
At the same time, I prefer that Dalić doesn’t show his hand.
If you don’t know what you’re doing and require a pre tournament friendly to confirm anything, then you’re already in trouble.
Ecuador is way more physical in play much like most South American countries.
Interesting read on Modric in Dnevnik. His personal trainer Vlatko Vucetic says he can play at top level for 2 or 3 more years due to his off pitch training.
Uses elastic bands which he can take anywhere in the world to stretch his muscles for a half hour before a match.
His muscles are like springs the trainer from Zagreb says.
After match workouts are similar with these bands. Interesting read however.
Call up Josip Šutalo from Dinamo.
And Martin Erlić
Why all the excitement of the back four when we know lovren still going to start… need that experience…experience of giving up at least one pk per tournament
There’s no room for him anymore
Lovren tried to move to West Ham to stay relevant, but the EPL blocked his transfer. So he is stuck in Russia. Meanwhile, Gvardiol and Caleta-Car and Pongračić all play in top leagues where defenders have to be dynamic. We saw in March that Vida is no longer relevant either.
With Uremovic now playing at Sheffield, I should hope that he gets called up in June.
Great news.
Dalic’s hands will be tied.
Can’t justify starting someone who hasn’t played in MONTHS, over several CBs who are starting in the top-5 leagues in Europe.
This is true
Surely CC is considered somewhat of a veteran hand now and if vrsaljko is on the line as well
But the problem is the lovren vrsaljko bromance and their influence on dalic
Lol isn’t it the truth.
Not sure if anyone saw the scuffle after the city atleti game, but I like that anger from Sime. Shame he didn’t play, not sure what llorente adds being played at that position.
Yeah I don’t agree with most that Modric should play after this World Cup. I still have a lot of reservations on how much we can get out of him for the upcoming World Cup. Tournament soccer is a different ball game. Group stage is basically 3 games in 8 day’s.
At the moment Modric has the luxury of being able to sit out games when need for example last weekend he didn’t play as their was a big mid week game. That’s why I don’t like starting Modric with Kova I think it’s best esp for group stage they rotate or Modric starts but comes out early and kova replaces him. I hope Dalic and luka can make a good plan so he stay fresh as we progress through the tournament.
Even though Modric was one of our best players @ euro 2020 he did seem fatigued against Scotland and Spain.
Modric can still be on the squad and not have to start.
Luka Sucic and Lovro Majer both look like the real deal, and they will make big strides over the next two years. Broz and Kovacic are still there, and you never know…there could be added depth coming in our midfield (there always is).
Imagine having Modric come off the bench at Euro2024 to change the game? Awesome.
I agree that Modric looked off at times during Euro2020…but a lot of that was him being overworked due to our issues in the back four.
He lost a lot of balls in our zone against Scotland…but that was because Lovren can’t play with his feet under pressure.
Vida was also surprisingly shaky (he dropped off a lot defensively since WC2018, and actually assisted on Scotland’s goal, lol).
Gvardiol was thrown into the fire, and made a lot of rookie mistakes.
Vrsaljko was still obviously injured and Krama was playing RW (where he just ended up in the center of the field anyway) so poor Modric had to cover that right side against England by himself.
Things were just a mess defensively, and Modric essentially played CB, CDM, and ACM at the Euros. He was gassed as a result.
With guys like Gvardiol, Duje, Stanisic, Pongracic now coming up the ranks…it will be a lot easier on him over the next few years.
With the back line of sosa gvardiol CC and vrsaljko/JJ
And broz in front of them. There should not be a need of luka having to run balls out and save lots of energy
Kova can do the dirty work if needed
The problem with luka is he wants to do it all. But we have more then capable guys to do the gritty stuff
Correct me if I’m wrong??
All that back 4 are confident with the ball on their feet and ivusic looks way more capable then Livaković to make a pass from the limited action I’ve seen for him on the repka
Yeah I agree with a lot of what you said, I think having Modric around is always a good thing one of the beat to do it.
There is no surprise in seeing Lovren or Vida do poorly neither of them was strong in 2018. Everything was done in the middle of the park by Modric, Rakitic, and Brozo.
Vida may have been the reason the first goal even counted in 2018 for pushing Pogba, while Lovren conceded 3 penalties over the course.of different tournaments, including the game against Nigeria. These are not strong defenders in my opinion, Corluka was pretty good and Strinic was due to be exceptional if not for athletes heart.
But those two, I don’t think so. They just had great players to depend on, plus a more than decent goalie in Subasic, which everyone forgets.
I agree about tourney football
But he doesn’t exactly rest that much for Madrid
Do we call raketa for depth/experience??
I’d rather we roll with him then a largely unproven for us jakic
Modric, kova, Broz are guaranteed there Then majer if you include him in midfielders has to be
Sucic for young guy experience has to come but is way more ready then anyone at 19 for us
Call rakitić for depth? He retired from international duty.
Rakitic has always been wishy-washy.
It’s probably why his wife owns him, lol.
He kinda retired midway through our Euro qualifying campaign, without giving a clear answer…until the last possible minute before the final stretch of games.
Then he gave an interview a few months ago, saying that he would accept a callup if needed.
I don’t think we should call him back (we have too much depth in central midfield)…but I have no doubt that Raketa would accept a callup if asked.
Stupidest comment ever………
I am confused by this comment, and those that agree with this. It isn’t that he was the best we had, he is simply the best we have currently and continues to be so. I am dumbfounded that people are still doubting Modric. This insane. Have you been watching him this season? He scored in the Spanish Cup final to put them up…now he duplicates that with both PSG and Chelsea and still people are doubting him. That has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Sure everyone’s clock is ticking, but inspite of all of this he is still proving he is the best.
I don’t get it?! Are you gonna say next that Perisic should also drop out. Maybe we can then lose the two best players we have for this tournament and drop out to begin with. I mean afterall there is only a 3 year difference or so that sets them both apart, but by this logic everyone over 30 shouldn’t play either, or should sit and be rotated.
There is no other player yet, that can fill his shoes and do what he does. Kovacic is not as consistent for Croatia yet, and noone else, save maybe Perisic, has been as consistent for us. In the game against Spain in the Euro he was the only one who made difference in the middle of the pitch but when the rest of your team is shitting the bed then there is a problem, you can’t do everything your own, especially not on the international stage. I am very confused, Modric should 100 percent start. He has been playing consistently for club team, and all the Spanish reports have been praising him continuously if not for maybe a few games. But then again, everyone has an off game here and there.
Look I agree, he cannot play every single game, but that is why you need to go in strong on the first couple games and win so that you are not stuck with tired players in your group. This would be the same even for younger players let alone the older ones.
But to say he shouldn’t play for us, that to me is just dumb sorry.
Luka’s swan song shall be the World Cup when he’s 40..barring injury.He plays with so much energy&passion at 36 even if he dropped off 20% he will still be superior to most in 4 years.
He’ll be like Zlatan.
Both have that Zadar blood in them, and are able to play beyond 40.
Luka will probably stick with us and play off the bench (as a player/coach) and try to transition into coaching from there.
Then…botch a qualifying campaign for us, like many other inexperienced players-turned-coaches ha ha.
Rio Ferdinand loses his voice: That Modric pass is illegal!
https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2022/04/13/625685bc22601dd6138b45cb.html
Motivation he is motivated and has a win mentality.
Kovacic is a noce player but wastes his talent imo its like he gets pushed were as luka is strong character and makes his mark saying your not better than me. When he retires sad day for football.
The legend grows, its not even just now how his work rate, ball distribution, defensive skills
It’s this ability to deliver this absolute game changing high light reel random play at 36 that is just insane
Kova interview he said he thinks luka can do this for another 3-4 years
Luka does almost this kind of quality till 40. He will be in talks for best footballer ever never mind midfielder
Can luka and kova come together properly like how luka and raketa did? It did take them some time as well
IF we can have them both distributing and kova doing his runs I feel bad for what could happen to other teams
Never mind what can happen with our wings potentially now
Exactly. That pass should be archived and taught wannabe midfielders for generations.
The torch has not been handed off to Kovacic just yet, as Modric can attest to tonight. Bravo.
Nor should it ever.
Kovačić has had over ten years to stamp his place in the team, and only gets to start (by default) because of Rakitić retiring.
He’s finally playing better this past year, but I’m curious if he’ll truly ever be an impact player for us…or just simply be a good starter.
Hopefully Sučić has a meaner streak.
I have hope majer will be the one who grabs the bull by the horns next.
He looks like he has more of that fire out there
Just a bit meaner
Luka 2.0 let’s hope he will be ready when luka 1 retires in 2024;)
Yeah Majer is looking good.
Will probably be more impactful than Kovacic.
I really like Majer, but there is no Luka 2.0 lol! But Rennes has been well, and Mjaer has been doing really well with them. Hopefully he can continue on this form, unfortunately with line that Dalic played against Bulgaria noone stood out and a lot of commentators in Croatia agree that he did not give it enough forethought. Orsic should have probably played alongside Livaja which Dalic didn’t do…Orsic is more than a winger to me and so is Livaja but not much happened that game and o think it is poor pairings all around. The middle of the pitch was just a disaster lol.
Dalic was just emptying the bench. It was a pointless friendly.
You’re not going to be able to evaluate anything when you have a bunch of guys starting (who would never start in a tournament) and then try to evaluate them without any of your key midfielders playing.
Pointless to start Pasalic, if you have nobody creating for him.
Pointless to start Barisic as a winger (because you would never have him play LW under any circumstances)
Nice to see them give Moro a cap, but pointless to really evaluate him when he’s playing with a B lineup.
Just a messy game that taught us nothing.