What is going on with Pep and Manchester City this season? The reigning English champions once again lost Sunday night (2-1) in dramatic fashion to city rivals Manchester United. Joško Gvardiol got the start at center defense and showed why he has been a better attacker for City than defender lately. Gvardiol opened the scoring for City in the 1st half with a wonderful header to make it 1-0. However, he wasn’t able to save the ball of the goal line in the 90th minute as United would celebrate the win on the Etihad pitch. It appeared as though Gvardiol got handcuffed with his own feet, but he should have done better…right?
Gvardiol has been an absolute beast offensively but what is his deal on the defensive side? He is a shell of himself from 2022 World Cup Gvardiol. NBC Sports gave Gvardiol a 7/10 grade for his efforts: “The right man, in the right place, at the right time to open the scoring the 36th minute, but whiffed on a potential goal-line clearance of the winning goal.” With the loss, City now trail leaders Liverpool by nine points and have only won one match in their last 11 games (all competitions).
The good news: Mateo Kovačić returned from injury, coming off the bench in the 68th minute. NBC Sports gave Kova a 6.5/10 rating as he “Brought some energy off the bench and created a scoring chance almost immediately.”
Nikola Vlašić picked up an assist coming off the bench for Torino at halftime in a 1-0 victory over Empoli Friday night. He dished off the ball at half field to Che Adams who caught the goalie off his line for a 40-yard goal. Croatian teammate Borna Sosa played the full 90 minutes for Torino in the clean shit win at the left wing/back position.
Luka Modrić got the start and played 71 minutes in a wild 3-3 draw between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano. Modrić had a tough day at the office with ManagingMadrid.com giving him a 5/10 grade. “ Some excellent passes out of pressure but never fully controlled the game and looked a step slow.”
Lmao maybe we should just move him forward and make a winger of Gvardiol.
Hat trick for Ivanovic!!
Real Sociedad v Las Palmas 0-0 today.
Luka Sucic player of the match on both Fotmob and Sofascore.
It seemed he had been struggling just a bit in recent weeks, and perhaps there had been a nagging injury there, but looks like he is back on track….
Seemed the coach had been a little unhappy with his play, and Sucic has answered his call to play better….
Ooh it’s a pity his team didn’t win… otherwise his MOTM performance would have gained a greater level of importance. My favorite stats from his performance in this game:
Successful dribbles – 6/6 (100%)
Ground duels won – 7/8 (88%)
Aerial duels won – 2/3 (67%)
I gotta say I still marvel at what a great decision Sucic had made by joining Real Sociedad. This is the type of team that his cousin Petar and Baturina should look to join when they leave Dinamo. Not a big club but still highly competitive and usually finishing in a European spot or at least in the top half of the table.
Baturina’s current value on transfermarkt is €20m and his contract runs until 2028. As Maminjo have pointed out before, with the exception of England, it seems like only the top clubs in Italy, Spain, Germany and France can afford to sign him right now… hmm this would seriously limit his choices. Is he ready to play in England or for a top club elsewhere? Should he move abroad at a later age, say after WC2026, when perhaps he has grown stronger and become a more well-rounded player?
Two goals in last game for Ivanovic.
He scored all three goals today for USG against Westerlo and was MOM.
Vuskovic was one of highest rated players on Westerlo in the loss.
@ Bartolec, it good to hear Stanisic is on the road back. We have had, it seems, more than our share of injuries….,
@A Tin U
Yeah, waaay too many injuries this year, starting with Vlasic during late spring, followed by several more guys getting injured from summer though fall with Petar Sucic being the most recent one… I’m really hoping the situation will be much better next year when WC qualifying gets under way.
Re Ivanovic, wow… when was the last time a Croatian forward scored this many goals in a week. And none of them was a penalty. If Franjo continues to stay in form, maybe he will turn into a serial job-hopper: one season at Rijeka, this season at USG, and next season at another club?😁
***
Highlights of USG vs Westerlo (do check out Ivanovic’s third goal at 4:08)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG-rGbFPDSg
An update on Stani… guess we’ll see him on the Bayern bench after the Christmas break (Bundesliga will resume on Jan 10).
https://fcbayern.com/en/news/2024/12/josip-stanisic-completes-parts-of-team-training
Josip Stanišić completes parts of team training
Josip Stanišić took the next step towards his comeback as the defender took part in team training on Monday (Dec 9) for the first time since injuring his right knee. Stanišić has been out of action since tearing a collateral ligament in training back in August before the start of the Bundesliga season.
At the 1982 WC we saw the “Disgrace of Gijon” (West Germany 1 Austria 0)
In 2024 Anonymous predicts either the “Silliness of Split and Saint-Denis” and/or “Rotten Rotterdam and the Barfing Bernabeu”
Whereby teams deliberately lose the NL QF – in order to get the easier WC group/pairing (the incentive for Dutch/Spain to lose is even more pronounced)
How do you deliberately lose a game ?
Kick the ball in your own net – as precedent – see 2002 AS Adema 149 SO l’Emyrne 0 in Madagascar – where all 149 goals were scored as Own Goals by AS Adema
For added funny points – Croatia/France should just tie – and go to penalties – whereby each team deliberately misses each and every penalty kick – how does a match end when no team ever scores a penalty ? It doesn’t – it goes on in perpetuity – that would be a real funny
Well done UEFA / FIFA trying to be “cute” w/ your approach linking NL QF vs. WC draw – there is a high likelihood – this comes back to bite you in the butt
Ironically – given NL QF ties occur in March – and WC first fixtures occur in June – all they had to do (if they wanted to) is just wait until the NL QF were complete)
france doesnt care they’ll most likely get full points in either group. For us; czechs will get 18 points against the other teams, so one bad game against them and we’re out cuz you know they will go all out and beat gibraltar 6-0 and have more gd. Plus montenegro which will be drama. In the other group, iceland are not at the same level as 6 years ago, Azerbaijan had a good run of games 2 years ago but are now back to being crappy. Ukraine is always inconsistent, plus they dont have a home stadium. I doubt ukraine will get the full 12 points from the other two teams.
Also, few months ago Ukraine and czech were in the same UNL group, 1 draw and 1 win for Czechs.
Second-place teams enter a playoff. This World Cup is 48 teams. Everyone is invited!!! Shit show.
After losing 3 – 1 to Lokomotiva, I think that Bjelica is close to getting the chop.
Dinamo next week play Varazdin in the final match before the winter break and anything but a win in all probability will mean that Bjelica will get the sack.
you have the worst takes
We must go out and beat France.
After a dismal 2024 calendar year for us, we must get our mojo back.
We were in pot 1 for a reason. We shouldn’t fear anyone in those two groups.
So this lose and get a better or easier group isn’t going to fly and it always ends up biting teams in the butt who do it.
Let’s crush France ! We fear no one
We’re going to go down 2-0 in the first half, then we’ll have a spirited second half and score a goal…and the game will end 2-1 (with there never actually being a risk to France losing the game).
Everyone (who is of a small mind) with consider this a successful showing at the UNL, and none of our issues will be addressed until we’re exposed either in qualifications or the actual 2026 World Cup.
We are in transition with quite a few young players yet to establish themselves on the international stage so in my opinion France is a strong favorite to win the match. I’m also worried about the fact that we are all of sudden short of CB’s, with Erlic and Pongracic not playing at all for their clubs and Stanisic yet to come back from his knee injury.
Looking at the schedule below for both groups D and L there is no doubt that we are better of being in Group D.
Group D
5. September: Ukrajina – Hrvatska (20:45)
9. September: Hrvatska – Island (20:45)
10. October: Hrvatska – Azerbajdžan (20:45)
13. October: Island – Hrvatska (20:45)
13. November: Hrvatska – Ukrajina (20:45)
16. November: Azerbajdžan – Hrvatska (18:00)
Group L
6. June: Gibraltar – Hrvatska (20:45)
9. June: Hrvatska – Češka (20:45)
5. September: Farski Otoci – Hrvatska (20:45)
8. September: Hrvatska – Crna Gora (20:45)
9. October: Češka – Hrvatska (20:45)
12. October: Hrvatska – Gibraltar (20:45)
14. November: Hrvatska – Farski Otoci (20:45)
17. November: Crna Gora – Hrvatska (20:45)
Sorry mistake better of being in group L
We are transition, yet we start and play Modrić and Kramarić both a full 90 minutes per game at the expense of Luka Sučić and Baturina.
We still look for every opportunity to give Perišić minutes when it’s so blatantly obvious that he shouldn’t even be on the team anymore.
Then, in an odd twist, we do the complete opposite with Ante Budimir… where we keep him on the bench behind Matanović, Petković or Kramarić (take your pick).
The only youth player that Dalić has handled correctly is Petar Sučić, but that’s ONLY because Marcelo Brozović suddenly retired and forced Dalić’s hand (otherwise, we’d be watching Broz get 90 minutes per game).
Transition doesn’t have to mean 11-player transition. Injury aside, I would never not start Modric.
Why is the list so short on who is playing this weekend? Before we had many more players to keep an eye on. It would be interesting to make it longer and include some younger players.
I wonder if the match between France and Croatia will be played by how much each team wants to lose instead of win. If the players aren’t working too hard for the win then we will know why.
Ante is tired of Anonymous’s wank posts. Can’t blame him.
I’m surprised nothing on qualifying draw for wc
Seems like Croatia is highly incentivized to lose to France in nations league quarter finals
If they win they play Ukraine, Iceland , azerbaijan
And if they lose they play czech, montenegro, faroe island and Gibraltar
I’ve noted before baturinas lack of hustle for a young guy. Floating back on defense as Albania scored to make to tie it up at the euros
Same issues riddled Mateo Kovacic at the same age as well.
12 games no Petar Sucic
12 games no Dinamo win (losing 3-1 at HT to Loko)
Baturina Packaged Deal Petar Sucic
Look at the 2nd Loko goal – once it’s clear the corner is going into the box – Baturina is floating at top of the box – zero effort to run back into the box – this is unacceptable – I know he positions himself there so he can try to get a break-away run as that’s the only way he can impact the game
On Pjaca corner – Baturina can’t even place the ball w/in the white quadrant – in fairness the Loko groundskeepers can’t even draw a proper quadrant – but the ball is placed outside of the white quadrant (based on the skinniest assessment of where the white line should go) – as such, that corner should not count and be retaken with the ball in the proper position
So once again Dinamo need/benefit from favourably referring
i.e. it should be 3-0 Loko at the HT