The Croatian duo of Ivan Perišić and Marcelo Brozović carried Inter Milan Saturday in a 2-1 loss to AC Milan in another chapter of the Derbi di Milano; with Olivier Giroud stealing the show. Perišić broke the deadlock in the 38th minute as he cooly volleyed home a corner kick with absolutely no power and all placement. Inter looked as they would separate themselves atop the Serie A table with a victory but Giroud would score twice in three minutes in the last 15 minutes of the match. AC Milan now trail leaders, Inter Milan, by only one point.
Perišić received a 7.5 grade: “Aside from the goal he was everywhere: from helping out defensively to always being an option in attack. A true leader in this Inter.”
Brozović received a 6.5 graded and was regarded as Inter’s ‘MOTM’ on many fan websites: “Dictated the tempo of midfield as he usually did especially in the first half. Was brought off as a safety measure which cost the game.
It wasn’t his fault by any means, but Joško Gvardiol’s 58′ own goal will go down as the decider in Bayern Munich’s 3-2 win over RB Leipzig Saturday. Bayern’s Serge Gnabry came into the box and ripped a powerful right-footed shot towards the Leipzig goal. Gvardiol did the right thing and sprinted to the scene as fast as he could to get down and try to block the shot. However, the shot took a funny deflection off Gvardiol and would hit the back of the net to earn Bayern Munich three points and help them keep a healthy lead atop the Bundesliga title.
Borna Sosa had another wonderful left-footed assist Saturday; feeding Sasa Kalajdzic with a perfect header on the back post in the 70′ versus Eintracht Frankfurt. The goal made the game 2-2 but Frankfurt would score the winner in the 77′. With the loss, Stuttgart remain in the relegation zone, four points from safety.
Lovro Majer is still being an extremely sneaky player for Rennes in Ligue 1 as 2022 restarts from the winter break. Majer assisted on the game-wining goal for Rennes Sunday in a 2-0 victory over Brest. In the 20′, Majer chipped a soft lob to teammate, Gaetan Laborde, for an easy header on the back post. Most players would have wildly shot it or kicked it back to the top of the box, but Majer found his man with great vision inside the box. With the win, Rennes trail Nice by five points for France’s last Champions League berth.
Ivo Grbić had a rough, rough day at the office against PSG on Sunday in a 5-1 loss. Granted, the current Croatian #1 keeper was playing goalie against some of the world’s best in Messi and Mbappe, but Grbić did it to himself in one of his worst outings to date. In the 10′ minute of the match, Grbić dropped an easy ball and let it roll away to PSG’s Danilo Pereira for a tap-in goal. Reigning French champions, Lille, would equalize to erase the Grbić gaffe but he would miss an easy punch later in the 1st half off a PSG corner. Grbić wasn’t helped by his defense on PSG’s third goal as he was easily chipped by Messi. He was way too slow to get to a deflected ball late in the 2nd half. It just wasn’t his day and it’s never good to get five goals scored on you in a 90-minute game.
At least Grbić can say he’s been scored on by Messi and Mbappe. Silver lining?
Mateo Kovačić was given a 6/10 grade on Saturday as Chelsea defeated Plymouth Argyle 2-1 in FA Cup extra time. Kova was unfortunate not to score in the 1st half as he hit the post twice; blistering two shots off the crossbar and left post.
“Given that the Croatian has been one of Chelsea’s standout performers this season, there was no surprise he started in midfielder once more. Kovačić looked sharper than many of his colleagues and was unfortunate to strike the crossbar and post with well-taken shots in the first half. He continued to probe in the second period and was one of Chelsea’s better performers against the League One side before being brought off late on.”
http://www.football-rankings.info/2022/02/world-cup-qualification-simulations-5.html
Nice link. Scroll down, HRV now with 98.9% likelihood of ending up in pot 2 for the WC draw (We’re 15 in the Jan rankings. Colombia at 16 now suddenly looking unlikely to qualify at all. USA and Mex play each other next, HRV will gain some points if there is a loser in that game, etc, etc.)
Good news
You know you look at the first two pots and it’s like ok we got some big names but we can take all of them down
France of course being the one most alarming but I think we could take both current Brazil and Argentina teams
What’s the probability of us getting France again?? I’d say like 98 percent;)
right. Though maybe we get Qatar. 🙂
Italy/Portugal winner wouldn’t terrify me, nor would ARG.
And we would NOT get Germany, since they are almost for sure pot 2 also (as is Denmark, who is well now).
YES PLZ QATAR lol
actually, odds are decent it would be Qatar. You can’t have more than 2 UEFA teams in 1 group. So by definition, that means we have a lower chance of being paired with a UEFA team out of pot 1….. and a higher chance of getting Brazil, Arg or Qatar.
Senegal just won the African Nations Cup.
If they win their final round playoff against Egypt in WC qualifying, that should secure them a good ranking and a possible Pot B slot as well.
(It depends on what happens with USA and Uruguay’s games too).
There could be a situation where we have an All-time misfit group.
Qatar, Senegal, Austria, Ecuador
The vison by Lovro Majer to create that goal is absolutely unparalleled.
How is Perisic not being offered a contract? He’s been consistently good all year
He has always seemed to have rocky relations there
Just read I forget online cro site saying musa possibly will head to benfica
Good move I guess same league but more prestigious
Surely Petar Musa is on the radar for the National team.
Nice. I see he scored a couple goals this past week.
Hopefully he keeps them coming and ends up with a 15-goal season.
I sure hope a keeper steps up
Even with our question mark striking at this point we are pretty set up most of the place
Ivusic gave us a small but very promising sample size
Great assist by majer
How has he been doing the past few weeks?
I know he was smoking hot for a bit a while back but haven’t seen too many updates on here
Or I may have missed them
Very nice assist by Lovro Majer, you can see that he is learning the French way with that composure in the box, most Croats that don’t know the French way would’ve panicked there and had some stupid shot, but, as you can see, a lit bit of composure goes a long way, that’s the French way my friends.
Frenchy who is the all time leading single season scorer in your league? That’s right, Josip Skoblar when he bagged 44 in a single season for Marseille in 1971. No Frenchman has come close, before or after.
Garbage
many delusional people here
then we have to follow:
Ivucic > Grbic
Vidovic > Pasalic
Pogracic > Caleta Car
……………. Simic ………….. Vidovic …………….
Perisic ……………. Majer …………… Halilovic
…………..Brozovic ……… L Modric………..….
……Gvardiol…..Pogracic……CaletaCar…..
………………………… Ivucic …………………………..
we can use | Sosa and Juranovic
stop thinking about some players
that will put the calamities |l
people that think Grbic is good ? Ivucic >Grbic is obvious.
Vidovic > Pasalic ? Maybe .. who cares. None of them should start.
Pogracic > Celeta Car … Maybe …Im okay with that
I agree too many people always want to hold on to mediocre players in the NT.
If you’re going to post this non-sense all the time at least spell the players’ names right.
Grbic brilliant v psg
https://streamable.com/5tqtuv
Majer with a cheeky little lob, what a nice and classy assist.
How did gvardiol do besides the own goal?
Shit happens as long aa he doesn’t lose his confidence… all is ok
He played really well, was the best defender in the game.
Kova getting hungry for goals
That has always been something that has been missing
Even if he can just be a poor mans luka for couple tourneys we are in good shape
Laknat
At least kova pasalic and caleta are playing in a top 5 league and not bummed out of every opportunity like the god
when delusional people here |_L
start to prise some players like :
– Kovacic
– Duje Caleta
– Pasalic
and see what happened to them?!
just _ please wake up!
The Sosa assist really gives us an idea as to what Croatia is missing up front.
We need a tall striker who is good in the air, clinical, physical and is good with the ball at their feet. Dalic has got to jump on any striker that can bring this to the Vatreni ASAP.
You guys should bring Rakitic back to the national team, you could sub him into the game just before pk’s.
Frenchy
If we perform like we did at Euro 2021 we aint going nowhere to penalties
So rakitic would be surplus to requirements like the rest of its bench lineup
Mbappe was money from the spot when it counted at Euro Cup last year.
Who the fuck said we’re going to PK’s?
F-man was attempting to be clever because Rakitic had a late PK Saturday and the goalie saved it.
We have any Olympic medal hopefuls?
Perisic finish: “As cool as you like.”