Ante Budimir scored his 7th La Liga goal of the season Saturday vs. Las Palmas in a 1-1 draw. The 32 year-old striker has now scored five goals in the past calendar month (since October 20th). Budimir headed home the equalizer from an extremely tight angle following a cross from the right sideline. With his recent form and Croatia’s woes at the #9 position, with or without service, does Dalić dare start Budimir versus Latvia and Armenia this month?
With his goal this weekend, Budimir is now tied in 2nd place amongst La Liga scorers this season, only behind Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, who is on 10 goals.
Joško Gvardiol had a rough day at the office Sunday in a 4-4 Manchester City draw versus Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. He received a 4/10 rating from 90min.com as he was “All over the place in the lead up to Sterling’s goal.” Gvardiol lost compass of the ball (and his legs) on Chelsea’s second goal. A nervous mistake by the 21 year-old striker? Mateo Kovačić came off the bench for City in the 79th minute. He has yet to make an impact this season for the reigning English and European champions. With the draw, City hold a one point lead in the Premiership over both Liverpool and Arsenal.
Luka Modrić received a 7/10 grade from 90min.com as he came off the bench in the 60′ of play. Real Madrid defeated Valencia 5-1 Saturday to stay second spot in La Liga behind Girona.
Matija Frigan came off the bench in injury time to score a 91′ equalizer for Westerlo in a 3-3 draw vs. St. Truiden Friday night.
I always get a kick out of the endless parade of hope that these players who have never been on the national team and really have no pedigree will emerge to be the saviors. For 2 years we heard the songs of budimir, musa, and beljo….we know how that went…and now we’re back at budimir it seems
now it will be marco pasalic and another round of aging pjaca….even some buzz of halilovic…. and of course 19 year baturina who can’t lead dinamo will lead the nt to glory
at this point, i think croatia is best sticking with the horse that is has and not rocking the boat too much.. add some youth at the margins and in the subs
Yes. I remember you mocking and laughing at Gvardiol too.
Dalić calls up Marco Pašalić…Mateo Kovačić is out with an injury.
Petkovic is (still) out as well.
And Baturina (also Vlasic) – see HNS twitter
Not sure who else dropped (other than Kovacic)
btw Marco Pasalic wasn’t on the standby list when the squad was announced Oct 31 – so there were no restrictions who can be called up to replace, etc (we were questioning this for the Turkey & Wales happened)
If Brozovic is going to play – than send Moro home (if he isn’t going to play anyways) – and also call up Roko Simic (put aside any silly non-football related reasons why he hasn’t been called up, if any)
I think all the fans would be really happy w/ seeing new young guns Sucic, Baturina, Pasalic Marco, Simic
We couldn’t ask for more right now
Hopefully some of them actually start the match (seriously)
I mean Kovacic started his first match @ 18 vs. Serbia @ Maksimir and did fine that game from memory
I’m sure these some of these four can handle Latvia and Armenia
Even if they don’t perform perfectly – that’s who the fans want to see
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/24718181/chelsea-fan-mateo-kovacic-celebrated-goal-manchester-city/amp/
This is actually a bit shady looking lol
Was was vlasic recalled? Did we get an injury?
Yup raketa with the bomb
If he was a striker dalic would be praying daily for his return
Marco Pasalic looked very good. I think we may have called up the wrong winger.
I saw the game. I thought Pjaca played better than Pasalic.
Also Perkovic did very well as LB for Dinamo.
Ya I was really hoping to see
Pasalic brothers good alone. They will go next level together
Dalic just called him up as well.
BTW…Mario and Marco aren’t brothers.
let the hrvati in the US believe what they want to believe.
It’s Canada brate get right;)
You have to be the new shit disturber
I’m born and raised in Canada too…no need to be such a dick davor.
A couple sources online said so
It’s why I wondered
Thanks for the clarification
There actually was an article written that said they were brothers in error…I wasn’t sure either.
Ya cause I think both born ironically in Germany as well
An honest mistake I’m so glad Davor corrects so nicely 😉
Hrvoje Smolcic (prolly one of the few footballers I know who hails from Lika) with a goal to tie the game for Eintracht in a come from behind 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen. Fotmob gave him MOTM honors. Was in the right place to head the ball home after a free kick situation.
Now Vlasic is back into the mix.
Rakitic with a rocket from a mile out ties the derby!
The Halilovic goal is actually really good
Nicely tracking the play – than full-court sprint / very smart run into the box to get in front of the defender to drive the ball home
Halilovic ran more on that one goal in the box (w/ very smart positioning) – than Musa and Bjelo ran the entire 180 minutes last 2 games
Why can’t we play Halilovic as our striker ?
Because he’s 5’6″ and sucks
I thought we collectively gave up on him years ago. One good goal, and the “god of halilovic” is our savior again?
I guess Dalic was worried we were so desperate that fans are batting around Halilovic as an option – so he gives us Baturina and Marco Pasalic to make use happy – if only there was a way to get Roko Simic in the squad (tbh would rather he start for us – I’m sure he’ll take it seriously given his pedigree – rather than Budimir who will inevitable go cold eventually – and isn’t the future @ 32-33)
Kovacic @ 18 debut vs. Serbia @ Maksimir and we can’t start a few young guns against Latvia and Armenia – really ???
funny how budimir and halilovic are the best performing “croats” this season so far
Sad that this is where the weekend report has fallen to. The highlight is a goal by a 32 year old striker that never worked out for the nt and never will
I wonder if Croatian soccer in 2023 is at a low for contributions (goals and assists) in top 5 leagues
Sure
I ran a simulation test on my super computer with my analytics team truth and the results were astounding.
Budimer tested as an 18 yr old physically due to his great stamina and him resting…IE riding the pine for the NT frequently.
So he’s good for another 15 years easily and should be our striker well into the 2032 World Cup 🏆so worry not!
You waited almost 8 years for one week where our most of our NT players didn’t score or create multiple goals for their clubs to post this
I’m here as much for the overly anal analysis as I am for the fandom. AJMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Back to regurgitating strikers. Yeah, that should work going forward. Just a mess
An in form Ante Budimir .. yes please!!
Need to lay the wood these next two matches.
Only beastmode allowed.
You love your Ante’s soul brotha 😝
Ante looked very lively
Could have bagged a hatrick
Budimir got another one today
Ya, he’s starting next week for sure
https://www.goalstube.online/2023/11/osasuna-las-palmas.html?m=m2
Nice header.
That’s the 2nd goal we’ve seen of his – he’s in an offside position (vs. defender around him) – that’s the only way he’s getting a few steps on them – it’s luck again that defender on the far side has kept him on-side (otherwise at least two of his recent goals would be off-side)
But yes – the header here is nice – I guess the q is – who will be flying accurate headers into the box all game vs. Latvia/Armenia (we had a couple accurate crosses into the box if we’re lucky last couple of games)
Halilovic assist and goal!!
He is playing wk in wk out in dutch league
But look at sosa and medic..on bench every match..downward spiral
Frigan should have never gone to Westerlo. They will be relegated, and he will be looking for another club, most likely a return on loan to HNL and Rijeka.
Let’s hope that none of our players get injured ahead of the EURO qualifiers.
Never understood why Frigan agreed to join such a crappy club like Westerlo and was worried from the off his team would get relegated. To make things worse, he’s not starting games nowadays. The game tying goal against St Truiden should do his confidence some good. It would be great if his contract contains a relegation release clause but I kinda doubt it since Westerlo shelled out for him (€5.5m plus add-on bonus). If Westerlo does get relegated, I hope Frigan can secure a loan move to a better club although I can imagine any potential future acquisition to be difficult because Westerlo likely isn’t going to sell him cheap.
God bless Matija and yah no more injuries to our players, please🤞
Yup we talked about this very thing on this site.
Frigan should have stayed in a winning situation with Rijeka and possibly take the HNL crown. He gets more development at home, more exposure, and probably a bigger sale for Rijeka too.
Now he’s in a losing situation, on a team going nowhere, in a league that’s not going to develop him any more than he would have developed at home.
Rijeka took the quick guaranteed money and Frigan probably makes a bit more now, but still, everybody loses here.
Yeah exactly Maminjo.
I think the only thing that can go some ways towards justifying this silly move to Westerlo is if Rijeka badly needed money from Frigan’s transfer to keep the club running.
The only consolation is Frigan isn’t struggling badly and is at least showing signs of his ability having scored 3 goals so far and contributed to at least a couple more… I’m waiting for the highlights to be published and look forward to checking out his latest goal. His previous 2 were pretty legit.