Ante Budimir is starting 2025 like 2024 ended…on fire! The Croatian #9 scored two more goals for Osasuna Sunday night in a 2-1 victory over Luka Sučić and Real Sociedad. With the brace, Budimir now has tallied 12 goals in 22 La Liga matches. He is tied for third most goals in Spain only behind Lewandowski and Mbappe. Budimir rifled a shot near post from a tight angle for his first goal. Some suspect goalkeeping if you ask me. In the 2nd half, Budimir headed home a perfect cross into the box for #2. He was MOTM with a 8.8 FOTMOB rating. He has nearly drew a penalty call but VAR reversed it for a flop. The man is running on all cylinders when he gets proper service.
The Manchester City spiral continued Sunday in a massive 5-1 loss to Arsenal in North London. The loss keeps City in 4th place fighting for a Champions League berth for next season. All title hopes have been long gone as City now trail Liverpool by 15 points. Both Croatians had a rough day at the office. Mateo Kovačić received a 5.5/10 rating from the Daily Mail as he got “Stuck to his task in the middle but Partey completely outshone him. A key battle in the match which he lost.” Joško Gvardiol received a 6/10 rating from Daily Mail as he “Had a header denied by a top Raya save. Got into good attacking positions but, as a back four, leaked five goals which is not good enough.”
Franjo Ivanović scored a 96′ penalty for Union SG Sunday to beat St. Truiden 2-1. Ivanović was given MOTM honors with a 8.5 match rating. He now has 10 goals and three assists in 18 Belgian league matches this season
Matija Frigan came off the bench for Westerlo Sunday to score an 89th minute winner in a 2-1 victory over Kortrijk. He has now tallied seven goals and three assists in 23 Belgian League matches. Luka Vušković played the full 90 minutes, picking up a yellow card, and a 7.8 FOTMOB in the Westerlo win.
Luka Modrić came of the bench in the 80th minute to play the last 10 minutes of Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss to Espanyol. The game winner came in the 85′. With the loss and an Atletico win on the weekend, Real Madrid now only lead the La Liga title race by one point.
Rijeka’s Marco Pašalić is expected to complete a $5 million transfer to Orlando City (MLS)
Per Fabrizio
Given Mathias Tel has joined Tottenham on loan
Bayern has recalled Gabriel Vidovic from Mainz loan to replace him in Bayer 1st team
So you can thank Tottenham for reviving his development 😊
Rijeka have sold during this window
4m Galesic
5m Pasalic
? Smolcic (now to Como)
DZ made c.40m from CL this year
Can someone explain why Rijeka doesn’t want to keep its best players to win the league and try to get in the CL next year ? Cash crunch ?
Good question. It must be a cash crunch. The only way Rijeka or Hajduk can begin to close the financial gap with Dinamo would be to qualify for the CL, which would be a huge task considering their club coefficients.
It’s guaranteed money versus potential money.
Rijeka can make 10-15 million off these three guys right now…
Or they can they to win the HNL (not a guarantee) AND try and qualify for Champions League (even less of a guarantee).
The only prize money that beats 12+ million Euro is Champions league qualification (which will get you about 20 million), but Rijeka has probably only a 30% chance of winning HNL and likely less than 50% chance of getting to Champions League after that.
Anything can happen to your players (injuries, loss of form) and these offers from foreign clubs are limited time offers.
Rijeka is very good at getting maximum dollars out of the sale of their players.
None of these guys they’ve recently sold are serious prospects, and snagging 5 million for each of them is good business.
They need to continue to reinvest into their club development, and hopefully they will be able to produce the talent that Dinamo has produced that can win them titles AND get them 15+ million euro offers for each player.
Looks like Kramaric is out for a month with an ankle injury. He did not play against Bayer Leverkusen this weekend…..
Krama and Matanovic being out for March would be a blessing for us.
I like Krama, but we really need to call up and give some minutes to Franjo Ivanovic…and we really need to start Budimir (with an actual winger, and not Kramaric starting as a makeshift winger).
With Petkovic still being injured, there’s no excuse to not have Budimir start and Ivanovic called up.
My only worry right now is Dalic trying to get Livaja back into the team and actually starting him over Budimir or Ivanovic.
Maminjo, have you been keeping up with HNL? I haven’t had a chance to. Is there any credibility to the perspective of Livaja coming back to the National Squad or would you say there has been no improvement to his game?
I see articles articles about Dalić and the HNS engaging Livaja to bring him back into the team.
He’s improved, sure, but he’s still probably only a 5-6 million euro player.
You can’t compare him to a top-3 scorer in La Liga (Budimir).
He probably couldn’t do what even Ivanović is doing in Belgium right now.
It’s a shame because you know that Dalić isn’t trying to get him back into the team to simply keep him on the bench.
He’s probably looking to start him.
The only reason HNS and Dalic might agree to have Livaja back is to keep peace. Next month we play France in Split and with Livaja in the squad we might avoid any crowd trouble from Torcida.
At the start of the season last year Livaja looked good and had shed some kilos and had improved his physical fitness. Having watched recent Hajduk matches it appears to me that the kilos are back and once again laziness and lack of running has come back.
If Livaja is recalled ? Dalic will not start him, Livaja will be on the bench because put simply he is not good enough, never was and never will be. You have to have someone from Hajduk on the list and Dalic knows that, so to appease Hajduk and Torcida it is Livaja.
If we have to fill a Hajduk quota, I’d rather it be Durdov. At least he has a future if he plays his cards right. And he plays a position of need for us.
Dalic would also be doing Hajduk a big favor too, as it would raise Durdov’s transfer value significantly.
Durdov??? He hasnt done anything since the first month or so of the season. No reason to call him up to the senior team. He is not good enough unless the federation is back in the business of pushing players to inflate their price so they can be sold.
Davor, If you had to pick one player from Hajduk to be called up for the National Team, who would it be?
Petar Sucic to Inter
Here we go !
Where are all the geniuses that claimed Baturina > Petar
Not even one rumour Baturina
There are plenty of rumors of him going to big clubs.
Arsenal’s name keeps coming up, and their fans have been calling for their team to buy him…but I think Baturina is smart enough to know that his game would translate far better in Serie A or Bundesliga (than in EPL) and his development needs to take priority over his salary.
Baturina played great against Milan. He upped his price after that game, and I am sure plenty of scouts tuned in for that one.
I would like to see him at Leipzig or something like that, but we’ll see where he goes.
On a side note, I really liked how well Luka Stojkovic played.
I thought his horrible knee injury last year would cripple his career, but he looked great against Milan. He’s still only 21, so he’s still a great prospect for us.
Baturina is going to go for more than 20 million euros. Dinamo already rejected an offer from Fiorentina for 18 million euros
Could be because Fiorentina offered a low annual salary, or not a convincing development path.
Same thing happened when Leeds offered 22 million for Gvardiol, or when Como offered decent money for Petar Sučić at the beginning of the season.
None of these teams are good enough for our players.
Which is why they usually have to go look at the B grade Serbian prospects next door.
Remember when Dalic said before HNL started this yr that Dinamo only team to choose from bc they SOOOO much better than everyone else ? lol
Logically / mathematically
DZ = CL
Osijek > DZ
Therefore
Osijek = CL
Therefore
Osijek players good enough for NT
Math is easy
You have to take what Dalic says with a grain of salt.
He doesn’t respond well to criticism, so he sometimes says stupid things when pressed by the media.
Sucic to Inter is done. 14 million plus 2 million bonus add on. Future resell clause as well
Not sure about the move to Inter ? Italy has been a graveyard for many of our talented youngsters. Let’s hope that he succeeds.
He’ll do fine.
He’s essentially a Brozovic clone, and Inter will love him for it.
Does anyone know what the future re-sell clause is?
If it’s an additional 20-25% on any future transfer, then the deal makes sense. Otherwise, they sold him for too little.
Ha ha yeah, I suspect Inter will come to love him because he’s a Brozo clone minus the negative body language.
Anyway, congrats to Petar and Dinamo. Hope to see him back on the pitch soon!
Ironic
Marin Union Berlin transfer today to join JJ (no previous rumours)
While – all the rumoured moves for our young strikers haven’t materialized
Ivanovic Brighton
Frigan Sunderland
Musa Nottingham Forest & Leicester (lol sure)
I like this move for Marin Ljubičić. Good for him.
Hopefully he starts and can become a solid Bundesliga striker, along with Matanović at Frankfurt and Beljo (if he ever goes back).
Always good to have as many options as possible. Only need one to pan out (and Ivanović is looking like the front runner from our youth prospects).
Budimir and Ivanović with goals today
Ivanovic penalty to win the game in 96’ minute – keeper dove and he put it down the middle
Just to add on to what Anonymous wrote… Franjo Ivanovic played a pivotal role in USG’s 2-1 win over St Truiden. Both USG goals came from spot kicks which were earned by Franjo. The first one was for handball (59th min VAR decision) by a defender who was tussling with Franjo and converted by his teammate, Promise David. The second was for a straight-up foul on Franjo in the box during 2nd half stoppage time. In the 94th min, he missed a sitter when the scoreline was 1-1, but shortly afterwards managed to win a second penalty and proceeded to convert from 12 yards to give USG all 3 points when a draw was looking more likely.
igor matanovic with a foot injury expected to return early march
Grade 2 Dead Foot sitting on bench too long ?
At least Dalic has his excuse not to call him up for March
Denmark 22 v Croatia 14 after six minutes in the second half.
They are just too good, cannot watch changing channels.
Good effort by the boys to get silver.
HT in Handball
Denmark 16 v Croatia 12
Not looking good.
The difference is in goalkeepers. The Danish goalkeeper has made 8 saves while Kuzmanovic only 3.
Labrovic: go find a new club
Erlic: go find a new club
Basic: go find a new club
Ivanusec: go find a new club
Marco Pasalic: just stay at existing club
Musa: just go to nottingham forest to compete with chris wood
One that might have snuck a little under the radar….Ivan Juric’s Southampton got their first away win of the season today in the PL.
He has only recently taken over as manager in difficult circumstances, his team is firmly stuck in last place….good to see Juric get a win….
Does Carnac gets a look in too as I hold the 1st division of engleska in high regard
Varazdin 1 v Rijeka 0
First loss for Rijeka in HNL after 20 matches, plus 2 red cards in the second half.
On Sunday Hajduk is away to Lokomotiva and Dinamo away to Osijek.
Hajduk always struggles against Lokomotiva so an away win would be a huge surprise and a bonus.
Both Hajduk and Dinamo lost – Lokomotiva 3 v Hajduk 2 & Osijek 2 v Dinamo 1
Biuk and Prpic main culprits for Hajduk defeat. Hajduk was leading 1 – 0 when mistakes from Biuk and Prpic saw Lokomotiva score two goals in a minute. Both subbed at half time by Gattuso. Biuk is on loan at Hajduk but the guy is useless, and I would bench him or even better send him back to Spain.
Watched also Osijek v Dinamo and it has to be said that Dinamo were unlucky to lose, hitting the woodwork three times and also a very close VAR decision went against them when the ball appeared to cross the goal line ? however VAR ruled that it did not cross the line fully ? from the evidence on display the decision could have gone either way.
Well I guess Marco can say bye bye to the national team now. Such a weird move… Like Musa
Maybe it’s the coaches? MLS is a joke more for the fact that they play from February to December and also because of their ever-changing playoff format. Is Marco’s Rijeka better than the top MLS team? Not convinced.
Big win for Norwich 1-0 Watford
Now 8th w 42 pts – 2 pts from 6th
Crnac on 69’ min
Next 4 games against bottom half teams Preston Derby Pandur Stoke – hopefully they can rack up the pts – and move up
Aside from Pasalic to Orlando
Any other transfers this window ?
Selected Europe 1st leg knock-out matches (i.e. teams finishing 9th thru 24th)
CL Feb 11th & 12th
Modric vs. Kovacic & Gvardiol [4th year in a row they face each other]
Perisic [assuming he’s added to squad now] vs. Juventus
Niko Kovac vs. Sporting
Pasalic vs. Brugge [TBD if Durdov]
Ivanusec vs. AC Milan
Europa Feb 13th
Luka Sucic vs. Midtjylland
Livakovic vs. Anderlecht
Ivanovic vs. Sutalo & Sosa
Kotarski & Lovren vs. FCSB
Additionally, here are the highlights of Ivanovic vs. Rangers from Thursday (he scored but goal was called back after VAR review) – can’t believe there are no rumours of anybody trying to buy him during Jan transfer window…
***.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ2OpLALTjY