Ivan Perišić made Serie A history on Saturday when he opened up the scoring from the penalty spot in Inter Milan’s 3-1 loss to Lazio. Perišić is the first Serie A player (since the data was collected) to convert a penalty shot with both feet in a league game, SempreInter reports. His left foot has always been favored but he decided to take this shot with his right. Why? We can only speculate.
With the loss, Inter Milan remain in third spot on the Serie A table; seven points behind leaders Napoli. Marcelo Brozović played the full 90 minutes in this match as Inter prepare to take on Cinderella story, Sheriff Tiraspol, Tuesday in Champions League.
Andrej Kramarić missed another golden opportunity to score Friday night in Hoffenheim’s 5-0 thumping of Koln. Early in the 1st half, a Koln defensive error led to Krama being left alone in the box to receive a cross from the sideline, but he struck right into the keeper for a corner kick. Krama would make up for it moments later with a super silky through-ball, which lead to Hoffenheim’s opening goal. He also assisted on the fifth goal with a perfect long-range cross into the box for a header.
Mateo Kovačić received a 7/10 grade in Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Brentford Saturday. “Ran a tightrope for the final 72 minutes after an early booking for bringing down Mbeumo but didn’t let it affect his energy levels. Blasted an effort miles over the bar in the second half. Did OK.”
Ante Rebić was subbed off in the 1st half of AC Milan’s win Saturday with an apparent ankle injury, Football Italia reports. It doesn’t look serious and he could return this week. But the looming question is: when will Rebić and Dalić make up?
Good news for defender Duje Ćaleta-Car as he played the full 90 minutes for Marseille in a 4-1 victory over Lorient on Sunday. It will be interesting to see what happens with Lovren, Vida, Gvardiol, DCC next month for the Russia match. Lovren returned from injury this weekend and was responsible for letting the game-winning goal scorer get by him before he absolutely crucified a shot into the top corner of goal.
Love these From wrap ups
I read simic will get promoted to rb salsburg because of injuries.
Id like to see ivusic/grbic juranovic gvardiol cc Sosa back line next 2 games but dalic will go for vida lovren
I think that even Dalic won’t do the Vida/Lovren thing anymore.
He will do one, but not both anymore.
Gvardiol and Sosa are two of the best at their position in the Bundesliga. It’s become much too hard to ignore. He knows if he benches both, that he’s given the media the green light to tear him apart.
Sosa and Gvardiol have been gold for us in these past couple of rounds, and I think that Dalic will keep both of them in the lineup.
He tried to get cute in the last round (benching Sosa) and it likely cost us the win.
I think that one of Lovren or Vida (probably Lovren) will start against Russia alongside Gvardiol…and this is why:
Dalic seems superstitious and believes in these little random things like playing Osijek players (like Barisic and Vida) in the lineup against Slovakia. If the game wasn’t in Osijek, I don’t think he starts them. He did this last time when he brought out Skoric too.
He also started a ton of Hajduk players in our win against Slovenia at Poljud with Livaja, Vlasic, Pasalic and Perisic making up the majority of our offense. That was kind of a shitty starting lineup, but it worked for that game. Again, I don’t think some of these guys start (especially not Livaja) if the game wasn’t in Split.
I think Dalic eats things like this up.
I think Dalic will start Lovren, not because of matchup or ability (it’s likely that Dalic doesn’t even know any of Russia’s players)…
But he will start Lovren just because Lovren plays in the Russian League.
There won’t be any strategy involved or any homework as to what lineup or formation Russia will employ and which Russia players will make up their forward lineup (and what those strengths and weaknesses are)…
All that will be banked on, is the fact that Lovren plays in Russia, so “he knows them”.
*yesterday
Pasalić with a last-minute goal and Rebić plays as a lone striker again, with his team scoring 3 and taking the win
Rebić walked off the pitch with an injury today …looks like something with his foot or ankle?
After struggling recently, it’s good to see this even if it was off the bench.
Josip Stanisic – 7/10 – Defended so well. There were questions about Bayern’s depth at the beginning of the season, but he coped well – even if he’s nowhere near Davies’ level.
Mandzo would be a better keeper then livakovic current form
It’s not like kalinic was that much worse then liva when he lost his form
I am in no way advocating for kalinic return just comparing
but we need to go with ivusic right now
Ya it’s only two games but he kept two clean sheets and he did look comfortable with the ball in his hands and with his feet
I specifically remember him playing a couple of passes really nicely and I’m like livakovic would have booted it in the stands there
And he looks strong in there
He has physical presence and powerful to push guys off
Any update on the Ivušić injury?
Grbić has a 75% save percentage for Lille so far (4th best in the league) his team is 12th overall, so I would imagine Grbić needs to stop a fair share of high quality scoring chances?
I have only seen highlights of Grbić and Ivušić, plus the Slovakia game for Ivušić.
However, I’ve seen enough of Livaković though. I am more than willing to take the risk and make a change.
Livaković is short for a keeper, but that wouldn’t be a problem if he can “play tall”… meaning that he is good in the air both in timing and aggression.
Unfortunately, he has a big fear of high balls and he’s very afraid to dive for 50/50 balls when it’s just him and the opposing striker.
He looked like a fool in the West Ham game by trying to clear the loose 50/50 ball (instead of diving for it).
He did this again in the recent HNL game where he tried to clear it with his foot and missed it, but he was bailed out by the ref with a foul, due to contact with the striker. If he dove in either scenario, he easily beats them to it. But it seems like he’s afraid of the contact.
His “deer in headlights” look is actually very representative of how he plays and (despite having pretty good reflexes on the goal line) it’s just too big a part of goalkeeping to ignore.
Also, his inability to play with his feet is an added negative. Too many lost balls on poor clearances under pressure.
Ivušić and Grbić are big keepers. They have good size and based off what I saw, they seem to be a bit better in the air and even with their feet. Would have to see more of them to determine how good they are on the line, along with their aggression and decision making.
Majer is finally fit and played about 25 minutes today. Thus is good.
Vlasic had his butt firmly planted on the bench for West Ham today. This is bad.
I think it’ll be tough for Majer to get regular playing time with us anyway.
Jakić plays in a better league and may be more useful as a backup CDM… and is now a part of our squad until he loses his spot.
Toma Bašić is also starting for Lazio now (also a better league and team than Majer’s) and is a box-to-box MF who can play in any central midfield role.
Majer offers good offense, but he would be competing with Ivanušec for minutes. Too much overlap in what they offer, meaning that Majer would have to push Ivanušec out if he wants minutes.
I am surprised that Moro and Majer are going to struggle to make our National team, after being big parts of our U21 setup… Jakić and Bašić are ahead of Moro now, and Ivanušec is ahead of Majer… Plus we have Luka Sučić cracking the team now (with the highest ceiling of them all). It just shows you how deep our MF is (and it’s a good problem to have).
Actually Majer is an offensive minded player so he wouldn’t really compete with Jakic and Basic in CM/CDM.
Where Majer does offer value is in attacking midfield, as a left footed player. You can put him on the right wing, and have him cut in on his left.
Majer would be a good option with so many of our attacking players being right footed and wanting to play on that left wing.
Ivanusec is definitely not “ahead” of Majer. If Majer wasn’t injured, Ivanusec doesn’t get a whiff on the NT yet.
Coach Mandzukić
https://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/mario-mandzukic-postaje-trener/2311148.aspx
Is there a more versatile player than Perišić? He’s good with both feet, good in the air, one vs one, great crosser, and he can play any position at the top level!
Fun fact, Perisic is the first player in Serie A (at least since they’ve kept these records) to convert a penalty with both feet.
I just watched the Reijka & Dinamo highlights. Livakovic SHOULD NEVER START FOR NT. Part of us losing to Spain and other games were his mistakes. Both Slovakia goals were on him and the two goals yesterday he’s at fault again too. Your starting keeper can’t be a clumsy, shaky and inexperienced playing at Dinamo who will be competing at top tournaments. Turn to the youth even.
Livakovic: Making rookie errors in Croatian league football
Ivusic: Inexperienced and plays in Croatian league
Kalinic: Been on loan for a bit and hasn’t played for a legitimate league since Gent.
Sluga: Championship league in tier 2 English football
Possible upcoming ones
Grbic: Lille & A.Madrid
Pandur: Hellas
Kortaski: Ajax
We need and have bed we really had top goalkeeping. I’ve even noticed that a lot of our current and past goalies have been terrible at diving. Subasic, Pletikosa & Livakovic are all terrible on the ground. The reaction time and ball control. We’ve never even had a goalkeeper win CL or play top level club. Besides Grbic & Suba playing in the French league. Nobody else has been at a top league. Pletikosa stayed too long, Subasic started late. Now we rotate these low level keepers. I think that’s where we really struggle and nobody ever mentions it. Winning championships come down to consistent and good goalkeeping. We undoubtedly lack that.
Although I agree with everything you’re saying, Kotarski is not playing for Ajax, not even good enough for their second team. He was doing awful there so he got loaned to Gorica and is now a benchwarmer. Plus he sucked with the U21s last tournament.
Goalkeepers who play for teams in top leagues: Ivo Grbić
Goalkeepers who are substitutes at teams in top leagues: Adrian Semper and Ivor Pandur
Goalkeepers with experience in top leagues: Josip Posavec and Lovre Kalinić
I think Ivusić has the talent for goalkeeping the same understated way Milan Badelj has a talent for the central midfield or a Mile Skorić or Matej Mitrović for central defending. They are not impressive, but they position themselves well so that they can be effective on any given day. However, a team that can otherwise aspire to make a world cup final needs to be composed of players who are used to that level of competition. If Grbić is the only guy who can do that, he should be integrated as the starter now, unless Ivusić really proves himself better and gets signed into a more competitive league this winter.
Kacavenda with a really good run and quality strike
Kid is good folks
Also,how cheeky was petko twice on the pks
On one of these penalties, if he keeps doing that, he will look like an idiot when the goalie guesses right. They were terrible penalties, but the goalie didn’t move.
I know we have kind of done it
But could we not roll out Perisic in striker position?
He can create, he can finish, he is strong physically
What else do we have to lose?
I guess if we could bring rebic back into left wing
I just watched the highlights of Dinamo
We would have been better with Kalinic In goal against Slovakia
Well looks like the Croatian hoops bust train chugs along.. another one about to fall out of the league
First round pick luka samanic released by the spurs which is a shame because we can probably attribute a good amount of blame to hezonja and benders failure to terrible organizations… but the spurs have actually had great success with player development
Let’s recap
Saric lottery pic peaked out in third year and now bench player with torn acl
Hezonja 5th pick and out of league. Hated by kvartuc
Bender 4th pick, off bench in Israeli league before tearing acl
Ante zizic.: first round and out of league
Zubac: first round and doing well
Samanic: first round and out of league pretty much
Roko prkcanin: late first rounder/ early 2nd round… we’ll see
Bogdanovic: great player although exiting prime
You do realize Luka was picked up by the Knicks? The guy is 21, give him time to develop and mature. Bogdanovic is the only really good player. Saric and Zubac are average.
His next step is out of the league. That’s a two way contract which means he’s more of a g league player and even if he wasn’t, thibs doesn’t play youth so there is little chance he’ll break out. He’ll likely be playing in Greece or Russia next year
Juranovic still injured, not even on the bench for Celtic. Looks like he may not be fit for the November qualifiers ? we need him for the Russia match.
Lovren played full 90 minutes for Zenit in their 2 – 1 loss. His first game in more than a month. Watched the match and his ball distribution was excellent and he was strong in the air, but you could tell he lacks match fitness. Personally if fully fit, I would use him in the match against Russia as he is our most experienced defender.
Don’t worry. Dalić is waay ahead of you there.
can rb salzburg call up Simic anytime, or do they have to wait at transfer window?
Any time
Why? Because it’s their feeder club in the same Football Federation? How does that work?
Think of it like Dinamo and Dinamo II. Same type of thing. It’s essentially their feeder/sister club and they can send down + call up players whenever they please.
I doubt that they would call him up this season.
They’re still developing him, and they already promoted that 18 year old Slovenian striker (Benjamin Šeško) to the Salzburg team. Šeško scored 21 goals for Liefering last season, and is now promoted to Salzburg. I’m sure they’ll do the exact same thing with Šimić if he continues to score this season like he has been.
Finally saw a replay of the third goal Croatia scored that was called back against Slovakia. Played it a few times and don’t see any way that’s offside. The only interpretation is that the shot or pass that hits the Slovakian player before Perisic touches it has Perisic in an offside position. But the SLOVAKIAN PLAYER TOUCHES IT! And then Perisic comes back in an onside postion. This is complete bs, especially in light of France’s goal the day before. It’s at the end of this clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM6gNib0JCM
I agree wholeheartedly!
I watched it on a 4k 65 inch screen in slow motion
and freezeframe. I could not see where Perisic came into play in an offside position, nor did he gain any advantage while he was.
A total rip off!
FIFA and Russia- is this a surprise- i hope we fill in USSR by 3 or 4 in the final game- we just don’t have a coach or set line up- so it should be interesting
France, Switzerland and Russia benefitted from major bs calls that weekend. We’ll never be in that club..
Northern Ireland (playing Switzerland) get a man sent off in the first half for a 2nd yellow because the player took too long on a throw in. When has that ever happened in the 1st half? Not like they had a lead and were time wasting.
The thing that pisses me off is that I watched the Croatia game on UEFA TV vs Slovakia. They showed a picture with two lines on it for 1 second with Perisic in an offside position, but he is nowhere near the ball yet. Nobody gives any explanation why the goal is disallowed. We are just supposed to believe the VAR has the 100% evidence, and that it is the right call.
I was 0% convinced by that evidence that it was a good call.
Yeah it was complete and utter BS. Unfortunately, it is done now and we will have to qualify against BS decisions like that as is often the case. Hopefully no more cheating in Russia’s favour in Split in November!
I hate admitting I was wrong, but I asked my son about the offside call on Perisic vs Slovakia.
He pointed out that once you’re in an offside position and your team player passing or shooting forward has put you in a penalizable state, the only way to reset it would be for the defender to first gain 100% control of the ball, and then loose it to a touch by Perisic.
In this case the ball bounces off the Slovakian defender, so it’s still offside.
Like the Spanish defender controlled it against France last week? That is bs. VAR is just there to make sure the team FIFA or UEFA need to win, wins. Period. 2018 WC final, Euro 2020 semi (England penalty), recent Nations League final. And you will see more of this next month with the last two games of qualifying happening. Expect us to get some a-hole ref like that Kuipers idiot who always screws Croatia when he gets the chance.
Calling Krama’s miss a “sitter” is a bit much.
Liva shits the bed again vs Rijeka
While the first goal was perfectly placed by Drmic, when you watch the replay, you can see that Livakovic’s reaction is delayed.
The second goal is hard to put on him, unless you want to blame him for poor rebound control.
The third is mostly why he should NEVER play for the NT again. Another free kick into his box that he just watches fly in. He’s awful.
Poor kid- he’s a good kid just can’t play goal but unfortunately he’s a goalie – If it wasn’t a prerequisite he’d be great LOL
How Basic look for Lazio?
Bašić looked pretty good…had a few chances, maybe could have done better with the finish. He seemed to have lost his cool, and was off his game after his yellow card.
The great iron igor stimac wins southasia title congrats to the best coach croatia ever had lol;-)
Livakovic conceded 3 goals great gane rijek dinamo
Don’t pick on Livakovic so much, you at least need to give the complete story. He did make 1 save, lol.
Kramaric will score 2 vs. Russia!!!
Great player! Just had a run of bad luck.
Bog i Hrvati
Kramaric assists on 1st and 5th goal, largely responsible for creating the opportunity on 3rd goal, great execution on the miss that was stopped by an excellent save. I would be glad to see him relied upon for the upcoming qualifying matches with our national team.
Pure class by Perišić.
Perišić penalty conversion!!
He even took the penalty with his right foot.
Perišić starting as a second striker with Dzeko