Nikola Vlašić opened up the scoring for CSKA Moscow on Sunday and was voted “Man of the Match” in a 2-2 draw against Khimki. It wasn’t the result they were looking for as CSKA are candidates to chase down Zenit for the Russian title. They currently trail the reigning champs by two points midway through the season.
Vlašić got the ball in the box, fended off his defender, and slid the ball inside the far post fir the goal. He played the full 90 minutes. Vlašić remains on schedule.
Vlašić Goal
Brozović Assist
Marcelo Brozović and Ivan Perišić both assisted in Inter Milan’s 3-1 victory over Bologna on Saturday. Broz’s was super silky while Lukaku messed up Perišić’s cross before hitting the back of the net. Both Croatians are having relatively quiet seasons at Inter with the club only five points behind leaders AC Milan. Brozović does so much for Inter and Croatia offensively and defensively but never gets his proper dues. He is by far a top-3 CDM in the world.
Rebić Has Shot Cleared Off The Line
Ante Rebić is back on the scoresheet for AC Milan in the absence of Zlatan. Rebić had a light header cleared off the line in the first half which appeared to have been good, but after a VAR review, the entire ball did not cross the line. He made amends in the second half assisting on Samuel Castillejo’s game winner in the 77th minute of a 2-1 win. AC Milan are sitting top of Serie A 10 games into the season and have been all business. They have only dropped four points thus far this year and have had a solid Europa League campaign to coincide. Can they give Juventus a run for their money? I think so.
Luka Modrić once again played the full 90 minutes for Real Madrid in a 1-0 win over Ivan Rakitić and Sevilla on Saturday. Real Madrid remain six points behind La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid with an all-or-nothing Champions League match to be played this week.
Yes I Agee wit that Eric!
Slavonac, I also noticed that Tonali was shit for most of the game. Re: REBIC, he was unlucky not to score, but you can’t say that he missed any sitters. He played well out of position even though he received poor service. Rebic provides the best service for Milan from his preferred wing, but I guess he is also their best option to replace Ibra as a striker.
I understand why Rebic has issues controlling that last tough or two before he strikes…he’s doing everything possible to get that shot off and he’s usually tightly marked…its really not that easy! I also get the feeling he can flub certain chances but then the guy will pull off an incredible play that take incredible skill, so its hard to criticize him. My only worry about his is his consistent form…if he’s feeling good and mentally on, he’s really tough to stop and he keeps on tormenting defenders…if he’s flustered and demotivated…he really looks horrible in all aspects of the game. Thankfully, he doesn’t have long spells of playing poorly.
Something weird I noticed in the Milan game. Tonali gets compared to Pirlo but quite honestly, he was really shitty for large portions of the game. His passes and attempts looked horrible at times and yet the announcers were stroking his balls! weird!
Sorry for the copy and paste – might clear up a few questions.
The following teams cannot be paired together:
Armenia & Azerbaijan
Gibraltar & Spain
Kosovo & Bosnia & Herzegovina
Kosovo & Serbia
Kosovo & Russia
Ukraine & Russia
The following clubs are deemed a risk of severe winter conditions, so a maximum of two such teams can be drawn in a group together:
Belarus
Estonia
Faroe Islands*
Finland
Iceland*
Latvia
Lithuania
Norway
Russia
Ukraine
*Iceland and Faroe Islands cannot be drawn in the same group since both teams are in the highest risk category.
Excessive travel restrictions are in place too, with a maximum of one pair of particular teams in certain cases:
Azerbaijan with: Iceland, Gibraltar, Portugal.
Iceland with: Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel.
Kazakhstan with: Andorra, England, Faroe Islands, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
The European qualification stage for the 2022 World Cup kicks off in March 2021 and runs until November 2021, with play-offs then taking place in March 2021.
Matchday 1: March 24-25, 2021
Matchday 2: March 27-28, 2021
Matchday 3: March 30-31, 2021
Matchday 4: September 1-2, 2021
Matchday 5: September 4-5, 2021
Matchday 6: September 7-8, 2021
Matchday 7: October 8-9, 2021
Matchday 8: October 11-12, 2021
Matchday 9: November 11-13, 2021
Matchday 10: November 14-16, 2021
Play-offs: March 24, 25, 28, 29, 2022
A total of 13 teams qualify for the 2022 World Cup from the UEFA qualification section: the 10 group winners and three teams from the play-off route.
The 10 group runners-up progress to the play-off stage along with the best two group winners from the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League.
World Cup 2022 will take place in November and December 2022. It is scheduled to get started on November 21 and the final will be played on December 18.
It will be the first World Cup to be held in winter months and just the second to be held in Asia.
In this afternoon’ World Cup draw, there will be sides that cannot be grouped together because of political conflict, cold weather nations kept to no more than two, and distance travel restrictions for a couple of counties.
If you see a country picked and wonder why it wasn’t immediately placed into an oncoming group, these might be the reasons.
You can watch it on FIFA.com, beginning at 1PM EST.
You’d better not call Ibra Serbian, or his Croatian side will start shining through
@ARMADA87
That pitch is atrocious. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen anything worse. It’s the second time in the last little while that I’ve seen that at Poljud.
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@BZ
Ibra’s Serbian side?
Milan are not showcasing Hauge. They just brought him in.
@ BZ
I like the way you break that down. Rebić has been the X factor for us, he brings that power and pace that we needed to stretch the field to give our technicians room to operate.
Rebić is a force of nature at the LW.
The rest of Milan kids can line up around him.
His left foot has gotten better and better over the past few years.
This Serie A run will take his competitive greatness to a new level.
Rebic wins
Rebic leads Milan to yet another impressive road win.
Playing out of position to boot.
Ps-nice play by the Sampdoria defender to deny Rebic the goal (after Rebic went thru the china shop to nearly score.)
10 wins 3 draws 0 losses with Ibra injured or suspended. Think Rebic has something to do with the AC Milan renaissance? Uncannily like how we went from sucking v Peru (w/o Rebic) to silver medal a few games later (then back to sucking w/o Rebic in the UNL.)
Croatiau14-almost too selfless, that’s what having Ibra on your team will do. If you don’t pass Ibra the ball, you better score or his Serbian side comes shining thru.
Not gonna lie, this Hauge kid is good. Not sure Rebic will get the LW position back after Ibra returns, cause Milan will want showcase this kid (more transfer money upside.) Rebic might go to RW, which is fine cause that is where he often plays for us.
yeah Brozovic is CLASS…but I hate the way the dude runs,just like late senator McCain arms lol
That pitch at Poljud, with some rain, is really world class, huh? They should have the World Cup final on it, right after the stoka have a afternoon snack.
I gave Luka my Sljivovica Stari of the Match. Solid as always!
Ahhh they are not as sharp upfront without Zlatan I’m afraid
But I thought Zlatan was the reason!
Rebic (6.5): The Croatian didn’t get many chances in front of goal, but he did create several chances with his runs in behind the defence. Got the assist for Castillejo’s goal and should have had one more when Saelemaekers was free.
Rebić is a force of a nature.
I call BS on what he can’t do.
Milan is in first place with 5 points clear.
Smooth assist again.
Rebić playing very selfless lately. Love to see it
Hahaha nice assist by Rebic
I take all I said about him back
Albeit Rebic much better in the second half though
Not my style of player Rebic
AC Milan 1 nil up at halftime
Lucky penalty
Rebic heaps of chances can’t convert
He has no control or poise in front of goal
Very wasteful
@ Becar
Ya if he can improve his defensive effort, that would really make it hard for Dalic to not start him. I’m just glad he’s getting consistent playing time and like you mentioned, he’s playing 90 min too.
Modrić was named Budweiser king of the match during Bein Sports coverage yesterday.
Volim piti volim piti.
@Andrej L
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I agree. That’s why I said “decent”. I was happy to see his defensive commitment improve. That’s why I believe he’s playing more. He went through a stretch where he was being subbed out around the 65-70 minute mark.
@ Becar
I watched Brekalo yesterday and was a bit disappointed. Several poor first touches, poor passes, and forces things which all resulted in him losing the ball. At least he would do this in the attacking third and not the defensive like Badelj. Good to see him playing with confidence and going at people but I think he needs to speed up his decision making so he doesn’t cough up the ball as much.
Bradaric come on late and was responsible for the goal that Lille conceded.
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I’m watching Bašić right now and he’s really impressing me. I’m a little surprised at how much he presses forward.
Brozovic – 8: Brozovic was lights out, and that’s no understatement. His assist on Hakimi’s first goal was one of the prettiest passes of the weekend, while he lead the team in key passes (3), and touches (87). Furthermore, he made 97% of his passes, including 3 of 4 long balls. With rumors that a swap with PSG’s Leonardo Paredes fell through on deadline day, you can’t help but breathe a massive sigh of relief that that particular transfer never came to pass.
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Marcelo Brozovic (CM) – 8/10 – What an absolutely divine pass for the second goal! Great vision and execution to pull off such a work of art. It’s what we’ve come to expect from the Croatian.
Sretan Sveti Nikola Svima!!
Modrić is playing too well and now too much for Real Madrid.
He needs to come off the bench this Wednesday.
Glad to see Kroos pulling his weight.
Luka Modric – 8/10
Luka Modric played his 8th straight match in just 21 days. The toll of the minutes reduced his effectiveness in the last couple of games. However, the Croatian showed his quality and led Real Madrid’s midfield against Sevilla with a brilliant performance. Modric opened up the play for Real Madrid several times in the match, and he would be disappointed one of them did not turn into a goal.
Speaking of RB Salzburg youth products.
What happen to Ante Coric?
That Roma move was death.
Ćorić can play.
Every top youth prospect should go to Bundesliga like Rakitic did from Basel to Schalke.
Didn’t even go great for him at Schalke but he played regularly and was ready for the Sevilla move.
German clubs have frugal budgets and have to play all the players that they bring in.
Ages 18-22, you have to play regularly and be a part of meaningful matches.
HNL is the best at playing their top youth products.
It is so broke that you have to play them to be competitive and to ship them out for big money transfers.
Maybe these Covid transfer times and economic hardships for clubs will mean even more opportunities for our bang for your buck young Croatian transfers.
I’m going to rename new mexico new prussia.
Yeah agreed. Hopefully he can be like a Kulesevski for Juve or a Leao for Milan, young guy who sees playing time and improves as a player. He has a lot of potential. Just needs to get things right with his career
6,000,000 traitors out of 800,000,000.
Yea, my only concern is if he’s sent to one of their stupid Primavera squads.
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Their youth development sucks. However, Juventus has been very saavy when it comes to their purchases. Usually they have a plan for players they buy. Milan has been bad with their development of young players.
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I would prefer Sučić joins a team like RB Leipzig instead.
@Maminjo
Rumor has it that Sučić may join Milan or Juve in January, but similar to Gvardiol, will be sent back to Salzburg on loan. I think that’s a good move for him to be honest.
Remember all, Sučić is a midfielder. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t put up huge goal scoring numbers
Gvardiol and Sučić are the big ones for me.
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They are both born in 2002… Are playing in Europa/Champions League football… And are playing well.
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Usually were are late bloomers, so seeing two teenagers do well at this level… I dunno. Last time I saw a Croat do well at this age in a European tournament was Ivan Rakitić. Can’t think of another Croat that did anything notable at 18.
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I love the fact that Gvardiol took less money and transferred to Leipzig over Leeds. That could be a critical move as they are a club that isn’t afraid to play youngsters. Hopefully Sučić makes a smart choice for his next club.
Kovačić played great today. Only way that the defenders could get the ball off of him was by fouling. Brozović again solid, no surprise. Sometimes I feel we forget how great he really is. Top 3 defensive midfielders in the world for me, alongside Kante and Kimmich. I feel he’s ahead of Casemiro, Fabinho, Partey, etc. We have quite a few young CDMs coming through our youth ranks too; Bulat, Duvnjak, Franjić.
As for Halilović, I’m happy to see him back on the field. I get that it’s the English 2nd tier, but this is his first step into saving his career from landing at square one (Prva Liga). A few solid performances from him could catch some other club’s eyes, maybe a mid table La Liga or Serie A team, who knows.
Remember, we don’t NEED Halilovic as long as we have a few of the many attacking talents we have prove to be successful. I still feel that Luka Sucic is the biggest talent we’ve had since Halilović was just a child at 16.
Ivan Šaranić (17 years old) scored a brace today for Dinamo Zagreb’s U19s. That adds to his FANTASTIC numbers he’s put up for Dinamo Zagreb’s youth teams; 80 goals in 82 games! And don’t forget, he’s a midfielder! Absolutely insane numbers.
Dinamo has really stepped up their game with young talents, arguably better than ever before. Gvardiol, Šaranić, Majer, Ivanušec, Josipović, Franjić, Matijević, Duvnjak, J. Šutalo, Julardzija, the list goes on and on.
We have Luka Sučić and Dominik Oroz in Austria
Daniel Katić, Franjo Ivanović, Igor Matanović in Germany
I know I went a little off topic, but things look bright!
90 minutes, the web site, has a great article about Halilovic and how is football career never got traction.
https://www.90min.com/posts/alen-halilovic-where-it-went-wrong-croatian-lionel-messi
@ Suba
Exactly!! Who will farca blame now?
@ Svima
Kovačić with a patented explosive forward dribble, accompanied with a well weighted hockey assist to Werner, who crosses it in for Pulisic.
Kovačić has been in solid form since Poljud.
Brozovic drops a dime for Inter as well.
Perišić with a sweet cross also.
Kovačić is going to be involved with an EPL and CL run.
He will grow from this year.
Hahaha
Farca lost 2 1 to Cadiz
Who are they going to blame now that raketa is gone
We talk about halilovic because we get excited every time a bosniak really works out their true heritage and declare themselves a croat or they just do it just to get ahead
either way we get excited by this its just in our mentality
so yes we will be continuing to talk about halilovic for a little while longer im afraid
I watched Brekalo today. He looked decent on both sides of the ball. That’s why he played the entire game for Wolfsburg for the first time since early October.
He did not score or do anything of merit but his flowing Bosnian locks looked amazing.
Halilovic top 3 most discussed topic on this site and will never play a game for the national team lol
He scored?
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That’s good news. If he keeps scoring and is the reason for their promotion (assuming it’s too late this year, and they get promoted at the beginning of the 2022/23 season). We should keep an eye on him as a standby callup for Euro2024.
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Hopefully he proves all of us doubters wrong.
…and that was quick.
Halilovic gets subbed on in the 72nd minute, then Birmingham goes from a mundane scoreless 0-0 tie to an exciting 1-0 win.
In other undersized, defenseless wing news, Brekalo’s Wolfsburg gets into shootout vs perennial Bundesliga bottow dwellers Koln (2-2). Brekalo did not do much.
Just having fun. Hope the best for both of these kids.
a bunch of non – believer : _)
Croatia will be doomed if Halilovic revelation was completely wasted~ because someone like Dalic _+ p
seriously . . .
the lucky strike of winning in WC was not something but pure luck | also what the hell you bring the culprit of failure ->
(1) 4 – 4 – 2 or 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 (whatever with RB & LB)
(2) Vida (the weakest and slowest defense)
(3) even Brekalo and Kovacic should not stay longer there
Yea, but in terms of ever playing for us…
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He would have to be the star player for Birmingham and gain promotion, THEN he would have to show that he could hang in the EPL.
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Krovinovic was a key player for WBA, who gained promotion, and he’s still not even on our radar as possibly getting a callup.
Halilovic is 2 years behind him right now.
Halilovic will be good for Birmingham, if he can get the coach’s support. They already have almost no chance of promotion, but Alen can save them from demotion.
Honestly, there is no last chance.
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His last chance passed him by when he was bouncing around Belgium and Holland these past two years, with neither team feeling like he was worth any payment to keep. Milan didn’t even feel like keeping him and just cut him loose for nothing.
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So, he’s essentially worthless now, with nobody showing interest and he had to go to Birmingham for free. Ivan Sunjic probably put in a good word and hooked him up.
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Right now, we have uncapped players (like Krovinovic) who at least have transfer value, with buyers like WBA wanting to negotiate a price and Benfica wanting more for a permanent transfer. He’s probably worth around 7-8 million euro. He’s not even on Dalic’s radar, but he’s still ahead of Halilovic.
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We also have young U21 players (like Lovro Majer) who is younger, and probably going to be sold for 10+ million. He’s easily ahead and more deserving of a callup, with more youngsters coming up the ranks every year.
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Halilovic is behind our U21 players and other uncapped players. He’s pretty much at Duje Cop level right now, lol.
Halilovic on the bench today. This must be his last last chance.