It will be Kovačić, not Modrić.
Even without their injured (thigh) Croatian midfielder, Chelsea disposed of Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate and have booked their ticket to the Champions League Final in Istanbul on May 29th, where they will meet Manchester City. This will mark the 10th straight CL Final where a Croatian will take part. A Croatian has won the Champions League eight years in a row.
Buckle up. All eyes on Kovačić and his return this month before EURO 2021 kick off mid-June.
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We know a Croatian will play in the May 29th Champions League Final. We just don’t know who it will be.
Mateo Kovačić has once again been ruled out (thigh injury) for Wednesday night’s 2nd leg semifinal clash at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Real Madrid. The 1st leg ended 1-1 in Madrid last week and all is still to play for. Luka Modrić will get the start at 3PM (ET) as he was rested with Toni Kroos on the weekend in La Liga play; and there are rumors Sergio Ramos could finally return for Los Blancos.
Chelsea are -175 favorites to make the Final which would be a symbolic changing of the guard between Modrić and Kovačić. It’s a shame they weren’t able to battle each other in club play this year.
It should be one hell of a game with everything riding on 90 minutes in London. The winner will meet Manchester City; who will be playing in their first ever CL Final. Chelsea’s only title came in 2021 when Drogba sealed the deal against Bayern Munich in a penalty kick shootout. Should Real Madrid win, it would be their record 14th title. AC Milan sits in a distant second with seven titles.
We’re all rooting for Modrić to do it again, right?
This is great
The train for Rober Muric has left the station years ago. Ajax gave him a long look and while not a ‘bust’, he was never going to be the player a lot of us hyped him up to be. I see him having a similar career path to Ivan Tomecak; he’ll carve out a nice career for himself in the HNL, maybe get an NT cap or two, maybe bounce out to a slightly better league and then just end up back in Croatia. Another comparison would be Franko Andrijasevic.
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Biuk looks like the real deal. Watched him closely during the last derbi and catch pieces of Hajduk games and he’s definitely one to watch.
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Hilarious that we waste so much breath on the ‘great’ Halilovic. He should just stop wasting time and just come back to the HNL. Let him sign for Hajduk, let Hajduk continue to build back up and he can potentially be a piece of the plan that gets them back to 1st. I mean, imagine if that were to play out and media frenzy it would cause!? All that bust stuff would be forgotten and he’d be legend forever in Cro.
Like it not Pulisic has Croatian citzenship, which i might add is more than some of these writers can say!
I’m glad Antonio Marin has been getting game time at Lokomotiva. From the games I’ve watched, he’s obviously the most technical player on the pitch but his teammates suck and he has trouble doing it himself. A lot of his passes are badly received, especially in that game against Istra a while ago. I thought popping off against Turkey u20 would give him momentum but he’s been rather ok since then. Idk, he’s still very young and hes getting good game time with the Lokosi which is the most important thing. He still has time to save himself, he’s just so talented and needs to get his head straight.
Isn’t Dolček a winger?
Bradarić can play there too. Our biggest U17 prospect (Šaranić) can also play the wing. I think we’re pretty good on the wing now and in the future.
Petkovic is fine I would say considering he played 90 min in Dinamo and Hajduk’s 1-1 draw today. If I recall correctly, someone on this site said he had a shoulder injury that he could either play through and risk injury or get surgery right away. I don’t know if it’s true, but he’s been playing a lot recently so either he’s playing through it or that was just a bogus report. As for Vlasic, I haven’t seen anything new since the “early signs are that it is not a serious injury” news. We’ll have to wait and see on that front.
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Also, since a lot of people don’t pay attention to the Prva Liga here, I like the look of Stipe Biuk, 18 year old winger from Hajduk. I’ve known about him for a good while now, but it looks like since his promotion to the first team he’s been getting a lot of time and looks lively every time I watch him play. He even scored in the big 3-2 win vs. Rijeka the other day. One to watch out for considering we still could use just that little bit more quality depth on the wings if you ask me.
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Right now we have Perisic at top level for a few more years, Rebic and Orsic are in their prime, Brekalo is 22 so not quite in his prime. I suppose Ivanusec has been playing on the wing at Dinamo and Majer CAN play there, but is way better in the center. But after that the quality drops a bit. Pjaca still hasn’t quite found his stride and has been playing more centrally when he comes off the bench at Genoa. Lovric and Spikic are pretty decent players and I like them both. They are not super high ceiling players, but still good at what they do. Marin is slowly turning into a bust, but we’ll see, he’s still only 20 and Dinamo cared enough to recall him from his disastrous loan-to-buy move at Monza, just hasn’t shown much at Lokomotiva since he got there. Then we have Halilovic, who is running out of time to show even a glimpse of his former promise, I guess he’s still 24 so he’s got the next 2 years if he is ever gonna show up. And Robert Muric, now 25 years old, has been pretty decent at Rijeka this season with 12 goals and 7 assists in all competitions. And then I would say the next people of note are youngsters such as Biuk, Ivan Saranic, and maybe Martin Baturina although I think he’s more of a central player. Of course there are probably some that are even younger that many people don’t even know about. It’s not a position of real worry for me, but the more quality depth the better.
Any updates on Vlasic and petka
I agree key players
Mixed I thought your comparison was a bit unfair on the quality of that Croatian side
Good. Luka needs to be saved for the Euros.
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Kovačić can go nuts in the CL Final for all I care.
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Right now, it’s all about Vlašić and Petković coming back from their injuries, since we need both of them.
Would be kind of funny if Chelsea loses and doesn’t hit 4th place
A cl finalist not making cl the next year!
Would have been nice for luka to win
But fuck it, we have bigger things to worry about
Modrić looked great.
I am actually glad Real Modrić is out of the CL.
That game would have drained him physically and mentally.
Kovačić will have a part to play vs Man city.
Chelsea will need him as they are involved in two cup finals and a race for 4th in the EPL.
Madrid has been decimated by injuries yet 35 year old Modrić is still going strong.
Could you imagine if Hazard was Croatian?
Talk about an absolute flop.
And his old club thriving?
I am all in on Chelsea to beat Peder Pep in Istanbul.
Kovačić will be fresh for us as this hamstring strain has given him time to rest a bit.
Hazard is a bum. A bigger flop than Bale.
Cvitanovic? He hardly figured and scored 4 goals in total for national team. Suker was always the target and scored most of our goals. Boksic was injured for the big tournaments, 96 and 98.
Or the Recaro seats
Kova’s gonna ride the pine
What we had boksic vlaovic or cvitanovic or even kozniku
We just didn’t have suker up front
Real Madrid tonight reminded me of Croatia when Suker used to play. Only one person, Benzema, can score and he didn’t score. For a team that spends so much money, Madrid are truly short on offensive talent. Luka played well, but did not take many risks. He was actually Madrid’s best player after Courtois. Hazard was mediocre, Vicinius selfish, Mendy awful. Chelsea is the much younger team and it showed. Their game is ugly but high energy. Madrid played elegantly, slowly setting things up, but they rarely maintained any possession in Chelsea’s half and never had a sustained threat. They also expended a lot of effort keeping possession which led to nothing. The ball was always being kicked back or driven into short spaces along the sidelines where Chelsea dominated. Kroos took all free kicks and did poorly, Modric would have done better. I was hoping to see Luka in the finals, too bad.
That being said, these last Champions League games have all been really lame.
Question, does Kovacic return for the final or does Chelsea keep the team that keeps winning?
Lamest final since Chelsea v United
It’s better for the NT that Chelsea won. That being said, I feel sorry for Modrić. This was probably his last chance and his team let him down. He was by far their best player today.
Come on Chelsea!!!
@ Maminjo
Same boat. I obviously wish the best for our guys, but I don’t care too much about what trophies they do or don’t win. Just make it to the summer healthy, in-form and get ready to put your big boy football boots on and get us some good results.
I don’t care about any of this.
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Euros are on my mind. Modric staying injury-free is all I care about.
We’re all rooting for Modrić to do it again, right?
Whoever is not, should be banned for life from this site.
This match has Real Modrić written all over it.
Luka was absolutely run down last match.
Valverde injury has impacted his rest the most.
Valverde, Hazard, Mendy and Ramos are all back in contention for minutes.
Kovačić would have been good for Chelsea against Real.
Luka knows London and is due for one of his patented golassos.
2-1, Real heading to Instanbul with healthy squad for Man City.