Ante Budimir has now scored 10 goals in the La Liga season for Osasuna. He deflected home a hard shot from teammate David Garcia in the 55′ Sunday night. The goal would equalize the match and force a 1-1 draw between Osasuna and Sevilla. Only five players in Spain have more goals than Budimir at this time: Bellingham, Dovbyk, Mayoral, Morata, Griezemann.
Both Mateo Kovačić and Joško Gvardiol played the full 90 minutes in Manchester City’s 1-0 FA Cup win over Spurs in North London Friday night. Kova received an impressive 8/10 grade from Goal.com as was “City’s best player. Outstanding on the ball and put himself about when needed to halt Spurs’ counters.” Gvardiol received a lower 5/10 score by Goal.com, who posed a fantastic question: “Another average display. Posed no threat in attack but imposed himself in defence. When will Guardiola see sense and play him in the centre again?”
Nikola Vlašić played the full 90 in Torino’s 2-1 victory over Cagliari Friday night. With the win, Torino sit only five points back of a Champions League berth.
Andrej Kramarić was voted MOTM (8.3 FOTMOB rating) with his penalty kick goal just before halftime in a disappointing 1-1 Hoffenheim draw versus FC Heidenheim.
Luka Modrić remained on the bench as an unused substitute in Real Madrid’s 3-2 victory of Las Palmas Saturday. The win keeps Real Madrid one point behind Girona for the La Liga lead with one game in hand.
Josip Stanišić played the full 90 minutes for 1st place Bayer Leverkusen Saturday in a 0-0 draw versus Borussia Monchengladbach. The draw means Bayern Munich now only trail Leverkusen by two points for the Bundesliga crown.
What about Grbic. Goes to a new team and with his first start get’s 5 goals put past him. Awful keeper.
Not a big deal.
Grbic has been out of the picture for us for a while and we have several young goalkeepers who are already ahead of him in the pecking order.
Labrovic and Kotarski are both young and have been playing well for years.
Even Ivica Ivusic is back at full health and starting these past two seasons.
https://www.goalstube.online/2024/01/sevilla-osasuna.html?m=m2
Another Budimir goal.
What’s the best way to get tickets for Croatia euro games?
by paying with cash or credit.
Nije vam ovo teško
Ya I wasn’t successful in getting tickets
I guess second hand is the only way I imagine
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2prCbFNhBF/?igsh=NGp0Y2pheDlqaWY=
Brekalo to Stuttgart. I guess he’s decided he likes it on the bench😂
My bad. I was so quick to post that I didn’t actually read it, lol. Hajduk it is.
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1751643885791555725?t=QM_wUyLSSmTxTJ0_Q-7dXw&s=19
Looks like Musa is heading to MLS. That’s pretty disappointing, if it happens………
why? they pay money in MLS? do they not?
Davor man you are always such a Debby downer smart ass with all your comments. Why are you here? Go rain on someone else’s parade. It’s too bad because MLS is an inferior league to those in Europe.
Sure. It is not top 5 or 6 league of Europe. But living in America is great when you have good money.
https://theathletic.com/5231607/2024/01/27/ivan-rakitic-transfer-sevilla-saudi/?amp=1
Lucky to get 4 tickets via the lottery for the Italy game. Should be a great atmosphere in Leipzig.
Grbic may finally get some
playing time but not sure about how good a move for his confidence if they are getting shelled like this regularly.
I didn’t see any of the game but glad to hear the comments of Kova playing better.
We really could use an in form version of him for the Euros.
Take me Mali Ante please!!!
Grbic….yikes 🫣
Were any of the goals actually his fault? Sheffield had a -31 goal differential (worst in the Premier League by a double-digit margin) before Grbić joined the club, which was literally only yesterday. What a baptism by fire! He has to jump into action immediately upon signing his contract for a team that clearly has the weakest defense in the premier league by a long shot. It would have been a miracle if the result had been better. Hopefully this is just a fluke because of the unusual circumstances. It would be great to see Grbić playing regularly again and finally putting the skills he used to show off back into practice.
Two of the five goals I would definitely consider “weak”. It’s a tough start for him and he needs to start fresh week.
In his defense, he let in a screamer and two penalties right away that he couldn’t do much about. Even if his chances of saving those first 3 were low, I can’t imagine letting in 3 goals on his debut helped his mentality for the rest of the game.
If he manages to limit Sheffield’s goals conceded to 2-3 per game, he will be a success. The team he’s signed onto has lost several matches this season by more than five goals, including getting pummeled 8-0. Grbić needs to turn on highlight-reel Grbić 100% of the time there.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2mvc_zMhYj/?igsh=Njd4NDVweTcyczF0
Brekalo to Hajduk? What a turn of events if true.
Just a quick note for anyone worried about josko progress:
Croatian football generally is quite a slow paced game, with players taking lots of touches. Josko likes to play on the ball. But Peps football demands very quick movement of the ball. Josko is adapting to the demands of tiki taka, pep has shown him what he wants and you can see the josko is applying it. Josko doesn’t like to use his right foot, but when he comes back inside from left back you will see him quickly make the pass with his right foot, instead of taking an extra touch onto his left. It looks uncomfortable because it’s not his natural game. It shows he is an ultimate pro who is listening to the coach and developing his game even though it limits his highlights. This is the way to build in stages, once he becomes comfortable with the style of football and has properly adapted he will move up a gear. And that will benefit the national team. Watch how he plays it with his right foot at city, how it looks a bit awkward but moves the ball quickly. He will master it soon. Pep plays him nearly every game, so that means a lot
Compare how Udogie played y’day vs. Gvardiol
U see how Udogie was named by most as best LB in PL first half – if you watched y’day – there is a big gap b/w the two (Udogie is better)
Udogie is also a great player, no shame there. Also udogie is a natural left back and is perfectly suited to Ange ball. So he is doing extremely well.
Josko would be lighting up the premier league already if he had signed for Tottenham or arsenal, because both those teams give more freedom to individuals all over the pitch than peps teams, which demand very specific tactical plays.
Look at foden. Who is a bigger talent? Foden or Maddison? Foden by a long way, but often he doesn’t even play, because pep needs specific things. Maddison by contrast is allowed to simply play and express himself
https://croatiansports.com/the-weekend-water-cooler-79/#comments/503300
Thanks @MART and @Davor. Just watched the highlights, what a sucky pitch. Still find it a strange decision to pull Marco P from the game so early even if he wasn’t playing great up to that point, but I’m always mindful of the fact he has had two big injuries before (during the 2021–22 season with Dortmund) so maybe they wanna be a bit more careful with him ? Ironically Pjaca stayed on and played a big part in Rijeka’s win.
Here’s to an entertaining game on Sunday, I smell a draw!
Kova was amazing today. Wish he played more like he did today all the time it was a treat to watch. Ran so well with the ball
Watched the second half and he was very impressive. Let’s hope that he can stay healthy and in form for the EURO in June.
@John @Mart
Agree
It’s the best I’ve seen Kovacic play in the PL
He was running the midfield – Spurs had only one or two plays forward the whole game thru midfield
In particular he played with a lot of bite and aggression (I couldn’t believe my eyes)
E.g. when he got the yellow on Udogie – Richardson got in his face – and Kovacic went right at him yelling – I’ve never seen such “passion” from Kovacic – ever – it was beautiful to see (like he “snapped” but in the best way possible)
If he can bring that aggression and bite to the national team – he deserves to start at the Euros this summer (and be the one running our midfield when Modric steps on) – the q is can he replicate this on a continuous basis
P.S. Spurs were missing Bissouma and Sarr (African Cup) and Maddison (just came back after 11 wks injury) – all three are the starting mid for Spurs – so Kovacic was playing against Spurs 2nd choice mid – would have loved to see how Kovacic performed vs. Spurs 1st choice mid