Ante Budimir converted a penalty Sunday night for his 15th La Liga goal of the season in 27 matches played. Of the 15 goals this campaign, seven have come from the penalty spot. Moving forward, should Budimir be Croatia’s #1 spot kick taker? In my opinion, Modrić has always been shaky from 11 meters out. Budimir should have done better with a 2nd half chance late in the game as Getafe came back to win 2-1. However, he should without a doubt be Croatia’s #9 starting striker this week vs. France in Nations League.
Josip Stanišić played the full 90 minutes for Bayern Munich and assisted in a 1-1 draw vs. Union Berlin Saturday; receiving a 8.0 FOTMOB rating. BayernStrikes.com said “Another fine performer in defense was Josip Stanisic. The 24-year-old Croatian international had 82 touches in the game and wasn’t too far behind Upamecano in terms of his ball distribution as he found a teammate with 93% of his passes (55/59).”
Great to have him back this week as Croatia had woes at the RB position in 2024. Expect him to start vs. France in a 4-4-2 from Dalić. Josip Juranović played the full 90 for Union Berlin as well. It will be great to have him back in the squad as well.
Ivan Perišić is in fine form heading into the international break versus France this week in the Nations League quarterfinals. He scored a nice goal vs. Arsenal at midweek in Champions League and then scored+assisted vs. Waalwjik Saturday in a 3-0 PSV win. If we can get some old-school Perišić this week vs. France and proper service to Budimir, Croatia will be able to be a threat in the box.
Joško Gvardiol played the full 90 minutes for Man City on Saturday in 2-2 draw vs. Brighton. He received a 6/10 grade from Goal.com as he was ‘Linked well with the attack although was a little shaky defensively.’ With the draw, City remain one point behind Chelsea for England’s last Champions League berth. Kovačić remained on the bench as an unused sub. His time at City may certainly be dwindling as there are rumors he will be sold in the summer.
Inter’s Marcus Thurham out
The Silliness of Split and Saint-Denis begins…
whats up with lovro zvonorak? doesnt seemed to have played in a while
Zvonarek has been given plenty of chances but has not performed. He’s on loan so coach has lost faith in him if I had to guess.
P.S. if you think Kanga’s celebration was just about Jelicic
Think again
He was actually ripping off Huijsen’s Chill Guy-Meme celebration (see how Kanga thumbs are sticking out – just like Huijsen’s)
Surprising SN or the like haven’t picked this up
***.threads.net/@soccerforever/post/DD4m2mEAT1W/dean-huijsen-scores-again-this-time-at-old-trafford-and-then-chill-guy-celebrati
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chill_guy
***.nk-slaven-belupo.hr/novosti/adriano-jagusic-i-filip-kruselj-o-pozivu-u-mladu-reprezentaciju-planovima-i-ambicijama-u-prvenstvu-i-kupu
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Rekli ste da ste ostali iznenađeni pa nas zanima kako ste uopće obaviješteni da ste na popisu? Je li bilo nekih kontakata ili naznaka da ćete se naći na piku izbornika Olića?
Jagušić: Nitko nas nije obavijestio ranije, samo je došao papir na stol i ostali smo iznenađeni.
Krušelj: Meni je Jaga poslao poruku da sam na popisu, a onda smo vidjeli i preko Instagrama popis reprezentativaca i nas na njemu.
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NOSE-PICKERS !!!
Olic doesn’t even call players before putting them on the U21 squad
Bhahahahahahahahaha
Him and the other NOSE-PICKERS are too lazy !!!
The players have to find out via Instagram
UNREAL !!!
Is this the approach to the diaspora that have options (Germany, Austria, etc)
This is absolutely crazy
This also tells us there is ZERO DUE DILIGENCE from Olic/other NOSE-PICKERS speaking to the players before the squad is announced to check character, motivations, etc
Olic is not in charge of the diaspora players. That job goes to Zoran Vulic Petar Krpan and Stipe Pletikosa.
Our 3 most on form players are 34 old yr budimir, 34 kramaric and 36 perisic..with 40 yr old modric and 31 yr benched player kovacic supporting them.
Livakovic – benched
Erlic – benched
Caleta car – benched
Sosa – benched
Orsic – recently back to bench
Sucic – injured and recovering.
Majer – injured
We need ivanovic beljo musa baturina sucic sucic vuskovic gvardiol to be on form
You don’t consider Modric to be in form?
Modrić, Stanišić, Jakić, Pongračić, Šutalo, Vlašić, Fruk, Ivanović, Juranović, Gvardiol, Kotarski are all in pretty good form…
I am referring to attackers..the form of front 3..ivanovic has not scored for past 2 months except the recent match..we have to rely on the ageing attackers at age 34,34,36 to start the match..
Laku noc Rijekooooooo
Rijeka was just too good for Hajduk and referees were not blame for the loss.
Thoughts on Gattuso vs Jelicic?
As a regular watcher of HNL matches and after match analysis on Maxsport I agree with Gattuso that Jelinic has a big mouth and is always provocative with his comments and shows no respect towards the players and coaches. Jelicic often makes derogatory, personal and insulting comments about the coaches and players, and someone needs to shut him up.
Ironically, Gattuso helping Jelinic career by giving him this reaction/attention
Any attention is good attention – just imagine how many clicks this received in Croatia, Italy, etc – SN running stories what Miletic was thinking, etc
sportske.jutarnji.hr/sn/nogomet/hnl/klubovi/rijeka/valentina-miletic-u-potpunom-soku-nakon-svade-o-kojoj-bruji-hrvatska-moj-izraz-lica-dok-razmisljam-15563732
Dion Beljo has been playing quite well this year. Albeit in Austrian bundesliga
Hajduk has zero style of play. Find Livaja and hope for the best. Granted they should have had 2 penalties off of handballs and I’m not even a Hajduk fan. These refs are atrocious. Hats off to Rijeka for actually wanting it more. Hajduk came ok with a tie.
Hajduk looked like crap.
Michele Šego is struggling badly since he joined. The guy is pretty much invisible, after being arguably the best player in the HNL when he was playing for Varteks.
Gattuso gets paid too much and now Hajduk will sell Durdov to cover his remaining salary.
They need to develop more talent before breaking the bank on these coaches and Executives (like that Frenchman Vitali).
Good result for Dinamo too…it’s a 3 horse race again. I think this will be decided in matchday 32 (Dinamo vs Rijeka) and 33 (Hajduk vs Dinamo).
The big issue with Hajduk is that they’re not really outplaying a lot of these teams, despite being the supposed league leader.
Outside of their blowout win against Osijek last month, it’s just been a lot of draws, and very narrow wins against inferior opponents.
They have two big losses against Rijeka in the past two weeks (the Cup game and today’s HNL match) so morale is probably low, and Gattuso is probably stressed out.
Hajduk has 6 games to play before they meet Dinamo in May (in what could be a league deciding game).
But it’s quite possible that Hajduk messes up a few of these games, and end up behind Dinamo (and further behind Rijeka).
Sure, Dinamo could also lose points until then, but it feels like Dinamo and Rijeka have the momentum right now.
Also Sevelj 90’ Dundee United
Re: Kanga
Anyone see who Ivory Coast called up ahead of him for March WC ? Guys playing in 2nd and 3rd tiers in France and Spain – is Dinamo /HNL really considered worse than playing in 3rd tier France ???
Embarrassing
Sad
Dinamo rarely makes bad purchases, but this looks like a bad one.
He’s at least scored a couple of goals for Dinamo, so that’s good. Hopefully they can recoup some of that cash in a future sale and learn their lesson.
They turned their back on their own (Kulenovic) to give money to some B rated foreign player who won’t really do anything for Dinamo or our National Team.
But Dinamo will be fine, since they’re always focused on youth development.
They’ve got Stojkovic (who looks great this season) and a few others on loan (like Vrbancic) and those young new additions (like Jagusic, Belcar, etc.).
yeah, love that stojkovic. hes a beauty
Guess the issue w/ Kanga – who is going to pick up his 700k p.y. wages (until end of 2027 ?) ? He’ll just sit it out in Zagreb, collect the pay-check and spend his days drinking coffee
Has Jagusic agreed to join Dinamo ?
Posted some thoughts on just that a few threads back
https://croatiansports.com/the-weekend-water-cooler-115/
Bologna 5-0
Lyon 4-2
Common ingredient ?
Moro, Erlic and DCC sat on bench
Yet
Good enough for Croatia NT
Meanwhile Medic 90’ (he’s probably penalized as uncle Dario Simic is pushing in the press)
Sad
Medić only recently started getting major minutes for Bochum, recently as in after the team selection was made. Before that, he was playing small minutes off the bench occasionally. He’s a player to watch for the next round of selection. Vusković is the player who should have been called, instead of Moro. Erlić is on the standby list, not the roster
there is no such thing as a sand by list. That list is made to not hurt feelings.
💯
It’s the equivalent of giving out participation trophies in recognition of not being good enough to get on the team
HNS / Dalic are the only country doing it – and it has to stop
Pretty quiet….
Vlasic scores the winner against Empoli. 1-0.
btw: for those that still don’t understand that the replacement for Luka Sucic doesn’t not need to come from the “stand-by list” – just look at U21
Loko’s Moreno Zivkovic got called up as replacement (unclear who dropped out) for the U21 (2 days after the team was announced) – but he was NOT on the “stand-by list”
So once again – the whole “stand-by list” is just dumb – serves no purpose
No other country announces one
HNS – can we stop publishing one
Moreno Živković got called up ahead of Luka Vušković?
Oh never mind
Recall when Anonymous told that the Championship is the most heavily scouted league in the world ?
Well several teams from Bungesliga and PL want to buy Crnac’s team-mate US international Josh Sargant this summer – price set at 15-20m
x.com/Plettigoal/status/1900640038951559518
Crazy that Crnac (and his 8 goals / 5 assists) hasn’t been called up alongside Ivanovic (instead of Moro or whoever)
And also that Pandur keeps getting ignored
BUT
Maybe Dalic can make it right w/ the call-up to replace Luka Sucic (hasn’t been announced yet for 3 days since Luka withdrew – of course – cuz all the nose-pickers are on vacation / enjoying their down-time – and none of them available to make a decision / announcement – sad)
Spelling is Villarreal, again … lol.