Borna Barišić scored the game winner for Rangers on Saturday in a 2-1 victory over Ross County. His 75th minute free kick deflected perfectly off the wall and into the back of the net with the goalkeeper leaning the wrong way. Barišić laughed more than he celebrated at the goal. With the win, Rangers still remain a whopping nine points behind Celtic in the Scottish title race. Antonio Čolak came on for Rangers in the 83rd minute. He has been ice cold in 2023 without a goal to his name.
Ivan Perišić received a 6/10 grade from 90min.com for his 79 minutes on the pitch in a huge 1-0 win over 2nd place Manchester City Sunday. “Nearly played his way into trouble at times but was largely solid, the inverse of his performance in the reverse fixture.” He was taken off in the 79′ while on a yellow card. Perišić played on the left side as a wing back and was responsible for defending multiple City attacks. Any game where you can keep Manchester City to a clean sheet should be considered a good day. Spurs now sit one point outside of a Champions League spot.
Joško Gvardiol has a masterclass game defensively in RB Leipzig’s 0-0 draw versus Koln Saturday. He was given ‘Man of the Match’ honors (8.2 rating) by FOTMOB as he anchored the Leipzig defense.
Luka Modrić and Real Madrid are officially in trouble. Los Blancos lost 1-0 to Mallorca on Sunday with Modrić coming off the bench in the 64th minute. Modrić has not returned to Real Madrid in 2022 World Cup form. The reigning Champions League holders head to Morocco this week to face Al Ahly in the Club World Cup semifinals. With RM sitting Modrić this weekend, we can only assume he will get the start on February 8th.
Josip Brekalo played in his first match with Fiorentina this weekend. He came off the bench in the 72nd minute in a 2-1 Bologna victory over Fiorentina. Fiorentina currently sit 12th place in Serie A.
Milan derby: Brozo in, and Rebic in not much later.
Luka looked good today. Mallorca were a bunch of butchers all game trying to stop/slow down things, but that’s not a surprise.
It’s been a quiet weekend for the boys. Dalic needs to prioritize the team for the March games. Turkey didn’t qualify for the World Cup but manage to get results. They should never be taken lightly. The first match is at home against Wales. No more Bale bailing them out and can’t save them but they’ll press for a draw. Dalic needs to test the youngsters. This is how they’ll prepare for the Euro U-21 tournament in June. Give the opportunity to grow. Musa, Simic, Pasalic, Vidovic. Any of them. Drop Kramaric, Petkovic, Livaja. They are slow as shit and we need fresh talent and legs. Keep Perisic and Orsic upfront but do 360 switch. Midfield I’d put Majer, Sucic, Misic, Moro and others. Defence we already know Gvardiol is a menace and top class for his age, so rest him. Bring Sutalo, Jurnaovic, Stanisic especially since he can’t get minutes at Bayern. Pasalic and Erlic too. Leave Livakovic on he bench. Allow a unfamiliar Grbic and other youth goalkeepers. You have to integrate the youth asap. Let the starters and older guys rest for the nations league against the Dutch. Dalic needs to come to his senses and move on past the 2017-2022 period. If not, then it’s a repeat of Euro 2021 in Germany. Don’t even look at Lovren, Vida, Budimir, Barisic. They are all B leauge players. Not even close to sniffing international level. Lovren looked like a lost starac with dementia against Argentina.
Hajduk loses their 2nd straight match. I think the new coach is gone Monday morning.
I’m a Hajduk fan, but no way was it a certain foul to award a potential penalty kick that wound up being saved.
Anyone watching this can’t continue to claim that HNL is actually better than MLS. Games are so slow.
On the plus side, at least HNL has “developed” players for the National Team where MLS teams have so few Americans on them.
I don’t think that either of the two penalties given to Hajduk were spot kicks. Livaja scored from the first, but justice was done when he missed from the second in stoppage time.
I didn’t see the match, but I don’t equate speed with quality, necessarily. Scottish league is fast and it sucks. Would rather watch finesse and skill than ramshackle hockey hustle.
Curious to see what young legs will be called up and given an opportunity for March?
Wales and Turkey will demand hard running.
We need to give some young legs a shot in the attacking third.
I pray Dalic has learned from his last post World Cup experience.
Musa
Ljubičić
Šimić
All need to be called and given a look.
They have shown qualities that we desperately need up top.
Out of Petković – Budimir – Kramaric I would only call back Kramaric as he is always good for a 60/30 split and can finish when you need him.
We simply need to start scoring goals.
Yes our midfield and defense is world class.
But we have to support them with some type of attack.
Watched Lukas Kacavenda come on in the 87 minute for Lokomotiva against Osijek (1- 0). In the short time that he was on the pitch he looked sharp and had a few good touches, he even went in for a slide tackle. Let’s hope that he has fully recovered from the knee injury and that he recaptures the form that he had prior to the injury.
From what I recall of his highlights pre-injury, he was pretty explosive.
I’m going to keep my expectations low, as guys like Pjaca and Moro lost a step because of similar injuries.
Agree, only time will tell.
Oh awesome he is back
Something about the kid I like
Let’s hope he can get back to similar levels
He is super young so that’s a perk
Same thing was said about Moro when he blew his knee at age 20.
He lost what he had, and reinvented himself.
Hopefully I’m wrong but it’s hard to overcome both the physical and mental aspect of it.
Dude, get some new material
How do you get internet access in a straight jacket amateur it’s quite impressive ?