Ante Budimir scored a wonderful header from a sharp cross to give Osasuna the lead against Cadiz in the 2nd half Saturday. The goal is #12 for Budimir in La Liga this season. He put the ball in the back of the net in injury time after being put 1:1 with the Cadiz keeper. 13 La Liga goals for Budimir this season. Who would have thought?
Mario Pašalić scored the opening goal and winner for Atalanta in a 3-0 victory over Sassuolo. He cleaned up a softly parried shot in front of the Sassuolo net for an easy goal. It is his fourth goal in 22 domestic appearances this campaign. With the win, Atalanta stay fourth in Serie A which would mean a return to Champions League next season.
Luka Modrić had not received a La Liga start for Real Madrid since February 1st and it showed Sunday afternoon vs. Rayo Vallecano in a 1-1 draw. Modrić may be a bit rusty coming off the bench for the younger generation of Real Madrid players with only three months remaining on his contract. ManagingMadrid.com gave Modrić a lackluster 5/10 ratings as they were: “Surprised the Croatian lasted as long as he did – 87 minutes – as he was the least impactful midfielder on the day. Needs continuity and rhythm to play at his best and unlikely to get that in this new-look Madrid squad.”
Josip Stanišić played the full 90 minutes for Bayer Leverkusen at right-back Saturday in a 2-1 victory over Heidenheim. With Bayern Munich losing 3-2 to Bochum on Sunday, Leverkusen now has an 8-point lead on 2nd place atop the Bundesliga table.
I was on a Bayern sub on Reddit
They are crying in shambles and no RB;)
I was like don’t drop your cro players
Mandzo before and now stanisic
These jewish clubs (Bayern and Spurs) never seem to be good to their Croat players ha ha.
https://croatiansports.com/hnl-week-23-2/#comments/503966
@MART
Thanks buddy?
Baturina has passed a couple of milestones recently… turned 21 last Fri and played his 100th match for Dinamo about two weekends ago. Sometimes I wonder how he compares with the likes of Olmo and Majer. Anyway yeah, I hope his form will pick up over the next few months… would be nice if he gets on the plane to Njemacka come summer!
Luka was OK and certainly no worse than the others. Some of those Real fanboy sites have insufferable hard-ons for these young guys. Tchounameni made an embarrassing giveaway at the 18 with all the time in the world on the ball and had a baseball-swing–like foul ball off his leg and out for a corner …. Camavinga gave away the penalty kick etc. … FotMob and Flashscore.com both scored Luka higher than those two, among others. To each their own I guess but it feels like a bit of a pile-on in some places. “He’s 38, people …..”
(7.5 at FotMob and 7.4 at Flashscore — both ratings are tied for second highest in the game, both teams included.) Splitting hairs who cares perhaps, but still.
Amen to that!
Ante Crnac with a pretty productive 25 minutes or so for Rakow yesterday. A goal and a helper for the young man.
Stanišić playing the full 90 minutes, with Kossounou sitting on the bench the entire game.
Looks like Stanišić secured his spot in the starting eleven.
too early to say for sure. he came from Africa a few days before.
He’s been back over a week.
Tapsoba was also on the bench and he was also a regular starter.
Both these guys are Leverkusen property and it makes no sense to start Stanišić…unless the coach actually feels like it will negatively impact the win column.
Budimir with quality finishes
Golden boot of euros! Heard it here first;)
Glimpses of Mario Mandzukic in his prime…… Nice! Seems the Cardiac Kids really get going with a head of steam, in their 30’s. Patience is a virtue. With slow developing Orsic coming back, we could field a decent team it seems.
Abeit, Never know when someone is going to get seriously injured these days. Knock on wood. Hope for clean action moving forward.
Pasalic scores to put Atalanta up 1-0 at the half.
Vuskovic started and played the full 90 minutes for Radomiak in Poland in a 4-0 loss.
Erlic not starting and not on the bench for Sassuolo today. Hopefully no serious injury….I had not heard anything….
Pasalic starting for Atalanta.
https://www.goalstube.online/2024/02/osasuna-cadiz.html?m=m2
Here are Budimir’s goals.
Barracudas win! ?
@ Maminjo
Caleta car can be considered for NT as he is playing regularly for lyon recently and lyon is doing well recently
I never considered simic in the first place..but there are members here hoping he can be considered for the NT
By the way, the generation of aged 25-29 flopped Midfield players are returning to HNL.
Pjaca to rijeka
Rog to dinamo
Brekalo to hajduk
Krovinovic to hajduk
Coric to rudes
Muric to slaven
Balic next up?
If anyone can find form in HNL in next few months, he has a chance to be called up for NT. Eg pjaca is a good example.
Pjaca was legit. It’s just those injuries that killed him. I’m not surprised if he is doing well, but it’s just a shame that he’ll only ever be 50% of what he could have been.
Brekalo was great when he was younger and still has that skill level, but he just too weak physically. He didn’t really work hard to get better, and just relies on his talent. Seems like he has an ego problem.
These other guys were never anything to be honest.
I never understood why people liked Marko Rog. I thought he was so mediocre for us, and doesn’t have any skill. Just a guy that runs around…kind of like Ognjen Vukojevic or Josip Radosevic. Guys like that are a dime a dozen.
Krovinovic had an intriguing half season at Benfica (when he won a starting spot) and looked like he could be something for us…then he blew his knee and never recovered. So, we’ll never know.
Coric and Balic were always overhyped and had visible weaknesses in their game. I recall Balic not even being about to play a full 90 minutes when he was at Hajduk because of his fitness level. I mean, if you’re like 17-18 years old and having fitness issues, then you’re not serious. Coric was always more into video games than football. These guys were just spoiled kids.
I never knew much about Robert Muric other that he played for Jong Ajax and he told Mamic to eff off. I don’t think he was probably anything special either. Maybe a bit hyped simply because he played for “Jong” Ajax…but who cares, we have so many youths now on the youth teams of big clubs. I think, back then, we thought that meant something. Now, we realize that it’s probably better to be on Dinamo’s youth team than the youth teams of these big clubs.
Honestly, I don’t want or care if any of these guys are on our National Team (maybe Pjaca if none of Perisic, Orsic or Ivanusec can come back to form in time).
But we have our core set of players that we are going to play at these upcoming Euros, so any minutes give to anyone else will be far and few.
I’d rather fill the end of the bench with some of the young guys like Luka Sucic and Martin Baturina instead.
I don’t remember the previous generations dealing with injuries as much. I seem to remember when Modric pulled a groin/hip flexor muscle a few times, but that is the extent of it for example. Maybe I am wrong.
I guess the sport has changed or they just don’t make them like they use to. I think Gvardiol and Sucic have already been injured more than Modric in his whole entire career.Even Da Silva, if he had not had that intentional thug lead pipe move on him, he would have aged well I believe, like all the guys in the past.
It probably has changed regarding competitiveness. The day of Prosineski hot dogging around, all the while smoking a cigarette are over, although don’t tell that to Brozovic.
Nah. Lots of guys were injured. We just forget.
Modric actually broke his leg in 2009 I believe. We lost him for some WC2010 qualifiers, and we also lost Da Silva and Corluka too.
We missed that tournament because of injuries and form (and probably Bilic too).
I do see a lot more knees being blown nowadays though.
I agree with you on brekalo, balic, krovinovic and pjaca.
But for marko rog, he is a player that modric recommended to real madrid. Watch his highlights when in italy instead.
https://youtu.be/ZeKHFcGAxDc?si=CB1nK0ue28KlXxAC
For muric, when he returned to HNL rijeka, he managed to get double digit figures for goals and assist. How many players can do that? Can pjaca do that now? Of course now he is not well in turkey. And he should not be considered for NT now. But if he can take off his form when he left hnl again, he can be a super sub at right wing position
For coric, he is technically strong. He played a match when at dinamo against juventus and he was very good..he is getting the game ticking and MOM to me. I still remember the his highlights but video is taken off, but i saw the analysis
“Despite problems with manager Ivaylo Petev, to the extent where he was omitted from match day squads, the 19-year old has impressed this season, including the final game of the group stage vs. Juventus where he exhibited efficiency and trickery as a wide playmaker in Petev’s 5-4-1. “
Unfortunately he is not given opportunities to shine.
Balic was just on Zrinjski Mostar for half a season and they sold him. I think he went to Slovakia. Yeah he’s bad