Luka Modrić got his 1st start of the season and played 77 minutes in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Getafe. He received a resounding 8.5/10 grade from MadridUniversal.com as “The Croatian wizard earned his first start of the season at the refurbished Santiago Bernabeu and wove his magic through Bordalas’ side. Modrić was at the centre of every Real Madrid chance and even came close to scoring through a bullet header in the first half. He was the engineer who eventually managed to open up Getafe’s defence after half-time, feeding the ball into the box for Joselu’s equaliser.”
Mateo Kovačić played 84 minutes and supplies fantastic “hockey assist” in City’s 5-1 thumping of Fulham. Gvardiol remained on the bench for this match. Kova received a 7/10 grade from Goal.com as he “Played with purpose and flair. Played a beautiful pass to slice open Fulham’s defence for the opening goal.”
Roko Šimić earned an 8.6/10 rating and MOTM honors for his two-goal performance Sunday in a 2-0 Red Bull Salzburg victory over Rapid Wien. (please post highlights in the comments section). To start the season, Šimić, Beljo, and Frigan are all hot. Absolutely fantastic!
Dion Drena Beljo scored the opening goal for Augsburg in a 2-2 draw against Bochum. Beljo now has two goals in the first three matches of the young Bundesliga season. Fantastic start for the 21 year-old striker.
Matija Frigan ís mirroring Beljo in every way. Frigan scored for the second straight weekend as well in Westerlo’s 2-1 loss to Cercle Brugge. The goal came in injury time to break Brugge’s clean sheet.
Andrej Kramarić assisted in Hoffenheim’s 3-1 win over Wolfsburg. Lovro Majer played 68 minutes for Wolfsburg in the loss.
Croatian defense of Šutalo, Medić, Sosa look to showcase for Ajax Sunday vs. Fortuna Sittard 8:30AM (ET)Andree
rip ammo 9mm
Croatians Around Europe 3: Modrić with 8.5 Rating, Beljo & Frigan Score Again, Šimić w/ 2 Goals – CROATIANSPORTS.COM
Well it looks like the bat signal for truth has been flashed into the sky and the truth answers
I haven’t been too active lately cause I’m still yatching on the jadransko. Overall fantastic as always but still a bit frustrating that a lot of the smaller fishing selos don’t have big enough ports… we’re into september which is the best time. Weather gets cooler but water still warm and the turisti have gone home. Lijepa nasa for the hrvati again
So in terms of strikers, there is nothing to get excited about. Musa still a bench player in Portugal. Showed no motor with the National team. Definitely not mandzo 2.0
Beljo will be on and off all year with no consistency.
Simic started hot last year and disappeared. Talk to me in a month
Frigan going to have to do more than some tap ins in the Dutch league to flash on the radar
agreed, imo Beljo is the best prospect of them all, dumb by dalic to drop him from the squad
Is our cupboard really full of riches when it comes to the striker position?
I think we need the truth to make an appearance on here it’s been a while.A few guys score in leagues not much better then the HNL and we have the next suker!
Until we have a guy scoring 15-20 goals consistently in a top flight
League we should temper our expectations.
I don’t think anyone here has crazy expectations.
Just nice to see some solid young strikers working their way into getting minutes and scoring goals in top-10 leagues like Germany, Portugal, Belgium and Austria.
Some of these guys are very young like Beljo, Frigan and Simic. Musa is also young enough to develop some more.
Just need one guy to pan out, and he doesn’t even need to be some elite striker. Just someone to capitalize on the midfielders, wingers, and modern offensive-minded centerbacks we now suddenly have a lot of.
Hey fellas, you can find below links showing Frigan’s recent goals for Westerlo. For some reason, I’m unable to post youtube links here, so to work around that, I have modified the urls by placing brackets around “youtube.com” to prevent hyperlinking. If you don’t mind the trouble and still wanna watch, you can copy and paste the youtube urls below onto your address bar, then remove the brackets and then enter. Or you can type youtube.com/ on your address bar, then append the string that comes after the forward slash in the urls below. Cheers.
Matchday 5: Westerlo 2-3 Mechelen
August 26, 2023
Frigan put his team 2-0 up in the 28th min. Westerlo would go on to lose 2-3.
[youtube.com]/watch?v=_mcu3UF39c0&t=69s
Matchday 6: Cercle Brugge 2-1 Westerlo
September 2, 2023
Frigan halved his team’s deficit near the end of the game in the 93rd min.
[youtube.com]/watch?v=OBbgdcDsYQ8&t=270s
For those of you NOT watching the HNL (ahem…Kvartuc)…you really need to get on it. This weekend was DRAMA central! Hajduk played on Saturday vs Istra…and let me just tell you that it doesn’t get better than this. Hajduk was controlling the game but couldn’t find a goal and Istra’s Ante Erceg is just one helluva good player. He’s fast, tough, skilled and very temperamental… constantly causing Hajduk defenders problems. In injury time he got kicked in the head and was completely knocked out. He was down on the ground for almost 5 minutes while there was supposed to be 6 minutes of added time. The game went into the 111th” when BOOM, Istra gets a counter attack and score to win the game. I was shocked and I think the 25,000 fans in Poljud nearly had a heart attack. It goes to show that to win you need to score and thats exactly what happened in this game.
One note to mention…an Istra player took a bottle to the head from a Hajduk fan…wasn’t a good look at Poljud!
We fast forward to Sunday and the drama continues…first up was a pretty darn good Rijeka vs Varazdin and that game didn’t fail to impress me. it was a see-saw event with Rijeka opening up the game strong, scoring at the 17th minute and then in the second half Varazdin not only tie the game BUT they take the lead and the final 15 minutes of the game was quite interesting. Rijeka eventually tied up the game and it ended 2-2…it was a good early game to watch.
on Sunday’s later game it was Osijek hosting Dinamo and let me just say, this game shocked everyone! Dinamo started the game holding controlling possession and then BOOM, Mierez scores in the 7th minute. The game was interesting…Osijek looked compact and were playing smart, constantly making meaningful counter attacks, forcing Dinamo to get back in numbers. Jakirovic then changed Dinamo’s left back (Mykhailichenko) in the 30th minute and brought on an attacker Emreli. Dinamo were desperate and it showed. Just as the 2nd half started Osijek come out with another goal in the 46th minute, shocking Dinamo and the game looked completely over. Osijek were in control and Dinamo were down 2 goals…still holding the majority of possession but they couldn’t break the Osijek defense. In the 70th minute, Moharami has a little space on the right wing, makes a cross and Emreli scores a head ball to make it 2-1 Osijek. This is when the game went bonkers….in the 87th minute, I think it was Ljubicic attempted to cross the ball into the box. A Osijek defender attempts to block the cross while both his hands are way above his head and the ball hits his hand. The VAR team calls the ref and its a PK….Petkovic takes the PK and does a panenka (which really stressed the hell outta me) and scores. Now the game is in injury time….9 minutes into injury time there’s havoc in the Osijek box…Dino Peric and his long legs attempt to get in front of an Osijek defender with a free ball, he gets top the ball first and the Osijek defender takes a golf swing, knocks down Peric and once more VAR contacts the ref to replay the incident. It ends up being another PK, Petkovic hammers this one and Dinamo wins 2-3.
there was a lot of chatter on social media regarding the two pk’s but in my opinion, the first pk was 100% just…the second was a call that most refs would have made. once you see the replay its obvious the Osijek defender completely missed the ball and kicks/knocks down Peric. Did Peric sell it…yes he did but if that was Messi, Ronaldo or even Livaja, that would have easily been called a pk.
the table just got tighter and the games were entertaining…HNL is fun to watch!
Hey Slavonac from Canada, thanks for the write-up. One question, after Mykhailichenko was taken off, who took over the LB spot. Was it Ljubicic?
No, I believe they changed formation. My Max Sport was super shaky and really hard time to get more than 30 seconds of regular flow but I think they went to 3-5-2 although I am not certain.
One thing that wasn’t added above is that Erceg was offsides on the play that led to the Istra goal. Also, Istra won the ball after a foul. Correct on no redc ard taking place. In the span of 10 minutes, the refs screwed up three times. My thoughts were VAR should review the offsides and entire play that led to a goal, but I guess not.
Now Osijek fans are pissed about the two PK calls. A new angle came out this morning on the second PK call and its a bad dive by the Dinamo player. The explanation by the head of officials yesterday only made matters worse. And now Osijek fans don’t want the national team playing in the new Osijek stadium.
I told you guys who were jumping the ship about Dinamo that things were in control. Still more talent for Dinamo and we still have the refs under control. Now, all you people who root for hajduk go back and cry.
Two things I’m thinking about…
If Mazraoui isn’t on good form this fall (or gets injured) and if Leverkusen doesn’t really need to utilize Stanisic, can Bayern cancel the loan by mutual consent and recall Stanisic by the winter transfer period? That is, if Bayern doesn’t decide to go and buy another rightback instead.
I noticed Livakovic hasn’t played for Fener yet. I know he arrived at his new club less than 2 weeks ago but the current first team goalie, Egribayat, seems to be doing quite okay. I guess they are still integrating Livakovic with the team?
All in the the paperwork. Some full season loans do have language written were a player can come back in the winter but that usually will require money or another player if not written specifically into the deal. I like Stanisic but i dont think he is a Bayern level player.
I wouldnt worry about Livakovic. He will start for them after the international break. That is what Fenerbache told him when he came.
The same thing happened with Sutalo, and when someone here questioned why he wasn’t playing yet…he showed up the next game wearing the captain’s armband.
So Livakovic will probably be president of Turkey when he makes his debut.
Exactly. Same with Crnac at Rakow.
LOL. Better chance of Erdogan developing better foot skills as a keeper than Livakovic.
It could be turkey playing against croatia in euros, thats they want him to be off form in turkey. Then turkey got chance to beat croatia to win the group..look at orsic..crucial ligament upon arrival in turkish league club. Lol
Maybe. You never know.
Roko has beautiful hair just like his old man
Old man Dario’s hair is an illusion, and has been for quite some time.
Roko got his dark thick hair from his mom (who is a knockout by the way).
The mom is definitely NOT a knockout. Looks like a man in a lot of pictures. Dario might be more of the looker in that relationship.
Well she’s gotten older, and your features sometimes gets a little too strong as you age. Still has a great bod and was much hotter in her younger days.
Correct, in NO universe is she a knockout.
An illusion? Lol!!
Yeah Roko definitely got it from his mom.
Okay, I’m posting this for the fourth time. I have no idea why each of my previous posts have been locked for moderation so I’m just going to remove the youtube links and see if it goes through.
Just like to share two of Musa’s goal attempts from the Benfica vs Vitoria Guimaraes match. Musa didn’t manage to register a goal or assist this time round but it’s nice he got to start the game (played 83 minutes) ahead of €20m new arrival Arthur Cabral and nearly scored too, before reporting for Croatia duties this week. Benfica won 4-0.
49th min: Flubbed a backpass but managed to win the ball back and picked off a shot from outside the box that was saved by the keeper.
[youtube link removed]
51st min: Struck his shot against the crossbar— the closest he came to scoring on the night.
[youtube link removed]
Ajmo our young strikers🙂
Um, I’m posting this for the third time. I suspect my previous posts were flagged as spam and locked for moderation due to the presence of long urls, which I have modified below.
Just like to share two of Musa’s goal attempts from the Benfica vs Vitoria Guimaraes match. Musa didn’t manage to register a goal or assist this time round but it’s nice he got to start the game (played 83 minutes) ahead of €20m new arrival Arthur Cabral and nearly scored too, before reporting for Croatia duties this week. Benfica won 4-0.
49th min: Flubbed a backpass but managed to win the ball back and picked off a shot from outside the box that was saved by the keeper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy6xZfypvmc&t=117s
51st min: Struck his shot against the crossbar— the closest he came to scoring on the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy6xZfypvmc&t=220s
Ajmo our young strikers🙂
Sutalo means medic on the bench..hato is a young dutch prospect which i doubt will be dropped..i really hope sosa will pick up at ajax..seems like a step down. A league ranked 10th in world..saudi league is ranked 9th now!!!
If not just call up bradaric
Robert Murić finally got his first start at Konyaspor…but was the first to be subbed off.
The future looks grim.
Šimić 2x goals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uh6JvKfftw
Nice assist for ivanusec on his debut for feyenoord
Erm not sure why my previous post was removed.
Just hoping to share two of Musa’s goal attempts from the Benfica vs Vitoria Guimaraes match. Musa didn’t manage to register a goal or assist this time but it’s nice that he got to start the game (played 83 minutes before being replaced by fellow striker Arthur Cabral) and almost score in his last club game before reporting for Croatia duties. Benfica won 4-0.
49th min: Flubbed a backpass but managed to win the ball back and picked off a shot from just outside the D that was saved by the keeper.
https://youtu.be/cy6xZfypvmc?si=WJG-fBbYAPfAl7Qe&t=117
51st min: Struck his shot against the crossbar
https://youtu.be/cy6xZfypvmc?si=Fyzm0d6i3eQrtBf3&t=220
Yikes my comment has been placed in the moderation queue… Admin would you please help?
Oooph… Musa almost scored in his last club game (Benfica vs Vitoria Guimaraes) before reporting for Croatia duties.
Hit the crossbar in the 51st min:
https://youtu.be/cy6xZfypvmc?si=f-JzL5ZWB9s8I5Ay&t=219
Earlier on, in first half stoppage time, he flubbed a backpass😁 but managed to win it back before picking off a shot from near the D which was saved by the keeper:
https://youtu.be/cy6xZfypvmc?si=_ExnoE-6rdE3uDje&t=116
Musa played 83 minutes before making way for Arthur Cabral. Benfica won 4-0.
Fotmob and sofascore reported Šutalo as captain. I thought it was a mistake because he just joined. Sure enough, the highlights showed him with the armband. He must have made a good impression. Good for him.
The three captains were all injured, so the coach said that Sutalo was the next logical choice.
I disagree that a brand new player who is only 23 (and just joined the team a couple of weeks ago) would be the logical choice for the fourth captain spot…but i’ll take it. 🙂
Lol, Gospodin Sutalo 100% looks the part of a captain too.
Some very questionable refereeing in the Dinamo-Osijek game. Nejasmic no clue why he’s putting his arms up. Ref was right there did not call anything. On Var impossible to tell if the handball was outside the box or right on the line of the box. With the Peric foul hard to see if there was contact. He might have kicked him but I think Peric did a great acting job.
Shame for Osijek as they outplayed Dinamo in that game.
Šimić with 2 goals so far today within 35 minutes.
Šutalo wore the captain’s armband for today’s game with Ajax.
Awesome!
I see that Šutalo also received the highest player rating for the game.
Good start for him, and good to see that he gets the respect he deserves.
Fourth captain already
I think out of all the young talent up front Simic will end up being our best striker. Salzburg is a great spot to develop young talent and you know the bloodlines can’t hurt him.
On more important news..I checked out the Ajax box score and there was a God of Halilovic sighting?!?! Blast from the past. Ivor Pandur was also in net for Fortuna……he was an up and goalie prospect no?
We seem to have a lot of these random middling goalkeeper prospects like Pandur, Semper, Posavec, Letica and Sluga (many of whom went nowhere).
Pandur is still young and plays in a good league, But Dominik Kotarski is our best young keeper. Rijeka’s Labrovic looks pretty decent too.
Roko simic sitting on a brace before half time… hopefully this is the beginning of a break thru season!
Would be nice to have three young strikers in Beljo, Musa and Šimic all having good seasons.
Actually four. I forgot about Frigan.
Future for the striker position looks good.
The more strikers that we have that can potentially reach kramaric level the better- riding hot hands in tournaments isn’t something we have had the luxury to do in a while!
It would be good for them to all play so well that Kramaric becomes a midfielder for the repka!
I’m banking on Beljo and Roko (with Musa as a joker) simply because we need someone to play as a true spica who can get their head on crosses sent in by Sosa and Juranovic. Just play the one that is hot.
All three of them seem to mimic Mandzukic’s game, which is a good thing.
If we can see ex wonderkids
Balic (free agent)
Rog
Coric (free agent)
Pjaca (signed for rijeka)
Halilovic
Brekalo
Return to HNL, that would like great for HNL
Halilovic tried but it didn’t work out. That said, I watched him today and you can see he’s still got talent- good passing and even tried a “Maradona” against Ajax. Brekalo needs to come back, I don’t see him as any more than a role player at Fiorentina. Coric seemed to piss away his career but who knows, he’s still relatively young.
It’s only one game that Gvardiol is sitting out of so hopefully he gets to showcase his talents on this Man City side again.
What worries me here the most is Lovro Majer, I am really hoping he can pull through this season. He needs to step on the gas pedal and get his head together.
I am not sure what kind of a midfield player he wants to be, or what kind of an player identity he wants to to have here, but I think he is best suited as an attacking midfielder. If he could pull that off that would be a great thing for us, and something which is very needed right now. He showcased that ability in his first season with Rennes, not sure where it’s gone though or what kind of mental block he is facing here. Very poor season last season and a bit of slow start here I think, just hoping he is getting his bearings together with this new squad he is playing on. Wolfsburg looked to be much less clinical in their finishing than Hoffenheim.
I don’t know if I am right here or not but I think he may be focusing too much on being more.like his idol Modric rather than being himself and what he is good at, I don’t see see him as a box to box type midfielder I see him more.in the attacking role and position personally.
Yeah he’s similar to Robert Prosinečki.
Elite offensive talent. Very creative, great passing, not afraid to shoot it, and elite technical skills.
But he’s not a fast player, likes the slower possession game, and won’t give you much defensively.
I agree with a lot of things you say, but similar to Prosinečki? You can’t be serious? Unless you mean lazy.
Anyone who saw Prosinecki play knows that he was the most talented player we ever had. Now he’s even admitted he didn’t reach half his talent. Smoking 2-3 packs a day and drinking whiskey regularly will do that you.
Yes, I kinda do mean that, ha ha.
Any day that Hajduk loses is a good day. But, I do have to give their fanbase credit. 30K to watch them play Istra. No other club in Croatia is even close to them in terms of support or interest. You either root for Hajduk or your root against than me like me. No other club has that.
They screwed up against Istra. Everyone drops points but what made me laugh is the lack of VAR on the Istra goal. The Hajduk player was fouled which allowed Istra to get the ball for the goal and then in the buildup to the gaol Erceg was offsides. Go cry you Hajduk fuckers.
Your a major donkey and a troll…lol
Dinamo doesn’t have it easy today.
Going into Osijek after a new coaching change and a big loss in Prague.
They may not be able to take advantage of Hajduk’s loss.
We (Dinamo) have more talent and the refs in the pocket. Don’t you worry.
Did you make this comment BEFORE or AFTER those two PKs at the end of the game?
Mario pasalic seems to have lost his spot at atalanta after playing poorly in 1st half in first match for atalanta..after that he is never subbed in again. Marco to replace mario?
I was expecting perisic to play in Left forward role after son is moved as ST..but sadly soloman is selected instead.
Ok, I will admit it. I have never heard of Borna Gojo before today. Dude is in the round of 16 at the US open. He plays djokovic next. Who is he?
Gojo has been around for few years now trying to break into top 100.
He has finally achieved that this week at the US Open. I think in his late teens and early 20’s he was in America studying and playing college tennis. Over the last few years, he has performed well for Croatia at Davis Cup. Has a good serve when on song otherwise nothing special. Watched his matches at this US Open and has surprised me with his consistency from the baseline and good serving. Big improvement on what I saw over the last 2-3 years. He will do well to make top 50.
Awesome! Thank You MART!
Gojo wont win more than 7 games total against Djokovic. Him making it this far is a miracle
Relax.
He’s a legitimate top 100 player and has been a solid player for us for a while now.
There’s always a top 100 player that makes a run in a Grand Slam tournament.
There’s no miracle here.
Luka Modric (8/10):
Magnificent in his first start of the season. Measured on the ball and broke out the usual array of trivelas and nutmegs. His angled cross led to the Madrid equaliser.
Spremni !!
Madriduniversal.com.
•••
Luka Modric: 8.5
The Croatian wizard earned his first start of the season at the refurbished Santiago Bernabeu and wove his magic through Bordalas’ side.
Modric was at the centre of every Real Madrid chance and even came close to scoring through a bullet header in the first half. He was the engineer who eventually managed to open up Getafe’s defence after half-time, feeding the ball into the box for Joselu’s equaliser.
Beljo with his second goal of the season. That’s two goals in three games.
Dalic prematurely cut him from the squad because he didn’t score in the first game of the season (while coming off the bench), but then starts the next two games and scores in each of them.
He’s gotta give this kid some rope. Dalic makes the claim that it’s tough to break into the squad, but once you’re in there, then it’s tough to get cut….but then he quickly cuts Beljo and replaces him with Frigan.
Musa and Beljo regularly play in two of the best leagues in Europe and are our biggest striker prospects right now. Musa has proven to at least be an excellent backup, and Beljo has been getting regular starts here and there dating back to last season.
It’s inexcusable at this point to be cutting them from the team (or pulling them in and out of the standby list) when you have such a need up top , yet you have guys like Barisic permanently eating up a spot.
The fact that Beljo was not even on the STANDBY list for this upcoming qualifiers is insane to me (with guys like Caleta-Car, Moro, and a fourth goalkeeper ahead of him).
Agreed. However, there must be a reason. Remember, Dalic gets results when it counts, and he may see, for example, that Frigan is better at finishing from the ground whereas Beljo is more aerial, or that Frigan is quicker. I’m sure Beljo will be called up again, but it is strange that he isn’t on the team this time.
My guess is that he may see Musa and Beljo as being too similar, so he’s just going to pick the one he thinks is in better form between the two of them.
Frigan is a different type of striker I guess.
That may be true, but Dalic may have also seen something when Beljo and Musa were both called up at the beginning of the qualifiers. We have to cut the guy some slack here. Maybe Beljo didn’t mesh well with the rest squad and Dalic might have noticed something like this.
We don’t see things are happening behind the scenes, and I am sure that Dalic will give him another shot at some point.
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/09/augsburg-bochum.html?m=m2
Here’s Beljo’s goal. Pretty nice buildup and finish from him.
Also, Frigan scored the winner in added time today.
My bad. It wasn’t the winner. But a goal is a goal……
Gvardiol did not start. Kova looked very solid in first half, did a nice job setting up first City goal.
Erlic played the whole game for Sassuolo over in Serie A. He looked confident throughout, no mistakes, in 3-1 win over Verona.
I am more worried for stanisic..the back three is currently v strong and there is injured high performer hincapie waiting in the wings. He will be stuck on the bench like in bayern..he shd go to frankfurt instead
AZ,
Good observation. I am with you. Interesting that Bayern is now, it seems, also having regrets about the move. You might have seen this already, but if not I hope this link works….
https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/platform/amp/2023/9/2/23855361/bayern-munich-bayer-leverkusen-inter-milan-josip-stanisic-benjamin-pavard-thomas-tuchel-decisions
AZ, you need to lighten up.
I haven’t seen you post anything positive and are just doom and gloom.
(unless you’re talking about Robert Muric, ha ha)
All that matters is how this impacts our National Team and we’re currently in a good place with Juranovic starting at RB and Stanisic as his backup. Stanisic is still in his early 20s and is always in game shape (whether he starts at his club or not), and whenever Dalic has called on him he has always delivered. We also have some good talent on the right flank coming up as well. This should be one of our least biggest worries.
The biggest concerns for me right now is the form of our strikers, and making sure we have someone in peak form for the Euros (and making sure that Dalic calls them up well in advance of the Euros to ensure they have built some chemistry with the team). Livaja and Petkovic look like they’re both having great seasons, but it’s really guys like Musa, Frigan and Beljo who I am interested in seeing. They’re all off to solid starts, so hopefully this continues.
Outside of that, it’s just a matter of making sure Perisic, Broz and Modric are still in form (and do not drop off too much) and watching the younger guys around them develop (Gvardiol, Sutalo, Livakovic, etc.)
Mazraoui is subbed off at half time. Not sure what happened to him..if stanisic has stayed he might as have play 2nd half in come back.. he is just unlucky..leverkusen is unlikely to alter their winning starting 11 squad
Kova will be fine. Pep likes to rotate all his players. Even Haaland and KDB didn’t start every game last season.
Matheus Nunes (from Wolves) has signed for Man City. How much competition for playing time is he going to pose to Kova?