Mateo Kovačić scored a wonderful goal from 18 yards out Saturday as Man City came back from a 2-goal deficit to defeat Crystal Palace 5-2. He received the ball at the top of the box and cooly slotted home just inside the left post. It is Kova’s 5th Premier League goal this season in 26 matches. Goal.com gave Kova a 8/10 grade as he “Smacked home City’s crucial third goal in an all-action performance that saw him cover a lot of ground over the 90 minutes.” Gvardiol played 90 minutes at the CB position in the win. However, Goal.com gave him a 5/10 grade as he was “Slow to react to Sarr escaping free for the Eze opener and caught under the ball as Lacroix eased him out of the way for the second. Improved in the second half as Palace’s threat faded.”
Ante Budimir was MOTM Sunday with a goal and assist in Osasuna’s 2-1 victory over Girona. He scored with a patented “Budimir header from a tight angle” and then laid off a perfect pass to teammate Ibanez for the winner. Take a look at the highlights…Budimir has been hotel for a full year. It showed in the 1st leg vs. France. With his goal plus assist vs. Girona, Budimir now has 16G/3S this La Liga season. Only Mbappe and Lewadowski have more goals.
Andrej Kramarić scored twice Saturday (Bundesliga goals #9/#10) as Hoffenheim defeated Mainz 2-0. Krama has now reached double digits in scoring through 27 Bundesliga matches which is nothing short of fantastic for a 33 year-old striker. The win pulls Hoffenheim 10 points from relegation with only five matches remaining. They should be fine to play in the Bundesliga again next season. Remember Krama’s outburst a few months ago towards Hoffenheim management? Things did get better after he made his unhappiness public.
Matija Frigan scored his 10th Belgian League goal Friday in a 2-2 Westerlo draw vs. Sporting Charleroi
Josip Stanišić assisted in Bayern Munich’s 2-2 draw vs. Borussia Dortmund Saturday. The draw keeps Bayern six points clear of 2nd place Bayer Leverkusen with only five matches remaining in the campaign.
Pandur 1-1 Frank Lampard’s Coventry
7 saves today (!)
The 1 goal deflected off his own defender (he had to no chance)
2.83 xGOT faced (!)
8.7 FOTMOB (2nd highest behind 8.8)
8.4 Sofascore (2nd highest behind 8.9)
As aside, the highest player was Matt Grimes that joined Coventry in Jan after 305 appearances for Swansea over the last decade – I’m sure Modric is disappointed that he won’t have a chance to work with him – maybe there is a buy-back clause – Modric can only hope
Here are the highlights (some of these saves are excellent – his tracking of play and thus positioning is also very good which puts him in a good position to begin with (before the shot is made))
***.skysports.com/football/video/26947/13349103/hull-city-1-1-coventry-city-championship-higlights
Anonymous doesn’t even need to tell Dalic to call him up – it’s also a certainty at this point as long as he finishes the season at this same level
By June qualifiers we will all laugh that we were calling up a keeper from Cyprus (unreal)
And you will all give Anonymous props for being the one to spot the talent (back in September/October when nobody ever heard of him)
Actually Pandur was EFL POTM
x.com/HullCity/status/1911895349771305326
Look at this interview
Full of confidence
And the positive mentality and camaraderie with teammate
Basically the opposite of our “deer in the headlights” (albeit he’s got MUCH better)
This is the exact personality type we need leading Gvardiol and co from the back
x.com/SkyFootball/status/1911888999846666440
He has to move to a team that plays in a country’s first league.
The English 2nd division (despite probably being better than most first leagues) will always just be seen as a second league.
Hull being one of the bottom teams doesn’t help either.
There are 93 Internationals playing in the Championship
***.transfermarkt.us/championship/nationalspieler/wettbewerb/GB2
How many are playing in Cyprus ?
Pandur is winning points for them single-handedly (not Anonymous POV but from Hull City/Championship pundits and fans)
What is Ivusic (who’s 30 btw – 5 years older than Pandur) doing in Cyprus ? He is an HNL journey-man who never caught the eye of any credible team his entire career and than moved to Cyprus couple years ago
Look at the 3-0 loss to Djurgarden – pay attention to Ivusic feet for both the 2nd and 3rd goals – his anticipation was terrible and his feet were taking him in the wrong direction – his ability to read the play and be in the right position anticipating the long-range shots and where it might end up – leaves much to be desired
Pandur should get a chance – let Kotarski, Labrovic, and Pandur – all 25 – fight it out for next after Livakovic (but keep open mind if anyone else – age appropriate – appears that should also fight it out)
But Ivusic is the same age as Livakovic – as since he won’t overtake him as #1 – what’s the point ? When Livakovic retires Ivusic will take over – when ? At 35, 40 ?
Lucky for Pandur he’s playing Swansea on Friday – so Modric can see first hand his capabilities (hopefully he has a good game for his own sake) 😊
Paradoxically it’s better to play for a worse (defensively) team as a keeper as you face more shots (and people have better sense of your capabilities) than facing less shots – let’s look at England as e.g.
Pickford Everton – lower half PL team (he keeps them up every year, without him they would be relegated)
Henderson Crystal Palace – lower half PL team
Ramsdale Southampton – will be relegated from PL
Trafford Burnley – 2nd Championship – 95% will go up to PL this year [this is a crazy outlier as Scott Parker plays an uber defence set-up/game where they’ve only let in 13 goals in 42 games]
Luka:
https://www.tsn.ca/croatia-real-madrid-legend-luka-modric-joins-swansea-city-as-minority-owner-1.2288638
Moj Jagusic
HNL Team of the week – again
Yeah, I like jagusic too. Playing real well
Super Mario Pasalic doubling his team’s lead (21st min) in Atalanta’s 2-0 win over Bologna. Important win for Atalanta as both teams are fighting for a CL spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSSuBNNDX30&t=35s
***
DCC started for Lyon in 3-1 away win at Auxerre. His team moves up to 4th (last CL berth in Ligue 1). Ratings on FOTMOB: 8.0 and Sofascore: 7.6 — both apps highest among defenders and goalie.
Dare I say kova is getting a regular scoring touch again
Good news
It just seems like his consistency is always a bit of a question to get him to the top top of midfielders
But still we are fortunate to have him
AJME MENI NIJE MI DOBROOOOOOOOOOOO
Bravo Rijeka.
Helluva goal and moment.
Incredible goal in ET
Beautiful to see the celebration of the whole team and fans together at the sidelines
Crazy they’re still top considering it’s basically a Rijeka B team ie 2023/24 Rijeka A team less 4 sales 2024 summer less 3 sales 2025 winter plus Duje Cop
Osasuna up 1-0 at the half, goal Budimir.
Two goals for Kramaric today, he was player of the match….. Hoffenheim over Mainz 2-0.
Two tap-ins in front of goal
Impressive
But no creation for himself nor for teammates (that’s the issue)
@A Tin U
croatiansports.com/the-weekend-water-cooler-117/#comments/516814
Hey buddy, how’s it going 🙂 Ever since you brought up Majer in your comment above, I’ve been wondering how the player is coming along in his recovery.
So I googled, and then I saw this article which says he’s out for the rest of the season. Goodness me, that’s one heck of an ankle injury he’s having. Let’s hope Majer recovers fully and in time to begin pre-season of 2025/26. If he can get a full pre-season under his belt, I am hopeful he will be back in the swing of things next season and be ready to play in our WCQ matches.
sports.yahoo.com/article/wolfsburg-star-ruled-season-074700952.html
The newest post from Roto wire says he has been spotted in training again.
Oh great! Thanks Mate1. And uh my bad, didn’t know the info in that article is outdated.
No worries.
Majer had such a fantastic first season at Rennes. I was following quite a bit of it earlier on. His numbers were crazy actually, he was just behind Messi on attacking chances/opportunities created, which is amazing at the time.
I am having a hard time grasping where it went for him, because he has been dipping a bit in form prior to the in injury even.
He is an attacking mid, which we really need (much like L Sučić). In fact, I think he would have been great in Dalic’s current lineup/formation that he played versus France.
The only thing with Majer is his speed, he really needs to work that out. His touch and ability are all really there. He has the finesse/class to make a f static player in my eyes.
Just a couple of articles one is cut in half unfortunately I don’t have the red roof it.
The correction above is passes create in relation to Messi not scoring opportunities. Just to correct myself.
But here they are:
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/lovro-majer-at-stade-rennes-2021-22-scout-report
https://analyticsfc.co.uk/blog/2022/08/24/using-data-to-find-a-ucl-club-for-lovro-majer/#:~:text=He%20ranked%2091%20percentile%20and,team%20employing%20a%20high%20press.
@Bartolec1912
Thanks for checking in. I’m still kicking.
Hvala for the article on Majer.
He looked like he was on a mission as the season got underway. He was rounding into form that might well have lead to a great offer from a top European club. Then he got hurt. What a terrible injury as it turns out…. I was not aware he was out for the season.
Hopefully time will heal and he will make a full recovery. Must be tough on a player to go through that….
Big game for Kovacic today against Crystal Palace in the Premier League. Player of the match. Class.
Maybe Pep will have second thoughts about moving him along….
He’ll have to be great for us in 2026.
Correction. De Bruyne ends up player of the match on both Sofascore and FOTMOB. But Kova had a great game.
“Maybe Pep will have second thoughts about moving him along….
He’ll have to be great for us in 2026.”
100% agreed, brate.