Ante Budimir scored his 16th La Liga goal of the season Sunday in a 1-1 Osasuna draw vs. Real Betis as he rolled a penalty shot to the left side of goal. Budimir has now surpassed Lamine Yamal for sole position of 3rd place on the La Liga goals list for the 2026 season — only behind Mbappe and Muriqi.
Mateo Kovačić returned to the pitch for the first time since October after recovering from Achilles surgery in 2025. Kova came off the bench for the final 10 minutes of City’s 3-0 win over Chelsea. Let’s see how Pep plays Kovas the rest of the way as City are now officially back in the title race against Arsenal. The clubs face each other this Sunday in a 1 vs 2 battle with City trailing by six points with a game in hand.
Luka Modrić and AC Milan lost 3-0 to Udinese Saturday which will all but any any Serie A title hopes they had this season. Modrić received a 6/10 grade from SempreMilan as “Milan created a lot of chances, so the build-up definitely wasn’t the issue today. If anything, Modric did really well to move the ball around and also to find the wingers in some good spaces. As I highlighted in the short version, he was the best (even if the bar was super low).”
Igor Matanovic is one year younger than Beljo.
If you add Igor goal total from his whole career it would still be less than Beljo goal count from this season.
Just saying let’s not make out Matanovic as some great goal scorer. Also most goals are in 2nd division not discrediting it but pointing out he didn’t dominate lower league.
DDB lost to Genk
Igor beat Genk
Igor beating Celta Vigo 3-0
Igor going to Europa SF
Therefore
Igor > DDB
Igor must have read Anonymous post from the field
As soon as posted Igor scored lol
Then another
5-0 vs Celta Viga
Dalic 100% taking a Europa SFalist
WORLD CLASS Igor goal
https://x.com/fotbolxtra/status/2044829952395141433?s=46
Ante –
Please review the moderation filter
My Saranic and Kramaric/Vuskovic post has been caught 🙁
Thank you
FIFA last minute tickets released front row tickets agin today … right now there’s availability in Toronto at face value
What’s the face value though?
There are a million tickets available for all three games
And prices are coming DOWN – supply vs. demand at work
Be patient – prices will only go down from here
The Toronto game is probably the highest demand (in terms of local Croat demand) – and they are changing the law to cap resale at face value – so it’s retarded to buy tickets until it’s enacted
They’re charging $1,250 for front row seats. On the secondary market from what I see the price floor right now is about $700 for cat 3 & 4. The $1,250 face value tickets didn’t immediately sell out either, so the appetite for people to pay $700 for nosebleeds can’t be that high if front row seats aren’t selling for speculative scalping purposes.
Beljo has 32 goals 25 league 5 in Europe and 2 in cup, Please no Saranic comparisons.
I don’t care if people think Beljo is no good and shouldn’t be at WC that’s fine.
But don’t tell me that if Hajduk had a player who’s having the season like him and we’re about to win a championship that dalic wouldn’t call him.
Dalic doesn’t call anyone from Hajduk cause there isn’t anyone to call, Ivusic is injured and all others are kids.
He tried to get Livaja back even after he pulled his drama show and to me embarrassed Dalic by publicly saying no thanks.
He called a kid “ Sigur” to the stand by list when at the time he wasn’t even getting regular starts at Hajduk. Imagine a kid getting called to a top ten fifa ranked national team and you’re not even getting starts at Hajduk which he wasn’t only half the time 2 years ago.
To me tie goes to the kid at Dinamo then Freiburg.
Baturina and P. sucic were playing in European matches and champions league of course dalic had to call them who was he gonna call it was so obvious.
Who cares about “total goals” – firstly, how many were penalties – 10 ? lol
Let’s actual dive into detail – let’s take HNL #2 thru #4 teams and see how Beljo has done this year
vs. #2 Hajduk – 3 games – ZERO goals
vs. #3 Rijeka – 3 games – two goals (o/w one penalty)
vs. #4 Varazdin – 3 games – ZERO goals
So in NINE GAMES i.e. almost 800 minutes – he has ONE non-penalty goal against the next best three HNL teams (and he’s surrounded by basically the best player in each position in the HNL – not like Jaga at Belupo – who feed him a dozen chances per game)
We see this – Dalic sees this – everyone sees this – that’s why he hasn’t and won’t get called up – he doesn’t deserve to go – let him go back to a mid-table or lower-table Bundesliga team and lets see how many goals he can score
Anyone can twist and manipulate to make arguments end of day 32 goals is 32 goals. Beljo gets negative points for not scoring against hajduk who cares does he also get brownie points for having 5 goals against European teams in uefa 🤷♂️
You wanna dissect today Beljo but when Jaga was playing in same league everyone on this site was talked as he should be getting minutes in national team. Now this league is no good one day people say this league isn’t bad to suit their point now it’s terrible.
When I say Musa should start people say oh he plays in MLS who cares he looks the best when wearing the jersey. Like I said Budimir can score 40 goals in la liga I know how he will play in WC.
I am good with the unchallenged untested Musa. Unlike Beljo, he seems to shine on the NT team.
Croatians are always left usually a bit wanting with our forward wingers/strikers relativity speaking then other positions more often than not. Croatia seems to develop midfielders and defenders and relies on the counterattack for advantage. Some say it is our style of play, but that might be the chicken before the egg. It might be that our genes are determining our playing style. We are a tiny bit weaker on the finesse type play on the final third of the field, compared to world beaters France, and Brazil.
To je to. You do that best you can, with what god gives you.
In USA football, where usage is the solely based on performance and ability, 99% of all receivers, corner backs, running backs are African descendants, where speed and agility are absolutely essential and premium. 95% of quarterbacks are still European descendants, ex. Joe Montana half Croatian.
When we do have a foreign player on the NT, it is more often than not a striker/winger type who plays the final 3rd.
Segecic assist on Pompey winning goal today (he took the corner kick)
He played 85′
Two massive wins in a row for Pompey – well out of relegation zone for now
They say if you have four strikers then you have none
Especially if they’re all the same type of player
It’s really hard to figure out which of those Guys should be in the lead. Matanovic has the highest goal contribution rate ( g +a) in the big leagues of 1 per 135 min vs budimirs 1 per 169 (not including penalty kicks). But budimir is the fourth leading scorer in la liga when not counting penalties which is something
Beljo and musa have contribution stats nearly twice as efficient but in the hns and mls.
I’ll just default to dalic.
How are the bear trades on Brent crude treating you?
Hopefully the pimply analyst didn’t f up the bear put spreads….
If Beljo was playing for Hajduk not only would he be going to World Cup he would get plenty of minutes!
How dalic treats Dinamo is a shame, Croatian soccer is dependent of that club and this is the respect it gets.
National team best players has been mostly dinamo through the years lately with a very small sprinkle of Hajduk and diaspora.
Dinamo has pretty much until now with Rijeka keeping our league respectable with coefficient and also money for whole league with Dinamo European contributions.
I’ve listed the three strikers as lately in my opinion as 1- Musa 2- Budimir and 3- Matanovic.
But really you could swap beljo for Matanovic not much separating the two. And when I think about it I would rather my third striker be a guy from Dinamo than Frieburg.
Stojkovic and Beljo should be on the roster.
Dalic hasn’t called up a Hajduk player in ages (let alone played them minutes). Hajduk and Dinamo fans need to relax a bit with the conspiracies here.
Beljo has been a mediocre striker for the past couple of years, taking tons of chances (and converting them at a very low rate), and not providing anything else on the field (pressing, defense, etc.).
Rapid Vienna fans did not really have many good things to say about him, and I don’t think Augsburg fans really care that he’s gone.
Now, he finally gets hot, and it’s a couple of months until the tournament begins. If he did this at the beginning of the season, then fine, but now it’s going to be a coin toss.
I’m fine with him going to the World Cup, but I also don’t want us to start wasting spots to bring in four identical strikers. We should only bring three of Budimir, Musa, Matanovic and Beljo.
Regarding Stojkovic…
I feel more sorry for Stojkovic because he was just as awesome last season as he was this season, and (for whatever reason) wasn’t given any chances in the first half of this season, otherwise he probably would have been cooking in the first half just as he is currently cooking in the second half.
He did far more with fewer opportunities, which makes me think that Stojkovic would have a far more instant impact on the National Team than Beljo.
If there is one spot left, I’d give it to Stojkovic ten times out of ten.
Over the last 2 years Dalic has picked the best players from the HNL (Baturina, Pero, Fruk, Jagusic) – two of 4 were Dinamo players?
Is it Dalic’s fault that Pero and Baturina went to Italy? lol
Livaja would be called too but is a prima donna and has declined the call a number of times so that’s not Dalic’s fault either
Dalic has made the point – that players don’t stay in the HNL – as soon as they stand-out – they move abroad – hence why there is nobody to call from HNL
If we’re saying Saranic’s goals aren’t worth anything (bc it’s 2nd division) – than it follows that Beljo’s goals against Vukovar, Osijek, Gorica, etc aren’t worth anything (as they are all (quasi-)relegation teams, hence 2nd division sides) – can’t have it both ways
Have zero sympathy for Beljo – Ausburg said stay and fight for your place – Beljo ran back to Dinamo – he didn’t come to Dinamo the summer before bc they didn’t guarantee him #1 position – he only came last summer bc Boban said ur #1 – it’s all very entitled and looking for the easiest way to the NT, rather than fighting in a better league – if Beljo doesn’t think he can produce in a better league/stage why should we? Anonymous can’t respect this
Stojko’s gone cold the last couple of games (based on highlights) – hopefully he ends the season playing strong – would rather he gets called then Majer as e.g.
Whatever happened to Franko Kovačević?
He voted Orban
As seen on Reddit: “Dion Drena Beljo (24) is in unbelievable form for Dinamo Zagreb, as he scored 3 hat-tricks and a total of 12 goals in his last 5 matches. He now has 29 goals across all competitions this season.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1skkqoh/dion_drena_beljo_24_is_in_unbelievable_form_for/
The standard of play in HNL is really poor, and one has to be careful when judging player performances. However, it has to be acknowledged that Beljo is in good form.
In all probability Beljo’s only chance of making the WC squad is for the likes of Budimir, Musa or Matanovic to get injured or get stuck to the bench for the reminder of the season.
Italy could have one last chance to play at the 2026 World Cup.
FIFA are considering a potential playoff in case of non-participation by Iran in the World Cup. 🇮🇷
The playoff could involve:
🔸Two countries from the European zone
🔸Two countries from the Asian zone
Iran’s participation in the tournament is still very uncertain.
Ridiculous. You would think an Asian zone team would be replaced with another team from Asia. But anything to give Italy another chance in this watered down tournament. If this does happen, I hope Denmark stomps them.
With Infantino being the President of FIFA (born in Switzerland to Italian parents) anything is possible.
Iran a few weeks back requested that their matches be moved from USA to Canada and Mexico, however FIFA refused to do this.
So someone gonna mention Beljo’s form? I’m not a fan of his but he’s at 30 goal contributions in 29 matches now
SN reporting that Slaven Bilic taking over Ghana
One set of talks done – more more to go
Guess the nose picker and ass sniffer didn’t make it past the background check?
Top class negotiation from Bilic – holding Ghana leverage over HNS’s head now to take over for Dalic after the World Cup – Anonymous is impressed
@VLAD
CC @Crnkovic
GREAT NEWS !
Saranic posted the two Saturday goals on his IG !
Please check them out
1) Takes down a cross with right foot at shoulder level (perfect touch) – outside of left foot to move the ball left to better angle to shot (around the defender) – and then left foot power-bolt unstoppable shot over the keepers head (similar, but better than that shot that Kranjcar fired over the bar at Euro 2008 after Olic passed to him freely in the box)
2) Saranic takes a long-pass from a full-back in a central #10 position (!) – he perfectly passes it to the player in the RW position – a cross comes in – Saranic nicely tracks the play and his “run” into the box – and than picks up the ball and another power-bolt unstoppable shot right his right foot this time into the corner
This talent can’t be wasted – instead of Modric peddling crypto (embarrassing) Modric should go see Saranic and give him a pep talk how talented he is and unless he wants to end up like poor Halilovic that he needs to take the next step up – his country and NT depends on it
Anonymous is initiating a 20% chance (currently as of today) that Saranic will end up on the Croatia NT (not for the World Cup, I mean in the next 2-3 years)
Thanks for update anonymous. I don’t use instagram or any social media other than YouTube and email. No posting photos of my kids to intelligence agency databases.
From what I have seen of saranic, he has a high level when it comes to the spectacular end product. His shooting and assisting looks devastating, but when I’ve seen him play some of his basics (like link up play in midfield, and out of possession work) have fallen far short of the same standard. Hopefully he is intelligent and motivated enough to fix that. For sure we need I see him do well in a better league before we can consider him as a future star. He is not 16/17 years old to be shining in the second league before big teams call. I will look for the goals you described on YouTube. Max sport usually has them. Thanks
I don’t need Saranic in a top 5 league but where he is now can’t be taken serious. MLS and priva liga is a considerable step up.
The data so far in a real league is poor. He couldn’t get minutes in Middle East, He struggled in Slovenia and he couldn’t crack dinamo first time around.
All the teams that get promoted are always one and done and do poor example vukovar.
His stats are great when he was a kid again in lower leagues slow pace and now in a lower league stats are good slow pace. He is a poorer version of kranjcar I think.
People talking about Šaranić reminds me of those types who buy a penny stock.
The guy is pretty much invisible, on nobody’s radar, but if he ever ends up in the first league (and does well) then he’ll make you rich (in online credibility).
Unbelievable how many of our young players are suffering knee injuries.
The latest one is promising RB, 22-year-old Teo Barisic from Rijeka.
He suffered the injury early on against Osijek on the weekend. You could hear him scream in pain when he went down. Not sure how serious it is? as he was able to limp off the ground without the stretcher. He was holding the side of his knee so it may not be the ACL ligament?
Was his last injury also the (same) knee that kept him out for a month? Or this is a new injury ?
Poor guy – previous game he got a boot in the head in the box – and was bleeding all over the field and needed to be head-bandaged up
How is Fruk – he went off with back injury/pain too ? Missing the WC ???
No, his last injury was a hamstring.
Fruk was also subbed early on after sustaining a back injury, but I don’t think it is anything serious ?
Good news . . .
Kovacic came on today in the 81st minute. Manchester City was already up 3-0 against Chelsea when he was subbed on.
Did anybody get a chance to watch the game and see how he played?
If yes, can we get a report?
Ya he played fine- a lot of little passes to keep the ball moving with the lead , he made one real nice thru ball to the corner to set up a cross that almost led to a goal – he kept possession well…
Overall it was just good for him to play, I can’t imagine they will unleash him in any high leverage situations for a while as they try and chase the league.
I went and watched the reply of the match from the 81 minute.
Coming on I noticed that he might be carrying an extra kilo or two.
Played well and had about 12 touches of the ball. As expected, having not played for almost a year he lacks a bit of sharpness.
In the 98 minute he got badly fouled with the opponent getting a yellow card. He got up and I could not see any injury? with the ref immediately blowing full time.
We need Kovacic in the midfield, let’s hope that he gets more play time in the coming weeks.
Not sure if we need him in the midfield.
I think Modrić and Sučić in the pivot is the better option, and forcing Kova into the lineup either pushes Sučić to the bench, Baturina to the bench, or Krama on the wing.
Fully fit and playing regularly Kovacic is a world class midfielder and currently better than anyone else that we have and that includes the 40-year-old Modric.
Agreed.
Marco goal
https://x.com/orlandocitysc/status/2043474353078030504?s=46
Magyar
Wow
Are the Hungarian owners of Osijek linked to Orban? What’s next for them?
Nothing.
They still own the team. If they weren’t paying any taxes before, then they may have to start paying them from now on.
Isn’t Lőrinc Mészáros BFF with Orban? How else did he become the 800th richest person in the world (hard-work? lol)
If Magyar is going to try to reverse all the previous cronyism why wouldn’t he start confiscating assets including Osijek FC ?
***.facebook.com/molnararonofficial/videos/a-lölő-storymészáros-lőrinc-orbán-viktor-jó-barátja-ez-az-egyetlen-ok-amiért-a-v/1454730796196293/
Pre Orban – Mészáros was a plumber lol
Post Orban – Mészáros is a billionaire ($5B) and the richest Hungarian
Mészáros was childhood friends with Orban
95% Magyar will start with Mészáros and work down-wards
If they can take Chelsea from Abramovich, they can take Osijek from Mészáros lol
It’s sad that HNL / Osijek / Croatian football has allowed itself to be infiltrated with this dirty money – now the bill comes due
Magyar
Wow
Vuskovic out of the lineup and HSV loses 4-0.
Admittedly it is just one game . . .
But without Vuskovic, I wonder if HSV would have been relegated? Is the rest of the team good enough to avoid relegation?
Vuskovic has been important for HSV this season, but maybe he has been THAT important . . . maybe he made enough of a difference that his signing there lifted them enough to avoid relegation . . .
Guys, im at danger of starting to believe, lol.
Someone stop me hahah.
If Gvardi is back and Luka V is fit then… we could actually do something this wc ?
If Modric, Perisic, kramaric and Budimir are all starting then no!
Past accomplishments and heart will always make us think on some level we ca make another run” my self included “ We have a great bench potential unreal defence and have a lot of players to make a good team. However if all the 30 plus year olds start we have to be realistic.
Croatia isn’t special in that we can re invent the wheel, if any other team other than Croatia had a40 year old 37 year old and 2 x 34year olds everyone on this site would’ve honest and say that team is to old.
If Dalić gets it right only starts modric and perisc and subs them early in games and uses players in form then maybe. However I think we at best can make round of 16 which is still successful in my eyes.
I like the mix of older and younger players. Hopefully, Coach Dalic will mix up well to get us to another semifinals.
@Vlad
Well said and on point! Welcome back Vlad you sound great
I was pleasantly surprised with our run in 2022. I really thought we would not get that far, let alone beat Brazil. I guess you never know. After our poor run at the Euros I am not sure though
That AC Milan team is a shit show. Mala curica Leao smiling all the time — zero fucks given — meanwhile the 40-year-old is busting his ass.
Wouldn’t be shocked if Luka moves elsewhere — should he choose to continue playing, Never mind today, the “tactics” v. Napoli Monday were sramota.
Sorry Vlad
Saranic TWO more goals today
11 goals and 2 assists in 15 games
🤷♂️
I scored two goals the other day as well, pretty sure my beer league soccer isn’t that much worse than the league Saranic plays in. Let me know when he’s popping goals in a league that matters.
Sadly the game was black-out so there is no actual footage of the goals – all we know is they were a minute apart
Anonymous can’t work like this – Anonymous needs video footage to work with!
But in any event not sure we’re in a position to be so picky nor so snobby given our top two NT attacking players are MLS
Let’s see if Dinamo or Rijeka give him a chance next year 😉
You’re yesterdays hero
Go away
Sucic man of the match!!! He looked so on point today. Caleta-Car had a poor game though. There was footage of Gvardiol training and I’ll find the link for it. He was jogging at a decent speed and looks to be making a speedy recovery.
Watched first 20 minutes of the match and Sucic did score a good goal however he was also partly to blame for the Alaves goal in the 3 minute, when he lost possession allowing Alaves a quick counter resulting with DCC scoring an own goal.
How are the 15k Hungarians in Osijek-Baranja voting tomorrow Viktor Orban vs. Petar Magyar ?
Wedding boy with a nice goal. Sucic has been playing more lately.
Nice powerful shot – Maninjo will be proud
x.com/croatian_footy/status/2042949484158562691
Your “joke” is getting VERY old. Please get some new material.
Luka Vusković should be out due to a reported knee contusion. But should be back in a game or two. It’s noted as a rest effectively he has had an active couple months.
So apparently it’s not serious and shouldn’t have an impact on the rest of his season. So he won’t be playing against Stuttgart.
He’s 19 and can recover in no time. That’s why I’m not worried about Gvardiol either
Yeah but Gvardiol’s injury is more serious.
Gvardiol is running at a good pace I saw on the treadmill. He will be set for June.
Antonio Radic should have been the coach of our national team.
Antonio Radic should have been the coach of our national team.