We are going to have one hell of a finish in Serie A between the four Hrvati who play in Milan. With AC Milan losing 2-0 to Spezia on Saturday, Ivan Perišić, Marcelo Brozović, and Inter Milan had a chance to leap frog their hated rivals for first place on Sunday – and they did exactly that. Inter defeated Lazio 3-1 and now have a one point lead on AC Milan with 16 matches remaining in the season. The two clubs meet at the San Siro this Sunday – February 21st.
In the 3-1 Inter Milan win, both Croatians got the start with Perišić coming off in injury time. Brozović was given an 8/10 from 90min.com as he was “aggressive and led the counter attack for his side. Key in winning back the ball and recycling play. It was his press that saw the ball rebound into the path of Lukaku for his second.” Perišić didn’t have his best game, receiving a 5/10 as “he struggled somewhat with his defensive duties when isolated as the wing back. Enjoyed limited success in attack during the first half, but the game passed him by on the whole.”
Ante Rebić had a “knee injury” and did not play for AC Milan on Saturday while Mario Mandžukić came off the bench in the 64′. He’s still looking for his first goal with AC Milan.
Ante Budimir is having quite the season for himself in Spain for Osasuna. Budimir came off the bench in the 71′ Sunday and scored the game winner three minutes later with a wonderful sliding volley from inside the box. Osasuna would win 1-0 and Budimir now finds himself with six La Liga goals halfway through the season. Not too shabby.
Budimir Goal
Luka Modrić got the start for Real Madrid on Sunday and play 79 minutes in a 2-0 victory over Valencia. Real Madrid now trail rivals Atletico by five points. Modric received a 7/10 from 90min.com as he “sat between the lines and recycled the ball efficiently, while frequently keeping Valencia guessing with his long-range passing. Did his bit defensively as he won the ball back more often than any Real player and earned his rest for the final ten minutes.”
Andrej Kramarić did not play this weekend for Hoffenheim with a minor knee knock he picked up. Both Josip Brekalo and Marin Pongračić rode the bench for Wolfsburg.
Halilovic is another Anas Sharbini.
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You never go full retard
Telling you guys… Halilovic AND Coric, back in the HNL at Hajduk, sharing the same midfield in 21-22 sezona. And maybe bring back Ante Vukusic and Andrija Balic too, for good measure?
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That team is winning the HNL. Perfect nickname for them too; “FC Reject”. Bamn.
Ante Coric has signed for Olympia Ljubljana
O dear
Ghengis Khan was “white boy” Timur’s (akaTamerlane) hero, it’s why he wanted restore to mongoloid power, he saw himself as Khan’s heir. Could he be the first white anti-white lol?
Europeans are caucasoid and mongoloid mix.
“Why do we call the whole world’s attention to the fact that we have no past? It isn’t enough that the Romans were erecting great buildings when our forefathers were still living in mud huts; now Himmler is starting to dig up these villages of mud huts and enthusing over every potsherd and stone axe he finds. All we prove by that is that we were still throwing stone hatchets and crouching around open fires when Greece and Rome had already reached the highest stage of culture. We really should do our best to keep quiet about this past. Instead Himmler makes a great fuss about it all. The present-day Romans must be having a laugh at these relegations.”
— Adolf Hitler
It doesn’t matter whether Adolf Hitler or Mother Theresa tells the truth, the truth is the truth. Hitler was a REAL historian, one of the greatest our race ever had. The ‘Nation and Race’ chapter in Mein Kampf is IRREFUTABLE. And you don’t have to be a historian or a history major to realize it, just take a look at the world, see how standard of living correlates with skin color, etc. Don’t be a pussy, take the red pill.
Well said Maminjo
I agree with keeping chemistry and a maintaining a good vibe in the locker room…
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But playing Vida or Lovren could have the opposite effect.
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I love Vida, but he’s been hurting our offensive chemistry for years. He has no technical or passing ability, and takes a very long time to gather himself when he wins the ball. Always a backward or sideways pass.
He’s great defensively, but when he has the ball, he’s not confident with it and it just stops any chance of a quick counter.
We won that first Sweden game in UNL because of a Caleta-Car long ball pass. These are things that we’ve been missing for years. Having two CBs with good technical and passing ability will help us immensely.
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Also, the other players aren’t blind. I’m sure they’re all well aware of Gvardiol’s skills and the fact that Vida hurts the offense. Add to that, Lovren has been gaffing every single game for us. Like…every single one now. It’s gotten bad.
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I’m sure both Vida and Lovren are well liked, but everyone knows that Gvardiol was just bought by Liepzig and he was chased by an EPL team for 22 million. It’s not like Modric will take offense and get angry if Dalic calls the kid up and starts him over Vida or Lovren. This isn’t a case of a player being chosen via nepotism or some other reason. Next to Caleta-Car, Gvardiol is our most expensive defender and he is having a great season.
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Unless Gvardiol has a garbage personality and singlehandedly ruins the vibe in the locker room (which I doubt) then he should be called up and played.
The only player in the bunch that actually has that “locker room disruption” potential is Lovren…but if this happens, then you cut him. The rest of the team would probably understand. They’d probably just shrug their shoulders and say “Well that’s just Lovren being Lovren” and still love the guy, but move on.
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He’s done it before to us, when he bailed on us before Euro2016 because he was offended by Corluka starting ahead of him. Corluka of all people, lol.
His egotistical behavior didn’t affect our team during our Euro 2016 run (after he walked out on us), and it won’t effect it now either, especially since Lovren has been performing poorly and it being a completely understandable move.
Anyone get Arena Sport via satellite to their home?
Mateo with a very solid game so far.
Wow Kovacic is playing so well today, excellent first half. We need him like this for the NT. Tuchel is much better for him.
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48/49 Passes completed (98%)
2 key passes
4/4 long balls
1 big chance created
4/4 dribbles made
7/7 ground duels won
2 tackles and hasn’t been dribbled past once
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Anyone know who this new guy is on Hajduk. 29 year old Swedish guy with a Croatian name. Is he actually good or just another foreign old player signing that won’t do anything for 2 years then dip?
Great read on Broz. The same can be said for his importance to the NT. His hard work and defensive intelligence free up Modric to work his magic offensively.
@Armada
Yeah I agree, us as fans don’t see the Lockerroom interactions. If dalic starts a 24 and 19 y.o, it could potential create tension and shit. Although I love Lovren and Vida for everything they’re done for Croatia, this has to be their last tournament. Dalic needs to tell them both to either retire after this or continue to be called up but not complain about losing their spots and playing limited minutes.
Here’s a nice read on Brozovic’s stellar season so far:
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https://www.90min.com/posts/marcelo-brozovic-can-inspire-inter-serie-a-title-tireless-performances-opinion
I’m sure Dalic wouldn’t start both Lovren AND Vida and while he would never speak to it, I just wonder if that’s a team chemistry thing that he doesn’t want to mess with? Vida and Lovren have been with the NT for 10+ years, are considered ‘leaders’ on the team now and this will most likely be the last major tournament for both… I think it would be hard to tell not one but potentially TWO stalwarts of the NT that your services aren’t really needed and you can watch 20 somethings take your places and you guys can come in for spot duty in the 65th minute of a game or if one of the new starters gets into issues with cards.
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That’s probably a tough line to walk and while it would be the right decision, I just wonder if Dalic has the ‘juice’ to make a tough decision like that…
L’Equipe, a French sports newspaper, just ranked the top 50 under 21 players in the world. Gvardiol was 16th. Pretty impressive and completely devoid of the homerism that we’re sometimes guilty of. Unleash him. I agree with Maminjo though, and doubt that Dalic has the balls to do so.
@Markus
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Yea, I would play Gvardiol in these March qualifiers immediately. He’s in good form and the teams we are playing are good but not elite, so it won’t be some sort of baptism by fire for him. He’s already played against tougher competition in Europa.
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Gvardiol has the tools that every coach wants in a quality defender (speed, strength, technical ability, and a calm demeanor)…and he has just as much experience (if not more) than some of the players we’ve started in the past.
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Guys like Barisic and Meljnak got to start many games for us, and I would argue that Gvardiol has more quality experience then the both of them when they first got callups.
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It’s just age-ism.
People assume that Gvardiol can’t do the job because he’s 19. That’s all.
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Barisic was 25 when he first started competitive matches for us in qualifying, but he only had HNL experience with Osijek and Lokomotiva (not even any U21 experience). Melnjak had only the HNL and Slovenian league on his resume (and had just started playing in the Turkish league).
Gvardiol has Europa, U19, U21, and HNL experience (with the top team). He just scored on CSKA in their most recent game in Europa. Melnjak couldn’t do that in a 100 years.
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It’s just his age that people can’t get over.
All the best coaches in the world can get past that. Look at how Deschamps didn’t care that Benjamin Pavard was 21 years old and playing on second division Stuttgart.
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Pavard had all the tools he was looking for…and he went ahead and started him at the World Cup. That was a brilliant move.
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Lovren will screw up. We all know this. He will botch something during these qualifiers, or during the Euros.
Whether or not it costs us a game, we’ll just have to find out.
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Gvardiol is a 22 million Euro player (offer made by Leeds).
Lovren and Vida combined couldn’t get you that on the market.
The kid is an obvious talent, and is in good form. He’s ready to play.
Dalic is a good coach, but he’s not a great one. Things like this are what separates good from great.
Chelsea and Mateo today. The Blues moving
Back into top four. The Pride of London.
@Maminjo
I’d like to see Gvardiol given a shot against teams like Malta and Cyprus though. And I think he’s earned a spot on our euro roster, maybe subbing in sometimes (for example, we’ve already qualified by our third game and he gives Gvardiol half the game against Scotland) if that scenario occurs. Who knows, if we still have LB issues by then and Bradaric is either not healthy or in bad form they put in Gvardiol there. I think he’s ready to play against big teams like England.
@The Great Anonymous Doom
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Best CB pairing right now would be Ćaleta-Car and Gvardiol (but it won’t happen because of ageism).
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Lovren will probably start simply because he plays first team football on a good Russian team. But his performance this past year has been horrible for us. He’s back to his Kiks Lovren ways.
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It will likely be Ćaleta-Car paired with Lovren, or Ćaleta-Car paired with Vida.
Pongračić is still struggling with mono and will just be a backup for now. Uremović is probably just a backup under any circumstance, and wasn’t even tried at CB for us.
I think Dalić is well aware that Lovren is a gaffe machine, and that both he and Vida are declining or limited in their ability. Dalić has more faith in Ćaleta-Car than either of them. But I don’t think Dalić would take the risk of pissing off Lovren by starting Gvardiol (and make himself look bad if Gvardiol doesn’t do well).
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Remember, it took him a long time to drum up the courage to kick Nikola Kalinić off the team. Dude was faking injuries for three games, and Dalić still wasted a World Cup spot on him before consulting everyone on making a decision after Nikola wouldn’t come into the Nigeria game. Dalić also wouldn’t replace Subašić who was injured at the World Cup. He’s hesitant when it comes to controversial decisions. So, it won’t be anything outside Ćaleta-Car, Lovren or Vida. Two of those three start.
Petković wasn’t even given a chance during Nations League (playing something like 95 minutes spread across 4 games) and he still scored (against a good team like Portugal).
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Budimir was given a start (against Sweden) and he couldn’t put chances away and we lost. Small sample, but I have a feeling that if Bruno got the start, we wouldn’t have lost that game. He probably would have put one away.
My fear is that our faith in kramaric could be misplaced
We need other options
@Suba
Although Budimir is more in form, I’m more comfortable with giving Petkovic a chance over Budimir. He’s been amazing for us in the Euro qualifiers, and just had one bad nations league game (because I think he only played two). For me it’s Petkovic > Budimir as Krama’s backup. And then there’s Čolak who shouldn’t even be in this debate and is not near the quality of our NT.
@poglavnik
I love your prediction!
If Luka somehow drags Real to another la liga title, and takes Cro to the Euro final(hopefully winners) he definately deserves another Balon D’or
What is our plan b if krama bombs
We need to have that discussion
@maminjo
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i agree that kramaric is the starter no matter what. but considering we play with a big man as striker and the same tactic at the world cup then the discussion would be between petkovic vs budimir, and vlasic vs krama.
Strong played from our left backs, right backs, defensive mids, Modrić, strikers, Rebić… Now we just need some reliable central defending and goalkeeping! What do you all think would be the most in-form team? Caleta-Car plus Uremović in the CB pair? Badelj and Brozović and Modrić all playing in the midfield?
Surely, Dalić will announce the squad soon.
Petković is having a bad season, but we can’t ignore how well he plays for the National Team and automatically assume that Budimir is ahead of him.
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The discussion is moot anyway because Krama is the starter no matter what, and neither of these other guys will start ahead of other forwards/wingers in Rebić or Perišić.
I’d still bring Petković off the bench (ahead of Budimir) in these qualifiers to see if he still has it. Can’t ignore his five goals in competitive matches against good teams (in less than 600 minutes). He just might be one those strikers who feeds off good players.
Inter Milan on top of the table
Go Perisic and Brozovic
@ Maminjo
No one ever said anything about Budimir starting for us. All I said was that I would rather have him, than Petko up top. To me Budimir is ahead of Petko in the pecking order.
The current starter in the striker position is Kramarič. And Budimir would be a great option off the bench. OR bring him off the bench to partner Kramaric up top, with Krama playing off him in the “hole”.
Better than petka not sure regardless a good backup for 20 minutes
Will ante Coric save his career or is it another what could have been statistic
There seems to be a lot of Goran vucevic type examples on the horizon
Budimir is not good enough to start for us.
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He’s just a backup
And that’s 6 goals in 756 minutes played in La Liga, for Ante Budimir.
Ante Budimir is having an amazing season, when you consider his goals to minutes played. It’s impressive.
I rather go with him, than Petko up top. Budimir brings that badly needed Mandzukic Grit and Toughness that’s been lacking up top.
What’s amazing is that he’s been scoring goals playing for poor teams such as Mallorca and Ossuana. Ante is the main reason why Ossuana is not in the relegation zone. I hope he earns a transfer to a Top-7 club in La Liga..
Off the top of my head Zizou, Ronaldinho, and Laudrup come to mind. Laudrup was so underrated for me.
Who are the best foreign midfielders of all time in La Liga? Luka’s gotta be right there.
Madrid winning a trophy or 2 would definitely help but he’s doing his part.
@Poglavnik
Could you imagine that would be unreal!
Soul Champ, a few things…
Luka is playing amazing for one
Two, half of Madrid’s team is out injured. Including guys like Valverde and Rodyrgo in the midfield so they literally don’t have anyone else to play. They have to go with Case, Kroos and Modric all the time.
Good news is they will come back soon so finally Luka will get a rest.
Hala Modric!
Awesome goal!
My homer prediction of the year; Luka wins his 2nd Ballon after carrying us to the finals of Euro.
Ante Budimir the man helping osasuna to get out of relegation problems
Although it was great service to Budimir though
Ante is not going to do much if we don’t service him
Great replacement for Mandzo if he doesn’t come back to us
Budimir goal 3 minutes after coming off the bench to win the match.
https://streamja.com/9jyao
ppl still talk about mandzukic. but wut about budimir, he is literally the best replacement we could have asked for. same height, aerial threat, fast for his size, good stamina, hard worker that pressures defenders. mandzu scored 12 goals in his season in spain, last season budimir scored 13 including a brace against barcalona.
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if dalic chooses the same formation and tactic of high press that was so successful for us in the world cup, then ante budimir needs to be our starting striker.
How is Luka at 35 the most durable consistent performer at Real Modrić?
I was hoping to simply see Modrić get some meaningful minutes at Real this season.
Real Modrić will leave him tired for Croatia.
Not sure why Zidane can’t figure out a rotation?
All of these are scrubs?
They can’t play a game here or there?
They won the league last season.
Just focus on the CL.
Modrić needs to be fresh for Atalanta.
They play a high octane brand of football.
Mandžukić needs to start against Red Star and bring his ZDS game from the jump.
Rebić knee needs rest?
@Markus
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Mono recovery takes months to recover from, but probably a year for a pro athlete (assuming they make a full recovery). I would write off Pongracic until next season.
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Ante Rebic’s form disappeared for a full year when he got mono, when he was in limbo with Fiorentina.
Mario Ancic’s career was ended by it.
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I’m just happy that he can actually play again, but I think he’s going to be on “minutes restriction” all year.
Nice finish Budimir!
It seems like Wolfsburg’s coach has no faith in his bench. He only used 1 sub today.
Agreed Becar. We looked really good.
Luka is just a class above. Just praying he doesn’t get injured like everyone else on Madrid is..we need him for our 3 qualifiers coming up.
Well how’s this for a headline
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https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2021/02/14/602960afca47415c7c8b45cb.html
I shout out to Ante for his podcast with those irish guys. Ante, you did a nice job and reprented the Cro fans around the world well. Well done dude.
About Modrić today:
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Modric and Casemiro were just as good. The Croatian was unlucky not to have scored, given the all-around excellence of his performance and his desire to score. Modric himself had a couple of close calls from distance, and he was once again robbed of an assist by Marco Asensio. His clever flicks, tricks, outside-the-boot-passes, and unparalleled vision stole the show.
PS watched Vrsaljko yesterday for Athetico and he was very good. Defended, made lots of runs, got involved, and was his oldself. Great timing with qualfiers next month.
Seriously what is up with Brekalo and Pongracic?? Pongracic got mono like months and months ago how long is it gonna take the guy to get better ffs. Brekalo hasn’t started in so long too what’s up with that. No motivation from either guy. Brekalo needs to get his game up or move to a different team.
Luka dominated again today, and pulled the strings in an easy 2-0 vs Valencia.
He schooled some cetnik Uros Racic all game long…lol
Sosa plays on the right sometimes for Stuttgart. I wonder if he’s good there because if he is we desperately need a RB after Vrsaljko. Always had LB issues and now we have too many of them 🤦♂️. Wish a few could switch over to the right.
Hopefully he stays in Stuttgart.
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He’s locked himself into the starting eleven of a mid-table Bundesliga squad.
Not a bad situation to be in.
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He has stiff competition on the NT from Domagoj Bradaric, who has developed A LOT in the past two years and is a regular at Lille. Things quickly change when you’re injured or not playing first team football.
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I remember when Sosa first transferred to Stuttgart and he was doing well with our U21s, and he had a very clear path to being our future LB.
Guys like Bradaric, Barisic and even Dalic’s pet (Melnjak) were not even on the radar at the time, and playing at Hajduk, Osijek and Domzale (lol).
Fast forward two years later, and now all three of these guys have all gotten considerable game time with the NT (ahead of Sosa) and are vying for that LB spot.
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Can’t mess around. If Sosa transfers to Bayern, then sits on the bench for a season playing backup (and then possibly gets loaned to a worse situation than he had at Stuttgart) he could end up like Benkovic.
Both guys are injury prone, so it’s very important that you stamp yourself into the first team or they won’t wait for you during those injury spells.
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Sosa can transfer to a bigger club when he’s in his mid-20s and has a few years of Liga Petica first team experience.
@fellowfromtheselo
I highly doubt they will sell one of those. They will probably want to buy Sosa, give him a few chances, then loan him out somewhere so he can develop. There’s no chance Sosa starts instead of Davies and Hernandez unless they get injured. But hey, they are willing to spend 20+ mil on him, just shows how high of a standard most teams hold him to.
@Markus,
thanks for the link.
Would be interesting if Bayern indeed make a go for Sosa. They already have Davies and Hernandez for left backs. Are they looking off load one of them?
yeah…
the God in Birmingham just rise and shine : )|
and people right there – feel blessed of his present!
stupid Dalic will keep his ignorance -9
until this man was out 0-i We are never gonna see a light1
Rakitic is a still a legend…..
Might be old news but i just saw that he scored for Sevilla against Barcelona in Copa Del Rey Semi first leg.
Also, put in a nice tackle on De-Jong, the man who replaced him.
Koeman was red faced on the side line. Haha
Birmingham fc with Sunjic and Halilovic lost 0-1 against Luton fc with Sluga.
Sunjic was subbed in after 70 minutes.
Halilovic was subbed out after 55 minutes. You should read the Birmingham fc Twitter account. Fans were furious about this replacement, claiming that Halilovic is better than the entire team combined.
By the way, Halilovic was subbed out because this was his first game in Months after an injury.
AC Milan’s wheels have come off. Why not let Mandzukic start? None of the starting strikers or midfielders had a shot on goal. Did Pioli bet against himself for a nice retirement package?
Honestly, I’m okay with either Inter or AC winning Serie A; either way, Croatians are lifting the trophy.
No Rebic
No Party
Real stinker from Milan. Bottom of the table Spezia may have just ruined Milan’s title hopes. Mandzo was pretty bad too, but not any worse than the rest.
No Rebic, no good for AC Milan.
Lovren has been really bad for us lately.
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I don’t watch Zenit games, but I’m sure he’s gaffing things up there too (like his funny own-goal header).
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I think he’s a very big risk for the Euros. Lucky for us, Ćaleta-Car has had a good year. Unfortunately, Pongračić got mono and Gvardiol is still seen as being too young.
Lovren will make an error from time to time and perhaps Van Dijk is better. However, what other Liverpool center-back is better than him right now? The Championship player they just bought? I don’t think so.
Rebic out with a knee injury…hopefully its nothing to worry about. Like I said before, they may have wanted to rested him anyway.
How about Dinamo buying up the majority of HNL stars, geez louise.
Kramaric publicly stated that he wants out and that he thinks Hoffenheim is done with attractive nogomet.
Interesting that Bayern are interested in Sosa.
He’s having a better season that I thought, but I notice that he plays a lot of midfield (on that left side).
Hopefully, he’s being noticed for his defensive ability and not because of his offensive runs on the left side.
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Bayern might be too soon. I don’t like these big team moves too early. He literally just turned 23 a couple weeks ago I think.
Would be nice to keep playing at Stuttgart as an undisputed starter, as these are still key development years
(especially since his career was stagnant for a couple years already with injuries and lack of first team football).
@Markus
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It was a bullet but right at him.
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I watched the last 35 minutes or so. I wasn’t very impressed with either team. Or any players for that matter. Ivanusec make a few nice plays. Petkovic showed some nice skill inside the box only to ultimately botch it up. His final touch was horrendous. He also should have fallen down once contact was made on him, it would have been a penalty for sure.
Razbijač
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Nah.
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Orsic is good, and having a great season…but when you look at their output on the National Team, Brekalo has had more of an impact.
Actually, he’s had more of an impact than Kovacic, Pasalic, and a lot of regulars.
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He’s still 22, and part of the future. If it’s even debatable, you invest in the younger player.
Livakovic with a nice save at the end of the game… sealed the deal for Dinamo.
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Was that Rostovski’s debut? Dude gets a red card in his first match lol… not too great.
Super Scheiße
@fellowfromtheselo
Look up “soccerstreams.net” and scroll down you’ll find HNL streams. Not the best quality but good enough.
Is it fair to say at this point that Orišić is ahead of Brekalo in the Winger pecking order?
Ok both won’t be starters in those positions, as there is Rebic and Perisic.
Milan have a full squad available with few injuries for today’s game. They have a Europa game on Thurs in beograd, and an important derby vs Inter next weekend.
I’m guessing they may rest Rebic and maybe Ibra only plays one half. Also I’m not sure what Rebic’s yellow card situation is. Maybe they don’t want to risk possible suspension for the next Inter game? Hopefully Mandzo gets some meaningful playing time to get back in the rhythm.
Anyone have a link to Dinamo v Osijek?
Sosa with another assist, this guy is playing awesome this year. Bayern are rumored to buy him. He’s are most in form left back atm.
Apparently an ankle injury.
Apparently a last minute ankle injury.
Where’s Kramaric?
Kramarić didn’t dress today, not sure why.
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They’re reporting that Rebić will not start.
Dejan wouldn’t have made much difference.
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He’s fine until his has a gaffe, then it’s a slippery slope after that, because of his mental weaknesses.
You essentially have to sub him out the game right after, or more will come.
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He’s good as a depth player, but they were right to get cash in on him (as his value will drop alot over the next year).
Lovren is easily replaceable with someone much cheaper, but the problem is, they didn’t replace him.
Boy is Liverpool turning into a gong show defensively after today’s latest meltdown ..maybe they shouldn’t have run Dejan out of town so quickly.
Great comeback win from Vekic saving a match point and coming through a really tough one. Has a legit chance to make the quarters now. She’s the only one of our guys who has performed okay, although we might well win the doubles – which would be good sign in case the olympics do go ahead this year (that’s a huge IF of course).