Official October FIFA rankings have been released and Croatia (as previously mentioned) will be a seeded team in Tuesday’s UEFA Playoff draw. Alongside Croatia, Switzerland, Italy and Denmark will also be seeded for the 8AM (ET) draw which can be seen on FIFA.com or FIFA Youtube on October 17th.
Opposite of the seeds will be Northern Ireland, Sweden, Ireland and Greece. Croatia will be paired with one of these countries in a November home-and-away playoff to determine who will go to the World Cup in Russia next summer.
Northern Ireland has to be the weakest opponent and best choice for Croatia, however, none of these four teams should strike fear into Croatia.
Who would you like to see Croatia paired up with for the November playoff?
Should either Switzerland, Italy or Peru fail to make it to the World Cup, Croatia would move up to Pot 2 in the World Cup draw and have a much favorable road; should they make it. Croatian fans will be on scoreboard watch during the playoff games in November.
Coin toss odds are 50/50
These lower seeded teams are praying they get Croatia. You’ll see more excitement from them then from the hrvatski navijaci when we drew Iceland
If I was pot 2 I’d want Denmark or Cro
Eriksen is a dangerous player
Croatia vs Sweden
Italy vs Greece
Denmark vs Ireland
Switzerland vs North Ireland
LAknat always right ..
bring it up for my team and strategy,
if it’s going to be true!
Hey Truth what’s the percentage on the coin toss? I’m thinking we get tails.
No shit truth troll. Really? Tell me something i don’t know. Chump ass.
As always, the truth will present caution. Don’t be excited about any of these draws. It is pretty much a coin toss in any
The person who was posting our playoff would be in an empty stadium on previous threads was clearly trolling. I said on those threads i could find no such info, it was a BS story.
Oh ok. But they have a will and a way. They connected with the Milan boys. They use each other credit cards. Very smart in a way so to speak. I’m not condoning this behavior but that’s how it is. Can’t stop it.
@Zee from the home leg due to racist behavior vs Ukraine. However I think it was simply a rumor
@adame. Banned from what?
@Adame
I think not. In the link, the Savez says tickets will be sold between KN60-200
Any word on if our fans are banned?
Not sure why we think Northern Ireland is shit..they’ll give us a run for our money. Quite honestly, all of these teams will. I think Sweden is the better of the four and I think if we drew them, that would be good as we always play to the level of our competition.
It was probably a formality, but disappointed nonetheless: home leg will be played at Maksimir.
http://hns-cff.hr/news/17007/dalic-ostaje-izbornik-zagreb-domacin-dodatnih-kvalifikacija/
geez guys. don’t underestimate the irish. either team. that’s some bad karma right there. just respect all the opponents and fear none. why do we seem to have such a problem with that?
Sweden would be a good draw.
They will open up and try and score on us, similar to how Ukraine attacked us.
Usually in those situations, the more talented team wins.
Greece will be a nightmare park the bus and a bullshit goal. Geez hope not them.
my predictions:
Hrvatska vs Ireland
Italy vs Greece
Switzerland vs Sweden
Denmark vs Northern Ireland
Sweden must be okay post-Zlatan if they finished above holland ?
As mentioned earlier, Cilic is actually #4 in the world now!
https://scontent.fbne3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22549688_1598551513541458_352378405163609573_n.jpg?oh=245985598c0cd04e6f13d08bea9d2c2f&oe=5A7E7F4E
I weirdly have watched a decent amount of Northern Ireland qualifying games……and I …..weirdly…..think they are not as shit as we believe.
Croatia vs Ireland would be the greatest atmosphere ever, catholic brothers
Greece would bunker us properly
Sweden, no idea since Zlatan left I don’t care to watch, anyone got any gems on them?
Poglavnik – I wold love to beat them as well but we don’t have the greatest record against them the last so many years. We either tie or lose and the game is usually ugly and chippy. They use the dark arts and we don’t react well to those teams mentally. Maminjo made a good point above when he wrote they can get in our heads with that type of soccer.
Greece is balls. They struggle against even the shittiest teams. I’d be most proud of beating those hairy sheep-humpers. So many Greeks in Vancouver and I’ve never been friends with any. Buncha weirdos..
Croatians love conspiracy theories.
We’re going to get Greece. Fifa doesn’t want too many teams from that part of the world in World Cup. Greece winning the Euro pissed off Fifa and UEFA. I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist nut but it’s already been admitted that draws have been rigged in the past before. Did you guys know that the 2014 World Cup was the first time 2 draws were done for the groups? The first draw had Brazil Italy another powerhouse in 1 group which they couldn’t have so they called it a “preliminary draw” and just had another one. Remember this is about money. Not trying to be negative. We should be able to beat any one of those teams but I am predicting we play Greece.
https://www.google.ca/amp/www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/brazil-world-cup-2014-draw-england-drawn-with-holders-spain-in-official-group-stage-rehearsal-8986228.html%3famp
Let’s see if they do it again this time.
4 2 3 1 suba vrsaljko mitrovic vida leovac badelj rakitic mandzukic modric perisic kramaric/kalinic subs brozovic vlasic pasalic santini lovren.
Bring on Sweden- we play awful against D level countries-
Sweden doesn’t shy away from opening it up- when we counter like we did against Ukraine – we actually look like we know what were doing – Italy could easily bomb out – their as messed up as we are.
Great LAknat named the following squad for the playoff matches
Goalkeepers: Danijel Subasic (Monaco/FRA), Lovre Kalinic (K.A.A Gent/BEL), Dominik Livakovic (Zagreb)
Defenders: Dejan Lovren (Liverpool/ENG), Domagoj Vida (Dynamo Kiev/UKR), Ivan Strinic (Sampdoria/ITA), Sime Vrsaljko (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Vedran Corluka( Lokomotiv Moskow/RUS), Matej Mitrovic (Besiktas/TUR), Duje Caleta-Car (Salzburg/AUT)
Midfielders: Luka Modric (Real Madrid/ESP), Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona/ESP), Ivan Perisic (Inter Milan/ITA), Milan Badelj (Fiorentina/ITA), Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan/ITA), Mario Pasalic (Spartak Moscow/RUS), Marko Rog (Napoli/ITA),
Forwards: Mario Mandzukic (Juventus/ITA), Nikola Kalinic (AC Milan/ITA), Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim/GER), Nikola Vlasic (Everton/ENG), Ante Rebic (Frankfurt/GER)
……………………..Lovre Kalinic…………………….
……..D Vida…………Corluka…………Lovren………
….Rakitic……….…Milan Badelj………….Vrsaljko….
………….Ante Rabic…Modric…Mandzukic………….
…………………….…Kramaric………………………..
Greeks are probably the worst since they can change the way YOU play your game.
Similar to how Portugal at Euro 2016 just kept fouling our players because they were unable to match up with us technically, I would expect Greece to do the same thing.
It would be a painful two games to watch, filled with yellow and possibly red cards. We would still be favoured to go through, but we’d probably have a couple suspensions going into the World Cup.
Either Irish team would be our best outcome.
The Greeks tend to park the bus all match long, play physically and then try to score on the break or through set pieces. Their style of play (if you can call it that) isn’t best suited to us with our slow defenders and shaky Subasic these days, and we don’t have the mental strength to deal with that over two legs based on our last few performances.
Sweden can be dangerous but I’d still prefer them to the Greeks.
We are ready for any of the four and we could have take care of Italy, Switzerland and Denmark for that matter.
Northern Ireland seems to be the low hanging fruit.
But we need to be at our best over 180++ minutes.
So it really doesn’t matter who we draw.
Dalić showed some tactical awareness in Ukraine in finally freeing Modrić up for any defense responsibility.
Let’s see if he has the balls call up some in form young studs to add an extra dimension in the attacking third?
Finland has taught us that these countries are hungry to grow as footballing nations.
With the World Cup berths on the line they all will run themselves into the ground.
We need to match that intensity and then play our football.
Northern Ireland or Ireland
Other two are hard, and most important is NOT SWEDEN FFS