The Croatian clubs are off in Conference League qualifying before the HNL season kicks off August 3rd. Varaždin pulled off a HUGE win against Portuguese side Santa Clara Thursday night in Croatia; winning 2-1 through Dabro’s 85th minute goal in front of a home crowd; which ricocheted off the wall from 32 yards out and spun into goal. Santa Clara finished 5th in Portugal last season behind some notable teams such as Porto, Benfica and and Sporting Lisbon. Varaždin will now travel to Portugal next week to protect their one-goal lead in the 2nd leg. If they can get through, they would have another winnable tie as they would face the winner of Larne/Pristina in the 3rd qualifying round.
Hajduk on the other end fought out a 1-1 draw against Zira in Azerbaijan. They will disappointed with the result as these possessed the ball for 58%. However, Hajduk only managed one shot on goal (the goal) and didn’t do much offensively. All is left to play for next Thursday in Split with Hajduk having the home crowd advantage. Remember, Hajduk got dumped out of Conference League qualifying in the 3rd round last year by Slovakian side Ružomberok. It would be a disaster a second straight year if they don’t beat Zira at home.
Rijeka 1-1 in extra time … down to nine men.
That was stupid of Fruk. Rijeka with 10 men would likely have won, given how poorly Ludogorec dealt with only 9. To me, it looked like Ludogorec had this one bought from the start. Two questionable red cards to Rijeka, one of which was reviewed on the next play (too late). No card to Ludogorec on the slap to the face during a breakaway earlier in the match. No penalty called or reviewed when there was a likely penalty. Not to mention countless little phantom fouls throughout for Ludo and hard contact against Rijeka not being called, especially later in the game. Sure, Rijeka needed to win the match and not make stupid mistakes, but this one was supposed to end the way it did, and the only one who didn’t want to accept that was Duje Čop. Too bad he didn’t score there at the end.
DCC close to signing for Real Sociedad on loan.
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According to A Bola, Benfica has finalized a deal with Union SG for Franjo Ivanovic, who is set to sign a 5-year contract until 2030. The deal has an initial value of around €23 million, with variable bonuses worth an additional €5 million. Union SG will also receive between 15 and 20% from a future transfer.
So, Franjo is quite an expensive acquisition by Benfica’s standards. I wonder if coach Bruno Lage is looking to play a formation with 2 attackers up front in Pavlidis and Ivanovic ?
Also, let’s hope Benfica will qualify for CL. They start in the 3rd qualifying around against a decent opponent, Nice. Whoever loses this tie will be transferred to the Europa League league phase.
I think so.
Some Benfica fans were assuring Cro fans that they don’t usually spend that kind of money on a single player without the intention of starting them.
Based off reports, they really seemed to want Ivanovic, so hopefully he’s a starter for them right off the bat.
Time will tell with Luka.
Borna Sosa, so talented, he was wearing shades, rolled down socks, playing for the Germany, the next best thing. He begged to be let on to the Croatia team, and fast forward, after the Argentinian express rolled him over, he is no longer fixture of the Croatian national team. I never expected that, and still have hope he will be back in some new transformative form .
Atter Srna lost his touch, I thought we finally found someone to deliver accurate crossing service , only to find a resurging re-build kneed veteran was to be our only savior of the cross.
I pray, Luka is what we hope he is, a huge coming star to play beside Josko.
Sosa perfect free-kick cross into the box to assist Palace’s 2nd goal today
However
His defending on Mainz 2nd goal could have been better (in particular his positioning v-a-v Mainz attacker, he was a bit lazy there)
***.youtube.com/watch?v=LryGnaA8nuo
That is the Sosa, we have come to know. Have to love the tremendous offensive play he is capable of, although his inconsistent defensive has been his downfall.
The highlights I saw on Luka’s last game, were more focused on bringing the ball forward, early offensive development. Made the right decisions. Not much shown on defense, but with his physical stature and approach, suggest future success at the highest competitive levels.
He’s a midfielder in a 3-5-2.
Can’t play him as the LB in a 4-4-2 (as we kept trying to do with him in the past).
We have better players anyway, but he can be a very useful situational backup with guys like him, Mario Pasalic and Franjo Ivanović coming off the bench for a goal push.
Micky VDV on Luka from today’s press conference
“Luka is only 18 years old but what you can see from how he behaves on the pitch and off the pitch you can see he is a really talented football player. He has a lot of qualities and I think he has shown in the last two friendlies that he has a lot of big and strong points where even our centre-backs can learn from. He’s done unbelievable at this point and hopefully he can do way more for us and hopefully you can see way more from him.”
Also Luka new competitor Kota is ruled out for WEEKS due to plantar fasciitis after 2 days
The medical DD clearly lacking
In particular they didn’t properly consider average height vs foot size (and the ratio)
Both Luka and Kota 6’4”
But
Japan 5’7” height / 8.5 US
Croatia 5’11” height / 10.0 size
Of course right sub-set of Croatia is Dalmatian sub-set
Punchline: Kota feet failing him cuz he’s significant taller than average AND Japan has a poor height vs shoes size ratio (ie their feet can’t sustain outliers)
Whereas Luka has thousands of centuries of evolution Dalmatian height and large shoe size and hence why he looks so comfortable in his frame and has not have any feet issues
Not just foot size. Some people just aren’t meant to be tall.
Peter Crouch was a good example of a tall guy who just looked very awkward when moving around (even though 6’7″ isn’t crazy tall).
The way he moved around…you would think he was over 7 feet tall.
Whereas, in Croatia, there are tons of 6’7″ athletes that look and move around like a normal person. You tend to forget how tall they are.
Baturina in his first start for Como scores. They beat Ajax 3-0. Sutalo did not play suffered an ankle injury in training and will be out several weeks.
Look how Gvardiol is enjoying his summer vacation 🙂
https://www.reddit.com/r/MCFC/comments/1mape1a/gvardiol_is_out_here_completing_summer_side_quests/
And Modric/Kovacic with some dudes….
https://athlonsports.com/tennis/new-photo-of-novak-djokovic-luka-modric-turns-heads-on-tuesday
Vuskovic included in 29 man roster for Asia tour for 3 games
CB Kota staying behind for treatment (jeez he’s injured a long time after couple days of training what a lightweight)
3 other players staying behind so they can line up loan moves (so Vuskovic still on staying w 1st team track)
Matanovic opened his account for Freiburg in a pre-season friendly vs Dresden. Freiburg went behind 2-0 and Igor scored to bring his team level at 2-2 (won a free kick in the build-up and fired a powerful shot). Game would go on to end in a 3-3 draw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zie4Z_TzoY4&t=356s
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Franjo Ivanovic was left off the matchday squad for Union SG’s first league game of the season and there are reports he is close to signing for Benfica.
Doesn’t seem like a good move imo. Benfica plays with only 1 CF in Vangelis Pavlidis. I don’t get it… why would Franjo want to go there to be a backup player, especially in a World Cup year? I’m hoping this deal doesn’t happen.
Yea it seems like a sideways move for him with little reward.
He’s already playing Champions League football with USG as the first choice striker.
At Benfica, he’s risking this by fighting with a well established striker for minutes… or possibly be forced to play out of position on the wing.
Benfica (and the Portuguese league) is generally more respected than USG and Belgium… so a future transfer to a top EPL or La Liga club is more likely via Benfica rather than USG.
But I don’t like the risk, especially before a World Cup.
I want both Ivanović and Budimir firing on all cylinders before the start of the World Cup.
The only rationale to move is $$$ salary – he’ll go from 500k to 2-2.5m a year
Given that Franjo’s transfer fee is pretty significant (€20m + €5m bonus + percentage of next transfer) and with Benfica’s president Rui Costa wanting him so badly (called him several times), I find it hard to believe Franjo will be brought in as a bench player, as was the case with Musa previously. Di Maria has left Benfica so I’m guessing one of the winger positions may be up for grabs. Best case scenario is Pavlidis would still be the first choice CF, with Franjo maybe starting on the wing and filling in as CF from time to time. I don’t know if Franjo is suited to playing on the wing but based on sofascore data, I can tell he’s a very mobile and two-footed forward who moves all over the opponent’s half, and doesn’t just hang around and wait for service in the box. Hopefully these attributes will help him to get playing time in Portugal even if he’s played out of position on the wing… oh boy, am I crossing my fingers here.
Yea, the only positive I see in all this is that Rui Costa seems to REALLY want him.
…but then again, Rui Costa could be an idiot and not know what he’s doing.
I don’t want Ivanovic developing as a winger.
The only benefit I see to all this is if they do start both Ivanovic and Pavlidis (and Ivanovic does well), then maybe it opens up an opportunity for us to try starting Ivanovic with Budimir up top. But, then again, Pavlidis is a different type of striker than Budimir so I don’t know.
Luka you’ve taken the world by storm after Reading
You are making the entire Croatia, us and Mario very proud
Big game tomorrow
Hope you sleep and rest like an angel tonight
Good luck for tomorrow
You have the entire Croatia behind you
You know you’re good enough for Spurs 1st team and we know you’re good enough
In God’s hands we trust
❤️
Anonymous
Is there no VAR Goal Check in Conference League qualifying? Santa Clara only scored after a clear foul against Varaždin… For the rest, Varaždin has to play better defense. Zelenika kept them in the game.
Shame they couldn’t get that 2-goal cushion.
I really want this for Varteks. Making it into Europe is huge for mid-table HNL clubs.
Participation in the Conference League would grant them about €3.2 million in prize money, plus about €150,000 per point they get in the competition.
The entire transfer value of Varteks’ squad is only around €10 million (per Transfermarkt) and their players only make about €90,000 per season.
They could give out bonuses, strengthen the squad, and build on what they have.
Seems like a good result for Varazdin. Anyway, both those teams can get through so that’s good to see.