Croatia travel to Budapest Sunday to take on Hungary in their second Euro 2020 qualifier. The match kicks off at 1PM (ET) and can be streamed on ESPN News in the United States.
The Vatreni didn’t play their best soccer against Azerbaijan on Thursday but got all three points nonetheless. Hungary lost 2-0 to Slovakia which means they will be looking for a big result against Croatia at home to keep their Euro 2020 hopes alive. Remember, there are only eight qualifiers and the top two teams automatically qualify. After Sunday, both Croatia and Hungary will be 25% down with their Euro 2020 campaigns.
The fact that Hungary lost in their opening match is good news for Croatia. It means they will have to play open in hopes of a victory as a draw doesn’t do them much good two matches into qualifying. That will allow Croatia to counter and run with speed up the wings through Perišić and Brekalo.
Hungary is made up of players from mediocre teams in mediocre leagues. Their star player, striker Adam Szalai, plays alongside Andrej Kramarić at Hoffenheim.
Hungary is coming off an embarrassing World Cup 2018 qualifying campaign where they finished third behind Portugal and Switzerland with only 13 points from 10 matches. The Hungarians, shockingly enough, drew the Faroe Islands and lost 1-0 to Andorra. Not too impressive.
Expect Croatia to bang in three goals against Hungary in Budapest in a 3-1 victory. The Vatreni will not have two bad games in a row. Mark my words.
HAHAH Jarac. I know it’s a funny point but that’s the truth. Modrić has the selo work ethic and it shows.
we gonna win guys?
IM SCARED !
Kramaric is a beast and is our number one guy. His confidence is unmatched. Finishing sublime. Best penalty shooter on the planet. Krama is hungry and must be fed. Tomorrow, all will realize who is number one.
https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2019/03/22/mateo-kovacic-remembers-being-the-smallest-player–watching-vide
Kovacic should go to a mid table club with some money like West Ham.
Mateo the millennial doesn’t want to work hard…Dukic u see modric on the wolf documentary hiking on his selo on velebit hearding the sheep at 5 years old while the wolves lick their chops…Mateo ain’t got that in him.
Kova should just go back to Dinamo. He’s already made a shitload of money and they could’ve used him in that Europa league run. He looks like he’s intimidated by the stature of his own teammates. Reports are coming from British media that he gave a recent interview saying that Croatian players are skilled but are basically lazy and don’t like to train. Not a good look for a guy trying to prove himself for both club and country.
Kovačić is done guys. When is the last time he’s played 90 minutes? If ever? He gets subbed out by 65th minute every game for both club and country. He has been a professional footballer for 10 years. Honestly I love his skill set but without desire you cannot play for clubs in top leagues. Modrić was chasing down every ball until he got subbed out in the 89th and he will play full 90 most likely against Hungary. He is an animal at 33. Kova doesn’t have the heart to be a top player.
Well i guess this answered my own question; Vida as RB now??
https://twitter.com/HNS_CFF/status/1109492710040367104/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1109492710040367104&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fcroatia-international-football
Dalic said Brozo and Rebic were rested for today’s game. However, Lovren hasn’t played for a really long time. Will be interesting to see if Brekalo plays RB again. Good for his defensive development and might be worth it against another weaker opponent.
Kovačić played well for Zidane when healthy.
Kroos is out.
Modrić needs to be rested for big matches only.
Real Madrid need to invest in a 9-10-11 not a 8/6 type role player.
They also need some depth at full back and CB.
I think Zidane would take Kovačić back as he already is under contract.
Being a midfielder for Croatia is the biggest challenge in world football.
Joked aside .. I do wonder about a 24 yr old footballer getting married so young?
Need to be single and focus on football and enjoy the extra – curricula.
No one is going to pay his wages on top of a transfer fee.
See if Zidane wants to work with you again.
Modrić will take care of him.
http://sportklub.hr/Video/Nogomet/EURO/a73106-Polijetanje-aviona-pored-stadiona-Samo-u-Gibraltaru.html
funny scenes in Gibraltar
Cap Olmo soon. Kovacic is not the answer. Olmo is.
He probably defers to one of his teammates. Luckily, he’s no longer teammates with Icardi.
(just kidding, I had to take the bait)
On a serious note, Dalić probably hates Kovačić’s style of play.
Dalić seems like he loves offensive minded players, and having a solid but offensively inept midfielder like Kovačić is probably the last guy he ever wants to play.
He inherited Kovačić (because he was already on the National Team) but it’s likely Kovačić will get buried on the bench behind more offensively capable midfielders like Vlašić.
This is an important year for Kovačić too.
Chelsea probably won’t buy him, Zidane doesn’t want him back at Real, and his only other exposure is the National Team (where his status is worse off than his club teams).
It will be very interesting to see where Kovačić ends up by the end of 2019.
Hahaha!!
Lol
Makes you wonder if Mateo can even penetrate
His wife’s box ?
Mateo has a hot wife. She makes me stiff.
Mateo has a hot wife. She makes me stuff.
Brozo, Lovren, and Jedvaj back tomorrow. Kova is done with the national team. That was his do or die game and he failed. Dalić said in his post match interview he started him because Brozo couldn’t play back to back matches. We all know Brozo can play back to back matches in the same day. Kova is biggest waste of talent Croatia has ever had.
Barišić plays great at left back for us. We could be making another finals run at Euro 2020 if our starting 11 is healthy. Modrić, Rakitić, Brozović is a world class midfield. Krama is making a big move this summer and is gonna be in top form of his career next summer. We should all be excited.
Does anyone have a link for the the full match replay vs azeri?
I really like petrovic. He is big but he doesnt play with his size. He could be better than mandzo
I remember the friendly match a couple of years ago. Hungary press. It will be tough
@Bilo
Yea, that’s bad.
Even after Kovačić dishes it off to Perišić, he just stops running (despite there being nothing but wide open space in the box in front of him, with no defenders).
He could have easily run in, and been wide open to receive a pass back from Perišić.
I hope Dalić or somebody somewhere is showing video to Kovačić highlighting this to him. If he can just force himself to attack, he would become a much more impactful player.
@Cigan I like your lineup. I’m happy you put Brozo in there, he deserves to start. I wonder if Dalić will try to play Rog at that RB position
I mentioned this in the other thread with the highlight video of the game.
In the highlight video above at 2:00 Kova plays a nice 1-2 with Raketa past 3 markers. He has a clear right footed dribble into the box at an angle, but doesn’t even look toward goal instead passing wide to perisic. It’s like someone conditioned him to not penetrate the penalty box??
Bruno is decent but krama and rebic uptop are the best combo. Jedvaj and vrsaljko are flakes, Bartolec is better than brekalo and jedvaj at right back. kovacic is a waste of space. During qualifiers rakitic is also a waste of space. Kalinic is on thin ice.
………….Kramaric……Rebic…………….
Brekalo….Modric….Brozovic….Vlasic
Barasic…..Lovren…..Vida…..Bartolec
……………………Kalinic…………………
They’ll open up in the latter half of the cycle when they need the points.
We play away at Wales in one of our last qualification games. If Wales is sitting in third, that game will be wide open play if they need the win. Same goes for Slovakia in our last game of qualifying. Hungary is right before the Wales game too. I can see all three games being pretty open if there is a dogfight at the end there.
None of these teams will open up against us. Not at this point. We’re gonna be playing against bunker ball all cycle.
Here is what you need to know. Ante wants us to walk off the field in protest
I don’t agree that Hungary will want to go balls-out and try to win this game.
They lost in Slovakia, which (for the most part) is expected. They would have been happy with a draw in Slovakia, but they lost. They now need to even the score with Slovakia and win in Hungary the next time they play. This has no bearing on tomorrow’s game against Croatia.
Against Croatia, it’s a totally different expectation. Both Hungary and Slovakia would be happy to pull off a win against Croatia, but they are both largely expected to lose these games and battle for second place in this group along with Wales.
Hungary will try and get a point in this game.
If they draw, they just took points from Croatia (which is no easy feat) and will force Slovakia to try and do the same.
An away loss in Slovakia and a home draw against top-seeded Croatia is not the end of the world for Hungary’s campaign.
They just need to ensure they win against Slovakia the second time around and hope to split (or better) the games against Wales (and hope that one of Slovakia or Wales chokes points to Azerbaijan).
If they go on full attack mode against Croatia tomorrow, they will be blown out. Croatia loves the counterattacking game, and will take full advantage (especially with a well rested Brozovic and Rebic in the starting lineup). They would be better off playing the counter themselves (similar to how Azerbaijan tried to do).
Line up changes if any.Does lovren slot in for car even though he hasn’t played in a very long time for club or country.
I hope Bruno still starts.I want to see what this guy is made of I’m hopeful he can at least be Mandzukic light.
Slovakia dominated them, Croatia should get at least a 3-0 win tomorrow.
It’s only the first two games in this qualifying campaign. If the Hungarian coach plays too offensive he must realize it’s do or die so in my opinion, I think he’d be silly to play an attack style game. I think he’ll be cautious and hope that Slovakia kiks in one of their upcoming games.
Azerbaijan played us exactly how they were expected to play with 10 men behind the ball at all times, looking for a quick counter or a broken play to get a scoring chance. It’s never easy playing a game like that. Teams get desperate and know they’re one play away from scoring but the reality is, if you don’t score, time is against you. Not an easy atmosphere to play in.
Here is what you need to know: Croatia will be Hungry for victory in Hungary (ok, I know, that was bad).
Anyway, I too am interested in seeing whether Brekalo will be at RB in this upcoming fixture.
I agree with Ante K’s assessment, Hungry are on the ropes and will be looking to push forward and score–leaving them open.
Anything short of victory here will be a disappointment.
The Azerbaijan game was a good game and a great result for the vatreni. As i said, this qualifying will not be a walk in the park and Croatia will lose a game.i expect Hungary to be tough as well
Couple notes
Dalic is an offensive genius: he’s organized an offensive attack that continues to surprise the defense by only allowing either kramaric or our left back to score (jedvaj 2, krama 3, barisic 1)
Lovren kalinic:. Is this guy bad? Maybe…. Always interesting when one of the tallest keepers in the world let’s a goal go in right over his head
Kramaric:. Thanks goodness for this guy. He’s been pulling goals out of nowhere. He should have had a real easy second one vs axdrbiajan as well
I’ll be curious to see if dalic leaves brekalo at rb against a tougher opponent
My neighbours are Hungarian and they fucking cocksuckers! Hope Croatia smash them into oblivion!
Take it easy. Magyars are friendly nation to us.
All you really need to know is we’re about to fuck ’em up
100% iggy guarantee we win this game