Antonio Čolak scored his 11th goal in 13 Scottish Premier League matches this season as Rangers defeated Aberdeen 4-1. Čolak angled in a shot from the middle of the box just inside the left post with a defender on him. He’s still Croatia’s hottest striker this season but will Dalić call him to be on the World Cup squad? I think it’s a no brainer but is it too late since Čolak was not called to participate in Nations League matches in September?
We are now three weeks away from the start of the World Cup with no clear #9. Andrej Kramarić started on the bench for Hoffenheim vs. Koln Sunday.
Ivan Perišić assisted on Tottenham’s equalizer Saturday (off a corner) in a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Bournemouth. Spurs were down 2-0 and rattled off three unanswered goals starting in the 57′ to capture all three points. Perišić sent in a cross that was headed home by Ben Davies for the equalizer. It is Ivan’s fourth assist in the Premiership this season. He is still looking for his first goal in England.
Borna Sosa was MOTM (FotMob) as he assisted in Stuttgart’s 2-1 injury time win over Augsburg Saturday. Sosa sent an absolutely perfect cross to teammate, Sehrou Guirassey, who headed home to make it 1-1. Only he could have played the ball as Sosa sent a long-range sniper cross from outside the box. If the Vatreni can get this kind of service from Sosa/Perišić consistently in the box during the World Cup, goals are coming with or without a point man.
Luka Modrić returned from a minor knock Sunday as Real Madrid played out a 1-1 draw with Girona. Modrić was given a 8-rating as he “had a productive game in midfield and was also shown a yellow card for a foul. He passed the ball with 92% accuracy, including five key passes and three long balls. He won two of his six duels and made one tackle.”
Petar Musa scored a late goal off the bench as Benfica thumped Chaves 5-0. Musa has not cemented himself in the Benfica starting XI but now has two goals and an assist in eight appearances this season.
Mario Pašalić and Lovro Majer were also credited with assists on Sunday as both Atalanta and Rennes won, respectively.
So November 9th is the final squad selection. I guess we will see, I don’t like some of the names selected in the front line and I also don’t see the point of Ivanusec either he didn’t seem very good to me or like someone who fits the team.
Misic on the other hand I do like.
Isn’t Sunjic better and more versatile than Misic?
Are there one or two friendlies?
One against Saudi Arabia.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/team/fixtures/_/id/477/croatia
IMO Robert Ljubicic is the direct replacement for Sosa, if something were to happen to him … wonder if he’s on the 55 man?
Yes, like Ljubicic but where is Ivan Sunjic. He’s a battle-hardened campaignor. Useful player and good backup
Kramaric also remains a big question mark for me as well as Brekalo. Cannot say I agree with Dalic on the frontline selection.
I always liked Brekalo because of his skill, but his slender build is hurting his career the way it has hurt Kramaric’s career.
With elite technical ability (and a rocket of a shot) this kid should not be plateauing the way he has over the past couple of years.
He will probably end up on a Hoffenheim caliber team, and just do well there.
They loved him in Torino, and they wanted him to stay (because he did great there) but he arrogantly didn’t want to stay and wanted to go to bigger club.
I like that confidence of his, but he really needs to put in the work to be a stronger player physically.
He’s pretty redundant on our National Team right now, as we have so many other options like Perisic, Majer, Orsic, etc.
Probably wouldn’t play at all unless we had multiple injuries.
Not sure why Budimir gets picked over Ljubicic but I was expecting to see this kind of a list to be honest. With some of the issues now defensively I can see why Dalic had Lovren and Vida on the prelims even if I don’t agree with the decision
Atleast Colak is on the preliminary list hopefully he gets a call up, but again Ljubicic or Musa should have been chosen over Budimir, I don’t agree with that decision at all unfortunately.
I think he grabbed Misic because of Brozovic returning from injury.
That is actually a good pickup since he’s been playing well in Champions League in that CND role for Dinamo.
We don’t have any issues defensively. Our backline is perfectly fine, and probably the most intriguing part about this team.
The perceived issue is youth…which is probably why Dalic wants to keep his veterans in Vida/Lovren there (even though the amount of mistakes those two make absolutely dwarfs any mistakes made by our younger players). I think it’s just a coping mechanism for Dalic that gives him comfort, even though he knows they both suck.
Ideally, Antonio Colak can play the Oliver Giroud role for us.
Musa probably would have been a more in-form version of Budimir for us too.
I would have loved to see him (and Musa) get callups for September to see what they could do.
Hopefully Colak is the real deal and he does well with the National team in their next friendly.
Just came out.
https://twitter.com/CroatianNews/status/1587085144447483908?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
No Petar Musa.
Watch him go on a scoring streak now. 🙁
At least he added Colak so we don’t close the door on that.
No other surprises in there. Misic being the only real new addition (which is fine).
When is the list supposed to be published today?? Is there a specific time or is it out any time?
https://twitter.com/HNS_CFF/status/1587082607182970882?s=20&t=qLAnFlaVo-qCOjmbTTTuzw
I hope we didn’t miss an opportunity with our strikers here.
Musa is heating up with three goals in his last four games for Benfica.
If you add up his total minutes played on the season, it only amounts to 322 minutes.
He averages a goal every 80 minutes.
So he never cooled off from his hot streak with Boavista last season.
Čolak is another one too of course. I think Portuguese league is a lot better than Scottish, but you can’t ignore a league scoring leader regardless.
Both of them need to be on the list tomorrow.
Agreed. Those two have absolutely earned it. Marin Ljubičić maybe should be going, too. As far as strategy goes, I think that is the position where players can be replaced most easily. I just hope that Dalić sees it the same way.
Yeah agreed, Musa and Colak have to be in the squad list today.
It’s just tiring to see the constant striker issue being talked about…yet we have three league scoring leaders right now (in Colak, Ljubicic, Livaja) and another one who was near the top in Portugal last season (Musa), who continues to score despite a club switch.
I just hope we don’t do the same thing we did at Euros, where we had solid young backline talent in the pipeline (Sosa, Gvardiol, Erlic, Juranovic, etc.)…but took too long in bringing them in…and then Dalic panicked at the last minute and had to do it DURING the actual tournament with Gvardiol and Juranovic.
Shame that Musa got sick in June. He likely would have made a bigger impact than Budimir in the same role.
But then he (along with Colak) weren’t called for September’s games either.
I think that move was Dalic being typical Dalic, and purposely not wanting to put himself into a position where he had to make a tough decision (even if it’s for the betterment of the team).
He was probably set on Krama, Budimir, Petkovic and Livaja…but now he’s got a few younger and possibly better options right now.
He’s probably afraid to cut a current player or start a new one…then if it fails, he’ll get blamed for it.
He can always play the “oh it was too late” card, but in reality, we probably could have tried one (or both) of Colak and Musa in the last couple of rounds to see how it goes.It’s just tiring to see the constant issue of not being able to score…yet we have three league scoring leaders right now (in Colak, Ljubicic, Livaja) and another one who was near the top in Portugal last season (Musa), who continues to score despite a club switch.
I just hope we don’t do the same thing we did at Euros, where we had solid young backline talent in the pipeline (Sosa, Gvardiol, Erlic, Juranovic, etc.)…but took too long in bringing them in…and then Dalic panicked at the last minute and had to do it DURING the actual tournament with Gvardiol and Juranovic.
Shame that Musa got sick in June. He likely would have made a bigger impact than Budimir in the same role.
But then he (along with Colak) weren’t called for September’s games either.
I think that move was Dalic being typical Dalic, and purposely not wanting to put himself into a position where he had to make a tough decision (even if it’s for the betterment of the team).
He was probably set on Krama, Budimir, Petkovic and Livaja…but now he’s got a few younger and possibly better options right now.
He’s probably afraid to cut a current player or start a new one…then if it fails, he’ll get blamed for it.
He can always play the “oh it was too late” card, but in reality, we probably could have tried one (or both) of Colak and Musa in the last couple of rounds to see how it goes.
Kalinic is injured and will not be one of our 3 keepers in Qatar.
I would give that spot to Grbić, who made respectable contributions when called into sudden action at Atlético Madrid. Otherwise, the guy who is playing in Greece sounds promising.
Yes, I would also go Grbic. Dalic was speaking on HRT news and looks like the 35-man list will be made available to the media and public on Monday.
Can’t wait for that!
https://www.goalstube.online/2022/10/torino-milan.html?m=m2
A decent little back heel for an assist for Vlasic.
He seems to have found his form
Do you guys think vlasic was just too over his head in England ? Or just not right fit?
Hopefully he can come in with a hot streak in Qatar and be a factor
Big win for them
I think he’s actually a great fit in England.
He wasn’t given a chance at Everton, and he was out of form when he transferred to West Ham.
Patience wears thin in England, and first impressions are everything.
He was unlucky both times.
Well I’m happy he is doing his thing in Italy
I think we all kind of gave up some hope on him
But he has shown he can perform for the repka and will play hard given the chance in Qatar
The vlasic majer sosa and others have a lot to prove and of course being runners up
The boys want to show this ain’t no fluke
And luka will want to cement his legendary status
We win in Qatar he may go down as top 5 ever to play the game
https://www.goalstube.online/2022/10/lazio-salernitana.html?m=m4
Here’s a Domagoj Bradaric sighting. He started this game and produced a nice assist against a quality opponent.
Sofascore shows him coming off with an injury. Excellent cross in.
50 to 1 is probably good odds. There have been 4 world cups in the past twenty years and croatia came pretty close to winning two of them. Although they won neither.
Undoubtedly both times croatia experienced a lot of luck though in advancing. The 98 group and path were favorable
And 2018 was incredibly lucky winning two penalty shoot outs in a row. Those are pretty much 50/50 bets so there was only a 25 chance of croatia winning them both
As always, i think it’s a disappointment if we don’t make it out of the group, especially given this isn’t a particularly tough one. Any wins beyond that is just a bonus and not expectation
Let’s how brozovuc hasn’t rushed back for champions league and re injures himself in any way. Given so much of his game is based on how much ground he covers, he’s pretty useless when not 100 percent
Sosa, majer should be set for big moves after the World Cup
Course gvardiol will be making a huge one too
Don’t know who else may…
got a sense Sosa/Majer/ Gvardi will be making their mark- I just sense the kids will be the surprise of the team- Broz/Luka/ Kova are expected to be great but the kids will be the difference . Livakovic -God help us.
https://streamja.com/mrP03
Majer with some lovely set piece delivery.
I am excited to see him on the biggest stage, he’s the type of player who can string together a large stat line when he gets hot!
I don’t think he has the conditioning to start all 3 games in the group stage, but he will be a weapon for us off the bench!
I’d love to see him working off Petkovic, Majer can find the crevices and Bruno can slow it down and distribute it to him in those tight windows, I wouldn’t start them together but late in a tight game they are the type of duo that can punish tired defending!
Despite not having a killer in form striker currently. We do a varied attack. Majer and sosa to be X factors in distribution and creativity
I feel last World Cup we relied more on our pressing and athletics. This we are more into technical
Hopefully we have nuff of the killing instinct tho
Croatia currently 50-1 or +5000 to be win it all… those odds are really good value considering they are also the 8th favorite… they should progress thru the group, the path after that is hard, but if they simulated this World Cup 50 times, my guess is Croatia would win it 2-3 times
Definitely worth a gamble. Croatia is definitely being underrated here.
Portugal is another good value payout at 16/1.
Germany and England being two of the favorites is laughable to me. Would never bet on them for this World Cup.
Also, the payout for Senegal to go far is decent. They have quarterfinal potential since they have the easiest path, and they’ve recently been playing well.
Didn’t those teams both lose to Hungary in the Nations League ? Hungary has a decent team, but they aren’t in the world cup. It means those two teams can be beaten by most competitors at the cup
Yeah their recent form hasn’t been great…and Germany has to go through technically gifted teams they generally struggle against (like Spain, Croatia, Brazil) pretty early in the competition.
Agree.
Look at it this way. Cro and Belgium are in the same group, so our possible path in the knockout rounds is identical to one another. I see at Cro 40–1, and Belgium is 17–1.
That difference is ridiculous. No way Belgium is that much better than us (I would had to have us both at around 20–1)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vZsMcIAlVJw
this guy speaks the truth about fans _
All of you as football fans have got that mindset
this guy educates you guys for sure…
All of perisics assists coming of corners not impressing anyone
Then again modric has been taking corners with almost no goals for years so maybe perisic or sosa should give them a hit
Croatia has also transitioned to playing an incredible percent of short corners. I’d be curious on the logic and what the stats say on it
It would be nice to share the load
But we need Perisic headers and his flicks
Sosa needs to take more for sure
And I could see him getting a large amount of them once luka leaves his throne
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=adOTch875hs&ab_channel=VSPORTS-LigaPortugal
Musa with a clinical finish. He now has 3 goals in his last 6 games with Benfica, all from the bench. He’s knocking loudly. He must come to Qatar.
If only he never got Covid that time he may have run with the striker spot
He moved over to benfica, gets limited minutes and is finding form
But is it too late now to put him in??
https://www.goalstube.online/2022/10/psg-troyes.html?m=m7
Ante Palaversa sighting. Remember him? This is his second game with Troyes and he scored coming in off the bench. Against PSG no less.
He’s still young at 22 and plays CDM.
Being a Croatian midfielder is tough, but so long as he continues to develop, there’s a chance for him.
Yup never know in 2-3 years what happens