33 year-old Croatia striker Ante Budimir scored his 5th La Liga goal of the season Sunday in a 2-0 Osasuna win over Luka Sučič and Real Sociedad. In the 34′, Budimir trapped the ball at the top of the box and sent a perfectly place shot just inside the left post to beat the keeper. It was as composed as a finish as you can see. We usually see Budimir score with his head but he did it with a low shot on this goal. He was given a 7.5 FOTMOB rating for his efforts.
Mateo Kovačić and Joško Gvardiol both got the start and played 90 minutes for Manchester City in a 1-0 victory over Southampton Saturday. The win propels City to the top of the table with Arsenal and Liverpool chopping the points in their draw. Goal.com gave Kova a 5/10 grade as he “Looked rusty, losing the ball too often. Had a hit-and-hope shot that Aaron Ramsdale pushed away.” Gvardiol on the other hand got a 8/10 grade as he “Used the ball very well to create attacks and shut them down, always looking composed.”
Luka Modrić came off the bench in the 2nd half for Real Madrid as they were thumped 4-0 by Barcelona in El Clasico. With the loss, Real Madrid now trail Barca by six points for the La Liga lead.
RIP Tonci Gabric
A Croatian goalkeeping legend and a good backup to Ladic
Helped pioneered Croatia’s re entrance on the international stage
Dalic “once ur on the team hard to get off”
Meanwhile Moro and his one cap is now an automatic call-up again !!!
While Majer and Ivanusec standby
Sure Majer just came back from injury but still 3 Wolfsburg games b4 international break
Last time Perisic called up without playing a minute at PSV while recovering from injury
Sad
Majer 34 caps
Ivanusec 22 caps
Moro 1 F cap (sat on bench last 2 rounds of games)
This is one reason / e.g. why so silly to announce so early – Wolfsburg 2 games this wk alone
Dalić’s thought process in replacing Martin Erlić with Nikola Vlašić intrigues me as a white paper study of the Bosanska glava.
We don’t have enough defenders called up (even in the last round of games) yet he pulls a Russian Roulette move and goes one further to remove an existing CB to add yet another midfielder?
It’s actually pretty insane that we only called up three players capable of playing CB (Joško Gvardiol, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Josip Šutalo).
The other two “defenders” are a flank player (Borna Sosa) and a CDM who sometimes plays as a flank player (Kristijan Jakić).
This means we are going with a back three of Gvardiol/Duje/Šutalo for 180 minutes total in these two games with zero substitute options.
All that risk…just so we can add Vlašić back into the team that already includes 7 central midfielders on the squad (now making it 8)?
Maybe he changes back to a 4 back formation
If that’s the case then we don’t have backup fullbacks for Sosa and Jakić (with Jakić not even really being a starting fullback).
Alf Ramsey “Wingless Wonders” formation Dalic-style
UEFA has upheld the automatic one game suspension for Livakovic. He’ll miss Scotland, but will be back for Portugal.
It would be funny if he takes down Ronaldo the same way he did Lewa, ha ha
You guys think he tries baturina on the rw?
Speaking of playing guys in wrong positions
Mario pasalic I thought I saw somewhere is Croatias top scorer in serie A all time
Good for him
He probably would.
If anything, Baturina actually favors the left side of the field, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Dalic pushed our most talented midfielder to the right side of the field just so Perisic can play wherever he wants.
Maminjo, that scares me the most. Funny that he didn’t forget that kurac Perisica.
This is a mess
Whatever man.
My standards and expectations for Dalic have dropped so much, I would just be happy that he’s choosing to start Baturina (even if it’s in some random position like RW).
The lineup always looks like a collection of puzzle pieces that don’t fit. Even the callup list with 3 CBs (and zero backups) but 8 central mids (who are probably going to be sprinkled around the field in different positions) is telling.
Just holding my breath that we don’t get blown out in the first half against Portugal (again) and VAR will save us in injury time again against Scotland.
I hear you
Ya surely they are hoping to get rid of livakovic suspension
I guess dalic thinking he gonna go with the 3 at the back set up
Either he is playing 5d chess
Or go fish
I guess we will find out soon enough
Re Man City / Spurs wed
Spurs put up a real stinker y’day
Crystal palace smartly got into Spurs face on every ball
Hopefully Ange yells at them a bit to toughen up and fight harder and they come out ready Wed
Poor Mikey Moore has already deactivated his IG after the game – the blaim goes to James Maddison who knew what he was doing when he said Neymar – and all the “pundits” etc who said like Neymar, like Messi, like Taxi for Maicon vs Bale
Never mind he shouldn’t start after playing 86 min on Thursday
as Anonymous astutely mentioned on thurs he was vs a 27 yo Japan RB who AZ bought for 800k in the summer and is on 15k pw wages, lol
So he did great against mediocre opposition – that doesn’t mean he’ll be able to do the same vs Kyle Walker, Carvahal of this world – so to put pressure and label him as world class is not helpful
It’s the same stupidity – but in reverse – as Dalic / folks who criticize Pong vs Spain and vs Bruno Fernandez / Ronaldo – but then praise DCC and Sutalo when they make the same / worse mistakes against Scotland and 3rd tier striker
It’s like many people only have 2 brain cells and dont realize you need to judge performance vs quality of opposition
Why is Dalic putting out a squad 12 days before England again ?
Some players still have 4 games to go b4 international break
Guess the nose pickers have better things to do than track players next 2’weeks
Sad
He also said that he’s not going to entertain the idea of calling up any U21s as Olić has an important game against Georgia.
This is the worst part of this. We should never care about U-21 results if it impacts the senior team.
This is not the first time this garbage has come up. Some backwards thinking.
Saw he said that
Also see U21 Hrgovic on standby (while being called up to U21) lol
Once again Dalic says one thing and does another
Sad this is the level they operate on and can’t keep things straight
One of the journalist should have followed up in that case why not stack u21 w 2x sucic, baturina, Igor
He calls up Hrgovic as standby, at the same time saying that he won’t actually call up any U21 guys (so that Olic can have them)…all while not actually having a real RB in the senior callup list at all.
So…is this some sort of PsyOp?
You don’t call up any RBs…but then you call one up on standby, that you claim you will not activate for the senior team?
Dalic is a comedian. He should start a podcast with Andrew Schultz and Tony Hinchcliffe.
Call up list out and its kinda wild…
4 goalies
5 defenders (one is jakic)
Majer
Erlic
Pongracic
On standby
I assume they’re trying to overturn Livakovic’s suspension, so they put an extra keeper on just in case. Majer is just returning from injury, so he didn’t quite make the cut. Pongracic has been demoted because of his recent performances on the repka, however I’m a bit confused about Erlic.
They don’t have enough defenders to deal with a red card or injury!
Yup, this is not good planning. Not sure what they’re thinking.
Anyone following Bozo on TLC 90 Day Fiance ?
Reminder, he’s a semi-pro basketball player from Split
He’s matched w Vanja originally from Bosnia
idi spavati
think Marco Pasalic made a cameo in tonight’s episode
The guy in the green shirt when they were making spanakopita
Bozo seems quite shy in front of Vanja
Granted she’s so thirsty and wanted him to F him the second she got off the plane – so there’s that
She only brought him an air freshener and some smashed cookies ?
Look fwd to seeing him in action in the basketball next wk
Who does lovro Z most closely resemble in style for repka current or before?
DannyJ
I have seen him play in Champions League. He is not big, or physically imposing, he seems smart, passes well, appears to accelerate well, agile. In one game he almost blasted around/through 3-4 defenders, but didn’t quite keep control of the ball as he almost broke through them toward the goal. Nonetheless, it gives you an idea of what he can do…
I will leave it to the others who know the history of all the Croatian players to give you a sense of who he most closely resembles in the midfield.
Here is his weekend goal (if this link works) for Sturm Graz. Also shows Smolcic goal for LASK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da__4V1Sti4
Also Matanovic should go to a club where he gets more play time
Beljo is getting more consistent hey..!
Smolcic
Lovro Z
Beljo
All goals today
….and Budimir.
OMG OMG OMG !!!
MIKEY MOORE gets first PL start (previous 2 starts Europa) @ 10 ET !!!
TBH, surprised he’s starting today as he played 86 min Thursday
Moore – aka Neymoore – as a result of tongue+cheek comment after last game by James Maddison that he thought Neymar was playing LW from minute 45-65 (1st 20 min in 2nd half vs. AZ – Moore was incredible on the LW (first half he played on RW) – he could have had 3 assists if other Spurs players were able to finish)
Some are saying his movement looks Messi-like (it actually does)
Although Anonymous will point out (which nobody mentions) that vs. AZ he faced 27 y.o. Seiya Maikuma career J-leaguer who AZ bought for EUR 800k this summer (i.e. let’s see how he does vs. Kyle Walker, Trippier, Livramento, etc in the PL)
Here’s are the Mikey Moore highlights vs. AZ
x.com/SZYComps/status/1849577154217996389
Lastly – before Nebojsa has another mental breakdown – Spurs playing Kovacic & Gvardiol Wed 4th round Carabao Cup – so this is important scouting 😘 😘 😘
Dude unless it’s miki mooric
No one cares
Anonymous is clueless.
I’m thinking of posting endlessly here about my favourite bands. Why not? Anonymous — get a friend.
Vatreni are better positioned for the post Luka era than Real Modrić?!
Who knew ?
We’ll probably never have another #10 like Modrić in our lifetimes… But it doesn’t mean we can’t continue to medal in tournaments.
Same situation as us never having a #9 like Davor Šuker again. It’s been 25 years and we’ve never had another striker nearly as good…yet our successes have been on par or better.
Never have a striker as good as Davor Suker??
Guys, someone’s forgotten about Petar KRPAN again !!! 😀 😀 😀
CM: Mateo Kovacic – 7/10 – City’s only vaguely defensively minded midfielder excelled at the ugly side of the game on Saturday.
He will support all the young studs coming through. And lengthen out longevity legend that is Luka Modrić!
Re: Vuskovic – from one of Spurs top fan channels
Good (fair) assessment of his strengths / “weaknesses”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46XNQvBmCxI
Also worth noting – Dragusin has not been particularly impressive when he’s got his chances (which have been limited) – not helping him is his agent keeps releasing stuff in media that Napoli and Inter want to buy him in Jan transfer window, etc (which his client would consider if he doesn’t get more playing time) – this is important in context of pecking order (and this “negotiating” in public for more playing time via media isn’t something that resonates well with Levy) – worth keeping eyes on how that evolves
I sure hope vuskovic turns out. Him and gvardi could be 2 100 million worth defenders one day
Mind boggling
And the two in the box late game if we need a goal
They will be intimidating together
Stanišić to the right of them would bw scary too.
Josip had a great season last year with Leverkusen and seems like a more “safe” and “stay at home” defender to pair with Gvardiol and Vušković.
Ya I forgot about stanisic
I’ve been picking him to be a super safe and reliable performer for us for years
I like his attitude
Plus there wasn’t any thinking of Germany nonsense
I just hope his injury is nothing too major
Was it him or luka sucic apparently their uncle said no chance you play for anyone but Croatia
If you know, you know as the kids say
Also, this article right here
This dude can buy pretty much anything, can get any girl he wants in Croatia for sure
This is raised right
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/30751437/fans-josko-gvardiol-man-city-car/amp/
Does anyone know of links in the US for Croatian league games?
Today in ET – pls check / confirm
07:30 Tikvic Watford – bench
09:00 Rebic Lecce
09:30 Jakic & Labrovic
10:00 Pink Pandur Hill City
10:30 Halilovic
12:00 Soticek
12:00 Orsic
12:30 Palaversa Aberdeen
12:45 Perisic
14:45 Vuskovic
14:45 Mario Pasalic
Majer is on the bench for Wolfsburg
That’s great news.
And he ended playing the last 15 or so minutes, which is even better news. He started the season so strongly and then the injuries hit him almost right away, right out of the gate. A shame. Hopefully he can recapture his form and has a great run for the rest of the season.
I think he has another step or two from what we saw when he was in France still
And can be a good piece for the repka going forward
The problem as always…. Croatia is a mid field factory