Ivan Perišić strikes again! The 36 year-old winger scored from an incredibly tight angle with his head Saturday in PSV Eindhoven’s 3-1 victory over Groningen. Perišićm now has 3G/7A in 22 Dutch League hames for PSV this season. Not to mention, Perišić scored three Champions League goals in four matches this season. The guy is heating up for one last run with the Croatian national team heading into the 2026 World Cup. PSV sit 2nd place in the Eredivisie; 9 points behind Ajax.
Franjo Ivanović scored his 14th goal of the Belgian season Saturday in a 3-0 USG win over Gent in the playoff round. He cooly placed the ball just inside the near post. USG now sit two points behind a Champions League qualifying berth next season with eight matches remaining in the campaign. Ivanović with surely scored 2-3 more goals in April/May. USG will surely sell their 21 year-old Croatia striker for a nice return this summer. USG paid Rijeka €4 million for Ivanović in 2024. He is currently valued at €8 million on TransferMarket.com.
Both Mateo Kovačić and Joško Gvardiol played the full 90 minutes Sunday in a 0-0 Manchester Derby. Goal.com gave Kova a 5/10 grade as he was “Kept possession well enough but was one of those guilty of playing the match at too slow a pace. Gvardiol received a 6/10 as he “Looks accomplished in a central role and played a good part in a comfortable team display, from a defensive point of view.”
Luka Modrić and Real Madrid were dealt a huge blow Saturday in their La Liga title chase as they were defeated 2-1 by Valencia at the Bernabeu. Modrić got the start and played 77 minutes in the match. He was not on the pitch for Valencia’s game winner in injury time. He was given a 6/10 grade from ManagingMadrid .com as he provided a “Perfect slide tackle on Sadiq early on and looked to dictate the pace of game but faded as match wore on.”
I see soticek is born in Slovenia. We need to cap him as he has potential obviously
Are the nose pickers making sure of this??
I’m gonna call them nose pickers now so anon doesn’t feel so alone
We don’t need to worry about Soticek.
He’s fully Croat who was only born in Slovenia. He’s been living in Croatia since he was a little kid somewhere near Karlovac. He’s been part of our youth team setup for years. Would be very unlikely that he suddenly play for Slovenia (and it doesn’t look like he has Slovenian citizenship).
Luka Topalovic, however, is one that needs to be capped. He’s full Croat…but he’s entirely a Slovenian youth prospect that is born and raised there. He’ll be tougher to grab since I’m sure the Slovenian FA is all over him.
I’m with the nose picker. How is pandur so far down the list
He needs to see some action
Livakovic shows up most of the time
But let’s not get into a situation where we get a subasic final injury
Or pletikosa being forced out in Brazil
We didn’t play well but with better keeping who knows
Proper strike from ivanovic
Surely he will go to another league next year? Where? Germany?
Marin Soticek came off the bench and scored his 5th goal of the season. He’s averaging a goal every 163 minutes played which is good. Hopefully next season if Basel sells there best winger he will get a lot more starts.
He was always a good prospect. I was worried that going to Basel would have stunted his development.
He should have stayed another year in the HNL (since he’s still only 20) but if it works out for him at Basel, then that’s great news for us.
We suddenly have some good young RW prospects in Soticek, Brajkovic, and Durdov. We also still have Marco Pasalic as a potential stop-gap option as well. Luka Stojkovic can also hold his own there (despite being a central midfielder by trade).
Would be nice if we begin to call some of these guys up and not rely entirely on Perisic there.
x.com/StatsRocketX/status/1908959969376092197
Probability of winning HNL
52% Hajduk
43% Rijeka
6% Dinamo
lol
Now Fabrizio tweeting about Juric !
x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1909186418116542567
Got to give Juric credit – he’s positioning it that HE triggered the release clause in his contract so HE could walk away (implication being he is too good for a Championship level club – after-all he could have waived the clause if he wanted to stay) – 10/10 PR from him / his team
Just in:
Juric has left Southampton (relegation release clause in his contract)
x.com/SkySportsNews/status/1909184328254312868
But not a bad pay-day – for 3 months work
Fun fact: Juric will leave Southampton with the lowest points per game record (0.29) of any manager in PL history to oversee 10+ games @WhoScored
Croats just need to stay away from Southampton altogether
I agree, after what happened to Oršić
Not sure it’s a Southampton thing, but rather Croat specific thing at Southampton
Lovren launched his career at Southampton which led to Liverpool buying him for a record amount spent on a defender (which stood till they bought VVD) which led to Lovren proclaiming he’s the best CB in the world at 2018 WC 🤪
Man if only he just stayed at Dinamo. It’s not like he wasn’t getting good money there and living a good life
Oh well
Hopefully he made some big bucks in his time there
Duje Caleta-Car too.
Seems like Lovren absorbed all of the Croatian blessings over there, and left nothing for the rest of us.
Duje Caleta-Car too.
Seems like Lovren absorbed all of the Croatian blessings over there, and left nothing for the rest of us.
Only fair to point out that the referenced Managing Madrid player ratings had only one player above 6, Mbappe.
Musa with the equalizing goal yesterday in a 1-1 final at Atlanta. Ugly goal, ugly field.
Josko starting at CB again today. Maybe Pep recognized it’s better to utilize him there to stabilize the backline. Could this work for the Vatreni too?
Could this work for the Vatreni too? It has bloody worked for us before so ofc it will now hahahahaha.
How much water does Juric drink per match ?
Every SINGLE time the camera pans on him (which has been 10+) he’s drinking water or picking up the water and drinking water
Maybe it’s not water, maybe it’s rakija in disguise. He needs something to lower the stress from watching Southampton.
Feel terrible for Juric
Defence is all over the place (some are stepping up / some are dropping off) – no cohesion for trapping off-side – and in general are all over the place, leaving gaps everywhere
He must have worked on the training ground w/ the team – but they not absorbing his instructions
Could be Spurs 3-0 at the half already (one goal offside by “millimetres”)
Let’s not pretend he didn’t know how utter shit Southampton is before he took the gig.
Extremely bad decision by Juric.
The guy was in Italy his entire playing and coaching career, building a very good reputation in Serie A. He had a chance to be a frontrunning successor to Dalic for the Croatian National Team (if Dalic isn’t extended beyond 2026)…but then he jumps to a relegation-caliber EPL team that can only damage his reputation?
All for a mediocre 18-month contract?
Hajduk win 1 – 0 away to Slaven Belupo from a spot kick by Livaja on stroke of HT and Dinamo get thumped 3 – 0 by Istra.
With 8 matches left Hajduk lead Dinamo by 8 points, effectively 9 points because of better head to head.
Is it time to say that it is a two-horse race between Hajduk and Rijeka ?
I will go out on a limb and say that Dinamo won’t win the title from here.
Rijeka play Lokomotiva on Sunday.
Is dinamo still “slowly closing the gap on Hajduk and Rijeka”? Last week you said dinamo will win it in the end, now this week you say dinamo wont win the title. Next week if hajduk lose and dinamo wins, will you reverse what you said yet again? Whats the point of even including predictions in your comments if every week you change up smh.
That was last week, things have changed now.
Dinamo losing 0-3 to Istra would not have been predicted by anyone.
This is a terrible loss from a coach (Cannavaro) that we have very little data on.
A couple of weeks ago, you had Jeličić and Gattuso arguing on air after a critical Hajduk loss to Rijeka (with Dinamo slowly catching up)…and now Hajduk just squeezed out two very important wins, including one against the hottest team in the HNL (Slaven) with Dinamo losing three big points.
Hajduk still isn’t in the clear, but Dinamo has fewer games now to try and overtake them.
Dinamo has suddenly lost 5 important points to Varaždin and Istra these past two weeks, with Hajduk getting the maximum 6 points.
This is pretty much a death blow.
They are now 8 points apart, when most would have predicted that Dinamo would have cut it to 3 points.
It also wouldn’t have been unreasonable for Hajduk to lose points to a red-hot Slaven Belupo team too. Squeezing out that win was icing on the cake.
Morale is likely very low at Dinamo, and Cannavaro’s timing to go shoot a commercial in Italy last week (while giving the team the day off) isn’t good for optics.
Now they have to go on a crazy win streak INCLUDING trying to take the full 3 points over Hajduk in Poljud next month.
Bet365 pre-match odds 5000/1 for 3-0 Istra win (or 0.02% probability of occurring)
Hajduk has the best record for this season at home having played 14 matches, for 11 wins and 3 draws.
They have a favorable draw for the remaining 8 matches. They host Lokomotiva, Istra, Dinamo and Rijeka and play away to Osijek, Varazdin, Gorica and Sibenik.
Matanovic on the bench (after being out for 2+ months)
Hopefully he gets some minutes today
So he’s ready to face Tottenham Thursday 😊
FOTMOB updated the ratings – Pink Pandur 9.1 (!!!)
Has one of our keepers ever got >9 rating (or even >8) ?
Pandur massive performance today and won Hull the game
4 saves facing 15 shots
MOTM both FOTMOB (8.3) and Sofascore (8.0)
Hull scored in the 96′ – massive 3 points – now 3 points safe of relegation
x.com/GoalsXtra/status/1908548226971541574
Dalic / nose-pickers: Pandur deserves a call-up (in case you haven’t figured out yet – sad you don’t actually watch the players – just same lazy call-ups every time)
Ante – can we please highlight Pink Pandur in final edit of Weekend Water Cooler ?
I am for it, but only if you stop saying nose picker(s). Lol
Filip Hrgovic vs. Joe Joyce tonight
Nice that he won, but Joe Joyce is old and on a losing streak.
Hrgovic’s only legit competition in his career was Daniel Dubois (which he lost) and Zhilei Zhang (which was a very controversial win for Hrgovic).
Hopefully he gets another chance to face off against legit opponents and make more money.
I don’t think he’s title contender worthy, but hey, anything can happen in boxing. Hopefully he gets more chances.
My third cousin’s ex-husband’s parole officer’s dog walker says you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Small world
Krist has the answer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYUAstMoYr8
Ante.
You should list all the fixtures our boys are involved in. We complain about the veterans playing every game, then weekend water cooler fails to list games the others are involved in. If we want Dalic to stop picking his nose and go and watch some of the other, younger players you should remind him where they are playing. My cousin is the wife of the best friend of a taxi driver who once gave a lift to Dalic’s gardener, apparently he reads Croatiansports all the time for new ideas
Anonymous supports this message !
Smolcic and Medic on bench
Crnac, Pandur, Jagusic and Palaversa all starting at 10 EDT
Vuskovic 12:15 EDT
Ivanovic 14:45 EDT
What’s with everybody and the picking nose comment lol! First anonymous and now you too! 🙂
It’s the same person you stupid clown.
Easy bud. Crnković and Anonymous are two different names actually. Both post very differently, one usually in the third person. So if they are the same person, then how was I to know??
I’m with Maminjo on this one. Moderator I don’t feel safe!! 😀
I dunno Anon sounds more French than Croatian???!!! 😉 I think he is a French spy. Lol