Here we go!
Croatia’s last match before EURO 2021 kicks off on June 13th at Wembley against England takes place this Sunday. The Vatreni will take on a bruised and battered Belgium side in Brussels before they take off to the UK. Many Croatian supporters are upset at this week’s 1-1 draw against Armenia and the finishing in front of the net two weeks before a major tournament.
So what should we expect against Belgium this Sunday at 2:45PM (ET)?
If I were Dalić, I would start the same lineup as the the England match and only play key players 60 minutes.
Livaković in goal.
Barišić, Vida, DCC, Vrsaljko in the back four. I don’t see Bradarić pipping Barišić for the left-back spot.
Modrić and Brozović in the middle, of course.
Perišić and Rebić on the wings.
Kramarić plays a ‘False 9’ role behind the striker even though Croatia will play a forward. Dalić has experimented enough. Krama should no longer be played as Croatia’s highest attacker and should lie closer to the midfield as he does with Hoffenheim.
Play Petković or Budimir as the lone striker. I don’t care; flip a coin. Croatia needs a target man that will play bruiser in the box. Petković isn’t at 100% health but he can still cause problems in the box with his size. Even if he’s 80%, that should get the job done. Budimir has been in the form of his life in La Liga and has been scoring goals left and right with his head.
This is the way I would go. This leaves Brekalo and Vlašić on the bench to add ample speed and pace in the 2nd half.
Croatia has only won four of their last 12 matches since the COVID restart happened. That’s not good. Not good at all.
Belgium drew Greece in a Friendly on Thursday playing without Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne. I foresee a 1-1 draw against Belgium. Croatia has had trouble scoring goals in 2021. They only scored 2+ goals in the Malta match.
Save your tears of frustration if Croatia lose this match as well. It’s just a friendly. Try to gel and don’t get hurt. These guys will not be playing at 100% with England seven days away.
In 2018, Croatia lost to Peru in Miami, half the team left back home before the Mexico match even kicked off, and then lost to Brazil right before the World Cup began. It’s all about the tournament games. And the tournament games are almost here.
Which Croatian VPN service are you guys using to watch on gol.hr?
question is for Dubrovcan! thanks
I was in the UK during the Armenia game and I used nordvpn
What also worries is me is Vrsaljko and his form and state of mind
Is this pletikosa mark 2 happening again 2014
I like loyalty but not blind loyalty
Finally a voice of reason Peter north calling it like it truly is!!
I’m afraid this side will do well to finish with 4 points in their group. Wouldn’t be surprised if Scotland took points from them in a snooze fest.
Would be shocked if they advance past the round of 16.
Our back line is shambolic and will get exposed. Livaković is going to be busy.
This side is 3-years removed from WC 2018 and has lost a few key cogs and there are current players not remotely close to the level they displayed during that tournament.
I am afraid that livakovic will be collecting the ball from out of the back of the net a few times this tournament especially from set pieces
Question is can we score more than we concede
Does anyone in Aus know how to legally watch Euro 2020, is there a way without signing up for some contract with Optus? Cheers in advance 🙂
Iggy, you should be able to activate Optus sport streaming and cancel at anytime, don’t think there is a contract. it’s about $15 for the month.
Ah great, thanks! I wasn’t sure if they were still doing the scummy thing where they had no such option and just tried to sign you up for a $80 per month broadband plan just to watch sport, so it’s good to hear there is a standalone option now :D.
You can’t watch EURO in OZ on regular television for free?
No unfortunately television rights have been purchased by Optus Sport.
You can’t do anything in Aus anymore, lol.
It’s Cuba now. 😉
Australia has become money hungry Ante
Is using a VPN illegal in Australia?
Iggy you can download the Optus sports app on your iPad if it’s too cold to get out of bed too
You can use a Croatian vpn and watch it free without sign up on gol.hr
Hrvatska 3-1 Engleska
Battle hardened men vs. Overhyped, untested boys
Bring on the chirpers!!!
Bog i Hrvati!!!
Time for predictions on the England game I call a 4-1 beat down.They have too much firepower for us and obviously have a score to settle.
Maminjo im curious as to your prediction…come on you can do it I know you have it in you!
I have no idea, lol.
I think we’ll rise to the occasion, but our defense and goalkeeping worries me.
Šime is out of form, and Lovren/Vida have gotten worse these past few years. Livaković is gaffe prone, like our past keepers.
But Modrić, Brozović, Perišić, Brekalo, Rebić and Vlašić will step up.
It’s just a matter of whether our defenders will have a good game or not.
At the same time, this game is not critical to win since the top three can advance. So it kind of takes some of the excitement out of it.
I agree with Zoran. We’d be lucky to get a draw. I’m predicting a 3-1 win for England. Croatia score first but England put 3 pass us in the second half. Rebic, Kane gets two and Sancho score.
——————Budimir
——————————-Kramaric
——Rebic———————————-Perisic
——————Modric———-Brozovic
Bradaric————————————Vrsaljko
—————Caleta-Car——Gvardiol
——————————Kalinic
And yes you do experiment in big tournaments, especially when what you have been doing for 2 years isn’t working out too well.
Roll the dice, shake things up.
I think that lineup has a good mix of veterans and youth as well as attacking threats of differing types.
@Maminjo
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again? What’s with the love affair with Petkovic? A couple of good games? You say that Budimir “lumbers” around. Have you ever seen Petkovic play. Sheesh…. He’s probably the laziest player to ever wear the checkers. Is he even really still hurt? You keep talking about this shoulder injury but nobody else does. It’s almost like you’re building in an excuse if he does poorly. Rebic up front? Have you watched him at Milan this year in that position when Ibra was hurt? He was piss poor.
The “love affair” stems from RESULTS.
Petkovic has actually scored GOALS for us in real qualifying games. Even Kramaric has struggled to do for us what Petkovic has.
It’s the reason why there is even a discussion between who should start between the two of them.
Krama’s club scoring rate destroys Petko’s and he plays in the Bundesliga too (so this normally wouldn’t even be a debate)….But Petkovic actually scores at a better rate for the National Team.
Maybe it was a lucky multi-game spell, but still, it seems like whenever Petko gets time with our starters in an actual game…he scores.
During the qualifiers, he scored 4 very important goals for us in less than 500 minutes played.
He barely played in Nations League too (coming on in the last 10 minutes of each game) and he still managed to score there too (on Portugal of all teams).
Krama only managed one goal for us in qualifying.
Not saying Krama is a poor fit for us, but it’s hard to ignore Petkovic’s goalscoring for us. Maybe he’s the better fit up top for us. Maybe not. But it’s worth having the debate.
I agree that Petkovic isn’t perfect and he looks like he doesn’t like to run….but results are results.
Even in Europa, he scored some key goals too. He had 4 goals in 800 minutes played (which is a good rate) and he was nursing his shoulder in a couple of those more recent games and couldn’t play as physical against Spurs.
I can understand why people are turned off by him, but still, I’m one of those people who simply cannot ignore results. He scores goals in important games. Almost seems like he doesn’t like to try unless he has to, lol.
Now, obviously Budimir hasn’t been given the same chances as Petkovic and Kramaric…but he was given a few games, and didn’t do much. Now, it’s too late. You’d have to be crazy to experiment with Budimir as a starter for the first time DURING an international tournament.
Seems foolish that there is even a debate as to whether Budimir should be starting for us when we have Kramaric (who is one of the top scorers in Germany) and Petkovic (who is one of the top scorers for the National Team this past year).
Budimir has been playing well lately for Osasuna, but is not scoring at some extremely good rate that we simply cannot ignore him. He got his callup, and he’s a backup. That’s more than reasonable for what he’s been doing. He was given minutes in the recent WC qualifiers and UNL and didn’t score. Tough to get judged off a small sample size, but that’s life. I’m sure if Petkovic didn’t score in his first few appearances against Hungary and Slovakia, he would be a bench player too.
So what’s the solution now?
Give Budimir a start anyway? During a major tournament? lol
Hard pass.
Yea, Rebic is a poor finisher, but the purpose to play him up top would be to apply constant pressure to opposing defenders and to join in on any counter attacks (due to his strength and speed).
Milan playing some middling Serie A team is not the same as Croatia playing a team like Germany or France in the knockouts.
If we are dominating possession, then yea, we would be watching Rebic miss chance after chance all game.
But if we are largely defending and relying on counters (against a team like France for example) then Rebic would be more useful than Budimir because of the constant pressure he would apply to the French defenders, and the speedy runs he would make with Perisic and Brekalo on each side on any counterattacks sprung by Modric or Brozovic.
Rebic was bad at ST at the start of the season but in the final match days, he was dominant there. Maybe he brings his form into the NT. Also, he’d be a pressing forward, not necessarily a finisher or a target man. Just there to apply pressure on the defences and create openings for a guy like Krama or Vlasic who could sit behind him, or Brekalo cutting in from the right and even Perisic from the left.
Maminjo has a man crush on petka Hehehe
If it was my call wouldn’t start Petko or Budimir. I’d start Rebic up front with Brekalo and Perisic on the wings. Rebic would be able to press like Mandza did for us which was a huge reason why we were successful in the WC.
We could always bring on Petko or Budimir off the bench. Due to form
I’d be leaning towards Budimir but as Maminjo said he’s done zero for us. Petko hasn’t shown anything lately though which is a concern. Our issue is we have no replacement for Mandza..hence the reason Dalic has used Krama there hoping it would work using our most talented goal scorer and having Vlasic play behind him.
Vrsaljko’s lack of playing and form is concerning. He was so good for us….
Oddly I don’t mind the idea of the three mids either with Modric player further up and behind our striker. Remember when Modric and Rakitic couldn’t be on the field together? Well they finally gelled and it worked out for years.
problem is dalics decisions are based on emotions/feelings rather than logical fact, therefore his tactics are shit. slovenia game was the perfect example of this, remember when he played perisic a winger as a stirker, then played vlasic a cam as a winger, then played modric a cm as a cam. then played kramaric a cam as a winger. unbelievably idiotic.
karma just scored 20 goals this season, when has a croat ever scored that many in a top five league? even more impressive krama doesn’t even play the conventional role of a striker, he is actually in fact an attacking mid, he says so himself multiple times.
go to 0:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1abhf4CAe3I
go to 7:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iZHPRgjq_Q
the best CAM in the primer league, bruno fernandes, scored 18 goals, 9 of which were penalties. kramaric over here scoring 20 goals, imo one of the best attacking mids in the world, and dalic fucking clueless buffoon monkey has been trying to play him as; lone striker, winger, and doing other stupid shit, absolutely clueless and doesn’t know how to utilize him, and then idiots who don’t follow soccer say, “well, when kramaric plays for us hE iS nOt tHaT gOoD”. LMAO, BECAUSE he is a CAM and needs to play with Petkovic or BUDIMIR up top!!!
Im all for Krama, but at this point i don’t even care that much if he doesn’t start, play vlasic cam and petkovic striker i don’t really care, as long as the formation is balanced and everyone is playing their preferred positions. but for the love of god plz do not play kramaric and vlasic at the same time.
when mandzukic was at athletico he scored 12 goals, but last season budimir scores 13 goals including a brace against barca and nobody cares. ffs. when mandzukic starts and plays 90 mins all 10 games of qualifiers and only scores one goal, nobody blinks an eye. but budimir barely gets a chance. if budimir is in good form why can’t we at least try him out with kramaric/vlasic. he started once against turkey where he scored, and another against cyprus where he also scored but they called the goal back.
rebic lone striker??? u guys r too funny, if u had actually watched milan when ibra was injured and they played rebic striker, you would know he was absolutely atrocious. he is 100% winger NOT A STRIKER. follow soccer before u comment stupid shit.
pOngRaCic, if i hear this losers name one more time…after he and DDC started against france a year ago, i watched his next two wolfsburg games, TERRIBLE! at fault for goals, slow and crap positioning. lost his starting spot and rightfully so. No it was not because “hE hAd mOnO”, Lacroix and Brooks are 10x better than him. watch the actual games before u comment stupid shit. He is only 22 so he will probably get better, but at this moment i don’t rate him.
Cigan je cigan,
I agree 100%.
It’s gotta be Budimir up top and Krama offset slightly behind him as forward/attacking mid. If those two ever got a chance to build up some chemistry and understanding…wow what a forward combo that would be. Both guys have been scoring goals consistently while playing for pretty mediocre teams in tough leagues. And both add different types of attacking skills.
I didn’t even know Budimir scored 2 vs. Barca.
So he scores 2 against Barca, he scores v Atletico on the last day of the season, a game that Atletico must win to become champion but he’s not good enough to play over Petkovic? Please.
If Budimir doesn’t start and get some decent playing time, that would be outrageous.
All your points are spot on.
Of course he’s unproven, he’s never really gotten a chance to play. There are many reasons I would pick Budimir over Petko but the headers are by far the most important. We have plenty of players who can send in balls from open play but it’s the set pieces that are so crucial especially in tournament play. Balls into the box from corners and free kicks need a target man and what Budimir has done lately has been very impressive. He has been clinical when finishing with the head and that’s exactly what we need.
Our biggest problem over our last stretch of poor results has been that our attack has been one dimensional. Defenses know what to expect and just bunker down.
Budimir adds that other dimension which can unsettle opposing defenders and that creates openings for Kramaric, Rebic and Perisic to exploit.
Not only that, but the guy is hungry to prove himself….he’s got the goods just needs the chance to shine.
Bog i Hrvati
He played in 7 games for us and I didn’t see him get his head on any headers. He also seemed slow and botched a couple of sitters for us.
Also, despite being tall and wirey, he’s not like Mandzukic where he fights for position. Not that physical of a player.
He’s decent enough to be a backup, and it’s good news for us that he’s actually in form right now in Spain.
But I don’t think it’s enough to supplant the elite technical ability that Petkovic brings, which has already proven to be very useful in key qualification games with his link up play with our midfielders.
If Petko stinks it up, then Budimir can come off the bench.
Maminjo….wrong!!!
Budimir has been excellent in his last few games in Spain. Scored against Atletico (and then got chirped by Savic the Serb, and it looked like Ante was ready to go at him…that’s the type of fire we desperately need. I predict, if he gets to play, he has a breakout tournament). For me Petkovic just always looks lethargic and heavy, no passion. Budimir is a great header of the ball and exactly what we need up front. He’s a great contrast to play with Krama. I guarantee they will cause major problems for any defence.
In the Belgium game we should totally just experiment…but don’t play Budimir(keep him as the ace up the sleeve) Modric, Perisic or Rebic. Let them rest.
Have a kick about. Relax.
I actually hope we get blown out and the English get even more overconfident. That way it will be all the sweeter when we beat England.
I also think Scotland will beat or tie England as well. They are due to surprise their Auld Enemy.
Get ready for some surprises.
It’s going to be an interesting tournament.
I also think the Švabe might do some damage to France or Portugal.
Ajmo Dečki!!!!
Napred Hrvati!!!
Yea I see that Budimir is on a bit of a scoring streak this past May, but Petkovic has actually scored goals for our National Team and his technical ability (which is better than Budimir’s) gels better with our very technically-ept offensive lineup.
The only thing with Petkovic is that he may currently be a bit injured with that shoulder thing he had, so I dunno. But when he was fully healthy, he was great for us (scoring some very impressive key goals for us in important games). He’s also younger and a better long term fit for us.
Budimir is still very unproven for us, and hasn’t really shown too much in the games he played for us.
He may have a decent header, but we don’t really have anyone to send in quality crosses anyway.
He seems like just a backup player to me.
Would rather stick it out with any combination of Petkovic, Kramaric and Rebic over him.
we all love petkovics dribbling, but we have krama in the attacking area to massage the ball. budimir is the best header on the team, if we send enough balls in the box he will score, it also gives us another form of attack which was non-existent for us since mandzu.
Mandžo’s bread and butter for us is his relentless running at the opposing defenders, mixing it up physically, and he’s pretty fast too.
He’s good for headers, but he didn’t score any at the World Cup.
Budimir may have a good header, but he doesn’t bring any of the other critical things Mandžo brings.
Also, we’re likely not going to be the dominant team in our key games against teams like England and whoever we face in the knockout phase.
We will likely need to rely on the counterattack, and pressuring the opposing defense.
Watching Budimir lumber around slowly won’t be pretty to watch.
He seems like he’d be better suited if we dominated possession and could get his head on any crosses. But since we’re unlikely to dominate possession in the more important games, I can’t see him pressuring opposing defenders with any speed or spearheading a counterattack.
Has anyone else heard anything about Vrsaljko? Yesterday I read he has wiped his Instagram clean of any photos with his wife, today I read his player value has dropped down to 5 million Euros and that Simeone was preferring other players that aren’t even defenders to play instead of Vrsaljko!
This seems like a tough period for Sime and I honestly hope he’s mentally ok but reading all this concerns me.
Holy smokes… dude was worth almost 30m in 2018, now worth close to 5m (?!?!!?) I always liked him, what he brought to the team, his game, etc. but I feel bad for him now. He was on the path to becoming a world-class RB. Now he’s just a run of the mill RB coming up on 30…
old news, happened like 3 months ago. trippier got banned for 10 games, vrsaljko was back from injury but was so shit that simeone played llorente at rwb even though he is a cm
2 things- show that we can defend – this is a very different team from 2018 – no Mario- no finish- we better rely on counters and cut our turnovers in half and this is the scary one- figure out a way to get Luka and Kovacic on the field at the same time- Kova has matured and is a different player from 2018 – he showed he can play with Chelsea and it will be a downfall of Dalic that he hasn’t come up with a way that we couldn’t have Kova on the field vs some weaker player in a mid field position- sometimes you have to change the structure to support what you have- why not try it again in the game vs Belgium-
Chelsea plays with three at the back.
We seem to have the moderns CBs right now (Gvardiol, Pongracic, Caleta-Car) to be able to play with three at the back and try some of these 3-5-2 for 3-4-2-1 formations that teams like Chelsea play with.
Maybe Kovacic would be more comfortable with a more technically sound trio of CBs behind him, and paired with an additional midfielder or two.
It would be nice trying to test formations like this out in the last 10-15 minutes of our qualifying games (with our actual A Team players). Testing it out in friendlies with none of your key starters playing is pointless.
Euro2021 opener will almost certainly be a 4-2-3-1 lineup
……………..Petkovic
……Perisic Kramaric Rebic
………Brozovic Modric
Barisic Vida CaletaCar Vrsaljko
……………Livakovic
The only “surprise” may be Krama taking Vlasic’s starting role and Petkovic being put up top.
Vlasic is not 100% right now, and Kramaric has actually been playing in this role at Hoffenheim (they have been playing a 4-2-3-1 as well, with Krama behind the striker).
Lovren being kinda injured guarantees Caleta-Car as the starter. Brekalo would probably replace Rebic on the wing if Rebic is still injured (Dalic could go with Vlasic there, but he’s never done this yet so I doubt he tries it at the Euros for the first time).
I don’t think there will be any other surprises.
I’m curious about Vrsaljko. He’s not standard at his club and he was bad vs Armenia….also, there’s a report out today that he’s “poor and too expensive”!
He’s always our favourite for RB but ever since the World Cup, he hasn’t done well due to injuries and poor form.
He’s out of form, but still our best option.
I thought Bosko Sutalo played well for the U21s and should be looked at after the Euros.
Juranovic played well for the past couple of games (though he was horrible the friendly before that), so we have him as a backup in case Sime is playing poorly.
I’m hoping for a 1-1 tie. Get the reps in, continue to gel. Just make it a quiet game. I know friendlies don’t matter but I think from a morale and ‘whats in the press’ POV, getting drubbed 3-1, 4-1 would be bad for team morale because less face it (as Ante mentioned) we have a long string of shit results and don’t need another one days before a huge game vs. England. Also if we get taken behind the wood shed, this is going to put even more pressure on Dalic and the calls will grow louder that he needs to go. Not something we need right before a Euro.
Can we overcome shit results, pressure on our coach and a squad with some holes and make a deeper run, sure. We obviously have done it before. Would rather we limit the turmoil and bad press right before a Euro though…
All this Budimir “starting” talk is depressing. Budimir should never be mentioned as a starter.
Not sure why everyone keeps bringing this up.
He’s not starting caliber for any tournament-level games. He’s a backup. Someone to come of the bench at best.
I would start either one of Petkovic or Kramaric over Budimir under any circumstance. If they were both injured, I would them opt to start Rebic up top and have Brekalo take his place on the wing (before ever starting Budimir in a real tournament game). Budimir only starts if we lose every single other option up top (to cards or injury). No other reason.
100!
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Id be happy with a 2-1 loss, no injuries and signs of good play.
Finding the net against a good team is always nice