Image courtesy of FoxSports Asia
Ivan Rakitić was the hero of Catalan on Saturday during this week’s second installment of El Classico.
Rakitić was featured for 90 minutes during Wednesday’s Copa del Rey match up it was Saturday’s league performance that will get him etched in history with his 26th minute game-winning goal. A seemingly benign run led to a dangerous through ball by Sergio Romero. Rakitić got to the ball first and chipped a sliding Courtios for the game’s lone goal. The goal marks Rakitić’s third goal of the season.
Barcelona remain seven points clear on top.
Mateo Kovačić and company earned two wins as Chelsea have spurred a late-season surge, defeating Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday and Fulham FC on Sunday. Kovačić entered Sunday’s match as a substitute but did not get his name on the score sheet.
Ante Rebić and Andrej Kramarić faced each other with Rebić’s Frankfurt coming up on top of Krama’s Hoffenheim. Neither player made it on the score sheet and Krama picked up his yellow card of the season.
Ivan Perišić had the misfortune of seeing his name on the score sheet …. for the opposition. Perišić and Inter Milan battled against Cagliari on Friday and put the opposing team in front with an own goal in the 31 minute. Inter equalized minutes later, but Cagliari found a second goal and took all three points.
Since Rebic was trying to avoid getting hit by the ball, they actually gave the goal to Kostic instead of Rebic.
Considering Lovren has barely played and is suspended for next game, Benkovic is injured, along with Vrsaljko being injured; I don’t mind the temp call up for Srna. Unless Dalic plans on calling up a long term solution, what’s the point since the injured guys should be back in time for the Euros. Remember our U21 coach used Uremovic (natural CB) instead of Hajduk’s Juranovic or Tudor. I just don’t want to see another wild card like Bartolec.
Realistically, isn’t this our defensive line up; Barisic, Caleta-Car Vida, and Jedvaj. Bench; Sosa, Milic, Mitrovic, and Rog?? U21??
I’m personally hoping that Uremovic gets called up. Would be good for long term continuity.
PS: Pjaca got 9 min of playing time this weekend
Rebic scored the first goal for Frankfurt against hofenhiem
Luka and rakitic gonna light up the euros on lukas Swan song
Srna cross to mandzukic one more time
They both come out of retirement!
Seriously tho
Remember when all we had was swinging out wide for Srna to try to cross it in!
Glad we have a much more multi faceted approach to our offense now
Modric and that midfield looked stale.
He should leave Real before they dont want him anymore.
Mourinho on Rakitic:
https://www.marca.com/en/football/barcelona/2019/03/03/5c7bd051e5fdead8408b45ce.html
Modric was impeccable today against Barca. It’s too bad that his teammates play lazy or uncreative ball most of the time.
@lika Joey. Ya he looks great. Beast mode is proper. Good for him. Hopefully he gets us through to euros and perhaps beyond.
Zee, Ivan is in overdrive! Beast mode!
Rakitic might be playing the best football of his career. He looks fit, focused etc. Keep going forward bro!
@vuki…you’re probably correct…I don’t know too much about him…one thing I do know is that he’s supposed to be pretty good 🙂
@Croatiau14 I admittedly don’t watch enough Croatian league, but I have heard of Vuskovic. It was always my understanding that he is a CB.
Bayern now draw level with Dortmund on points. Could this be the year a Croatian Coach wins a title in a top 5 League??
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Tomislav Ivic was the last Croatian coach to win a league title in a top 5 League (Marseille, ’91-’92)
Rakitic the lone goal in El Clasico.
Modric (for me) Real’s best player.
Vinny Jr. again just can’t finish.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2018/oct/11/next-generation-2018-60-of-the-best-young-talents-in-world-football
Here you go…Vusković alongside Antonio Marin
@vuković…I’m pretty sure Mario Vusković is a RB…he was mentioned on the 60 best youngsters by that Generation site or whatever…I’ll try to find the article
@Soul Champ
I was talking about that on the El Clasico post. I said, “we do not really have many good talents coming up at RB. It could end up being our new weak spot after Vrsajlko considering we have at least 3 LB youngsters that are going to potentially be decent players in Borna Sosa, Domagoj Bradaric, and David Colina. The only true young RB that I know of is Jedvaj and it’s not even really his main position. The only half-decent ones I know about are Fran Karacic (who is currently committed to Australia but not capped), Fran Tudor, Karlo Bartolec, and Josip Juranovic. None of them are really super impressive either in my opinion.”
So yeah as far as I know our RB depth is weak which is why I’m not completely against Srna playing a few games, but that’s the problem. He’ll come back for a few games and then what? He is an old dude now, I don’t see him playing in the Euros in all honesty. MAYBE if Vrsaljko is still having injury problems, but I just simply would rather have a young player struggle to figure it on that a temporary solution. Our qualifying group is not tough, we should easily be qualifying. We will probably make it difficult on ourselves though as usual (hopefully not).
Cro Cop unfortunately has had a stroke and announced immediate retirement, which is fine, just hope the guy is okay.
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/3/1/18246655/mirko-cro-cop-suffers-stroke-announces-retirement
had a 10 win streak at the end, just two weeks avenging an earlier loss by defeating Nelson in Bellator 216.
Srna is class player and he supported his side to a dominant win today that will forward the Cagliari quest to remain in Serie A.
Just curious?
What is the depth we have at RB?
6 points are critical here.
Srna is in form.
His ability to pass has not diminished. Give him a real attacking RW in front of him to pin down there LB and he is covered.
Start him for 45 minutes and see how he looks?
I couldn’t name one player for either Hungry and Azerbaijan?
Is there anyone we have better at free kicks?
Let a young RB come on for Srna and learn from the Majstor.
perisic is a one trick pony, srna lowkey better than vrsaljko
I was very surprised to see Srna play so well vs Inter today. I thought he was finished, but he was impressive. His service was accurate, and he defended well against an in-form Perisic.
lots of good footy in March starting this weekend!