AC Milan’s Alen Halilović captained the Croatian U-21 side to a 4-0 victory over San Marino Monday night to secure their berth at the 12-team Euro 2019 tournament next summer. Halilović and Nikola Vlašić scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half to seal the deal.
This will be the first time the Croatian U-21 plays at the Euro tournament since 2004, where Niko Kranjčar, Darijo Srna and Eduardo starred for the Mini Vatreni. This current crop of baby Vatreni is stacked with talent and should be considered favorites to make it out of group and play in the semifinals.
Euro 2019 will take place in Northern Italy and San Marino from June 16-30. The top four teams at the tournament will also gain entry into the 2020 Summer Olympics, which Croatia has never participated in.
It’s a great time to be a Croatian football fan. The future is brighter than ever.
How come Coric wasn’t in the U21 Squad recently . Also will Nikola Moro & Lovro Majer make this squad in time for the Euros as they are two of Croatia’s most talented young players.
This is the problem when you sell players for CHEAP.
Coaches don’t feel any pressure to play them, because they didn’t cost the team much. If a coach doesn’t really like your game, you’re simply not gonna play.
But if the team dropped something like $10 million Euro on you, then that coach will get pressured to play them (since management will look stupid for dropping that kind of money on a bench player).
Hajduk is the worst offender for selling players for peanuts, who easily end up on the bench of their new teams.
Dinamo sells even their garbage players for twice the amount that Hajduk sells their star players.
Celtic were pretty much forced to start Jozo Simunovic after they dropped 8M for him. If that guy ever turns out to be a servicable centerback, it will be because Dinamo sold him high and he got to play multiple years of first-team football right away.
Mario Mandzukic was in a similar situation, where Wolfsburg dropped 8 million for him and he went on a bad cold streak and was benched…but then ownership pretty much told the coach that they need to start him. Despite going goalless for something like 16 straight games, he eventually caught fire and scored something like 8 goals in 9 games to finish the season.
One year later, he blew up at Euro 2012 and transferred to Bayern. None of this would have happened if he was a typical Hadjuk ($3M or less) transfer.
Marko Pjaca being sold for 23 million pretty much forced Juventus to actively look for a team who was willing to take him on loan with a buyback option (rather than just leave him on the bench to rot). Most teams don’t go out and do that much legwork for a loan/buyback deal, but they did since they dropped a ton of cash for him.
Or look at Borna Sosa…The kid already starts for Stuttgart, despite there being a much more experienced Argentinian dude who was starting before him at the beginning of the season. What did Sosa do to win the starting spot so quickly?
Well, Dinamo sold Sosa for something like 6-8 million Euro (which is a lot for Stuttgart). My guess is ownership told the coach to start playing him, or else.
This doesn’t happen for guys like Vukusic, Radosevic, Caktas, Andrija Balic, Toma Basic, etc.
It’s a shame because Toma Basic and Andrija Balic are actually very talented…but if their current coaches don’t wanna play them, then that’s that. If they want to go out on loan, they will probably have to go out and find a team themselves with little or no time invested by the club. A couple years of this (at this critical development period), and you just lowered the ceiling of your career.
The Balic case is strange to me. Udinese is not even good and every time I’ve seen him play for them he does pretty well. So I do not see why they would not opt for a young guy with some potential every once in a while.
Coric and Halilovic went to teams that are too big for them. They really should have gone to smaller teams to make sure they got the playing time they need to develop. I think Coric will eventually start getting some time for Roma, but I think Halilovic should get out of Milan as soon as possible.
Whats going on with our midfield talent in the Serie A Halilovic Coric and Balic.
Lovren to Barcelona?
It’s been two games, and in one of them, we were relying on Santini and Livaja to score.
We had this same ‘scoring crisis’ before the World Cup too.
We’ll see what happens in November.
The only two countries not to score yet in the League of Nations tournament?
San Marino and Croatia
We have a striker crisis. With Mandzukic gone, if Perisic isn’t scoring , nobody is.
It took two defenders to save us from embarrassment against Jordan.
LEL there is atual footage of that 15 – 1 win over Bjelovar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJcEpiO4vUQ
see, we have no probs scoring goals after all!
😉
@razbijac.great post and I hope you’re correct my man! Great job.
There’s talk of Dalic freshin’ up the side come this November, especially with the likes of Brekalo, Vlasic, Caleta-Car, and Sosa.
If we can get Brekalo and Vlasic to make an impact on the wings, it could free up Rebic and Kramaric as options up top. Since we’re pretty short on options in the forward position, there’s even talk of recalling you-know-who Mr. Back Injury (But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that..).
Then Krovinovic should bolster the midfield with his long awaited arrival. Yep, the future is bright for Croatian football.
And something tells me that our World Cup Final appearance this summer–won’t be our last!
Respect to Halilovic for being captain and keeping his career going.
I don’t see a better RW anywhere at HNS.
He seems to be maturing.
He cuts inside and Vrsaljko over laps on the right flank.
Then that RW gets poppin.
Gatuso has to give my man a little run.
I get his ass needs to run around and survive for his coaching job .. just like he played .. but give my man a little run out.
This season, Vlašić became what I thought Krovinović would become (if it wasn’t for that injury).
Also, at the World Cup, Rebić became what I thought Pjaca would become.
It’s nice to have a conveyer belt of talent in case things don’t pan out for some players.
oh, come on … 24 teams and 48 teams with such a crap format, even 3 teams in a group for the next world cup…
This will be a GREAT SOLUTION:
1) Group AB, CD, EF, GH consist of 6 teams
2) A team vs B team, C team vs D team, and so on
3) 3 match in a row with 9 points of maximum.
4) 1st,2nd (seeded),3rd and 4th (unseeded) advance
5) 1st can pick opponents from the cross group (unseeded)
EXAMPLE:
Group C…………………Group D
1) Belgium…………..1) France
2) Czech……………..2) Turkey
3) Greece……………3) Serbia
Group CD schedule
Belgium vs Serb….Belgium vs Turkey..Belgium vs France
Czech vs Turkey… Czech vs Franch….Czech vs Serbia
Greece vs Franch..Greece vs Serb…..Greece vs Turkey
Group CD result
Belgium vs Serb (2-0)….Belgium vs Turkey (3-0)..
Belgium vs France (1-0)
Czech vs Turkey (1-1)… Czech vs Franch (0-2)..
Czech vs Serbia (1-2)
Greece vs Franch (1-3)….Greece vs Serbia (0-1)..
Greece vs Turkey (1-1)
Group CD
1) Belgium…. 3 0 0 (6-0) 9 point (seeded)
2) France…… 2 0 1 (5-1) 6 point (seeded)
3) Serbia……..2 0 1 (3-3) 6 point (unseed)
4) Czech……..0 1 2 (2-5) 1 point (unseed)
5) Greece…….0 1 2 (2-5) 1 point (out/over)
6) Turkey……..0 1 2 (2-5) 1 point (out/over)
P.S Belgium can pick the unseeded team from Group AB
(*) Czech advance because of 0-2 lose (concede only 2 goals) meanwhile Greece with 1-3 and Turkey 0-3
Sorry, Krovinovic – typo
Filip Krivinovic is expected back for Benfica soon. He’s only 23 – hopefully he can fully recover from his knee injury because he’s one of the most talented young players that not many Croats have seen play or talk about.
Our U21s being in the Olympics would make it worth losing to Spain 6-0.
The priority should be to succeed at every World Cup, Euros, then Olympics.
This gives us the most exposure to the World.
Nations League, U20 World Cup, and the U21 Euros come behind that (probably in that order).
thanks andrei
Be nice to see the checkers in the Olympics for sure!
do you get dental coverage
I do this at my job silly.
LAknat, do you have a job?
U21 goals;
http://www.hntv.hr/stranica/u_21
Halilovic is still our best option at RW for November.
Vlašić is energy and hunger off the bench at the number 10 slot.
Sosa is probably our best LB.
Brekalo is quality on both wings.
Dalić needs to pick the best squad available for November.
Spain and England matches out an opportunity to compete against the best.
No need for any scrubs.
Anyone got the u21 goals?
Standing Table
Group AB
1) Germ… 2 1 0 (8-5) … 7point (seeded)
2) Spain… 2 1 0 (6-4)…..7 point (seeded)
3) Denm… 1 1 1 (4-3)…..4 point (unseed)
4) Swiss… 1 1 1 (5-5)…..4 point (unseed)
5) Swedn.. 0 2 1 (3-4)…..2 point (out/over)
6) Norway 0 0 3 (1-6)……0 point (out/over)
P.S. Germany can pick the unseeded team from Group CD
Group CD
1) Belgium…. 3 0 0 (6-0) 9 point (seeded)
2) France…… 2 0 1 (5-1) 6 point (seeded)
3) Serbia……..2 0 1 (3-3) 6 point (unseed)
4) Czech……..0 1 2 (2-5) 1 point (unseed)
5) Greece…….0 1 2 (2-5) 1 point (out/over)
6) Turkey……..0 1 2 (2-5) 1 point (out/over)
P.S Belgium can pick the unseeded team from Group AB
(*) Czech advance because of 0-2 lose (concede only 2 goals) meanwhile Greece with 1-3 and Turkey 0-3
Group EF
1) Italy………..3 0 0 (8-3) 9 point (seeded)
2) England….2 0 1 (7-4) 6 point (seeded)
3) Serbia…….1 1 1 (5-6) 4 point (unseed)
4) Rusia……..1 1 1 (4-5) 4 point (unseed)
5) Iceland……1 0 2 (2-4) 3 point (out/over)
6) Scotland….0 0 3 (2-6) 0 point (out/over)
P.S Italy can pick the unseeded team from GH Group
Group GH
1) Croatia…… 2 1 0 (5-2) 7 point (seeded)
2) Netherld…..2 0 1 (6-2) 6 point (seeded)
3) Portugal…..1 2 0 (3-1) 5 point (unseed)
4) Wales………1 1 1 (3-3) 4 point (unseed)
5) Belarus…….0 1 3 (2-6) 1 point (out/over)
6) Ukraine…… 0 0 3 (1-6) 1 point (out/over)
P.S Croatia can pick the unseeded team from EF Group
Group AB result
Spain vs Norway (1-0)…Spain vs Sweden (2-1)…
Spain vs Germany (3-3)
Denmark vs Swe (1-1)…Denmark vs Germany (1-2)…
Demk vs Norway (2-0)
Swiss vs German (1-3)…Swiss vs Norway (3-1)…
Swiss vs Sweden (1-1)
Group CD result
Belgium vs Serb (2-0)….Belgium vs Turkey (3-0)..
Belgium vs France (1-0)
Czech vs Turkey (1-1)… Czech vs Franch (0-2)..
Czech vs Serbia (1-2)
Greece vs Franch (1-3)….Greece vs Serbia (0-1)..
Greece vs Turkey (1-1)
Group EF result
Italy vs Scotland (2-0)…..Italy vs Rusia (3-1)…….
Italy vs England (3-2)
Iceland vs Rusia (1-2)….Iceland vs Eng (0-2)……
Iceland vs Scotland (1-0)
Serbia vs England (1-3)…Serb vs Scot (3-2)……..
Serbia vs Rusia (1-1)
Group GH result
Portugal vs Ukraine (2-0)… Portugal vs Wales (1-1)…..
Portugal vs Croatia (0-0)
Netherland vs Wales (2-0)… Netherland vs Croatia (1-2)…
Netherland vs Ukraine (3-0)
Belarus vs Croat (1-3)…Belarus vs Ukraine (1-1)…..
Belarus vs Wales (0-2)
Group AB schedule
Spain vs Norway…..Spain vs Sweden…Spain vs Germany
Denmark vs Swe….Demk vs German…Demk vs Norway
Swiss vs German…Swiss vs Norway….Swiss vs Sweden
Group CD schedule
Belgium vs Serb….Belgium vs Turkey..Belgium vs France
Czech vs Turkey… Czech vs Franch….Czech vs Serbia
Greece vs Franch..Greece vs Serb…..Greece vs Turkey
Group EF schedule
Italy vs Scotland…..Italy vs Rusia……. Italy vs England
Iceland vs Rusia….Iceland vs Eng……Iceland vs Scotland
Serbia vs England..Serb vs Scot…….. Serbia vs Rusia
Group GH schedule
Portugl vs Ukra… Portugl vs Wales…..Portugl vs Croatia
Netherld vs Wls… Netherld vs Cro……Netheld vs Ukraine
Belarus vs Croat…Belarus vs Ukra…..Belarus vs Wales
The Best Format of 24 & 48
I guarantee you things will change!
– No More Portugal fairytale,
– More Competitive
– Every team hungry for more goals!
– every team gets an equal schedule!
Group A ……………….. Group B
1) Spain………………1) Germany
2) Denmark………….2) Sweden
3) Switzerland………3) Norway
Group C…………………Group D
1) Belgium…………..1) France
2) Czech……………..2) Turkey
3) Greece……………3) Serbia
Group E…………………Group F
1) Italy………………..1) England
2) Iceland……………2) Rusia
3) Serbia…………….3) Scotland
Group G………………..Group H
1) Portugal………….1) Croatia
2) Netherland………2) Wales
3) Belarus…………..3) Ukraine
notes:
1) Group AB, CD, EF, GH consist of 6 teams
2) A team vs B team, C team vs D team, and so on
3) 3 match in a row with 9 points of maximum.
4) 1st,2nd (seeded),3rd and 4th (unseeded) advance
5) 1st can pick opponents from the cross group (unseeded)
Most of our players from the 2004 Under 21 Squad turned out to be below average players who played at small clubs in small leagues.