hrvatska

kalinic called up for injured olic

      mandzukic   kalinic
           kranjcar
    modric         srna
          vukojevic

won't even get out the groups.

i love making these peremptory predictions that are so destined to go wrong for me.

they are great

the only time they weren't great was when dado prso was their most important player circa 2005

prso - it's a silent p.

jelavic has to start, kalinic won't go straight into the starting xi surely.

is vukojevic better than dujmovic?

the defense is a total mess, right? their games should be fun. i always root for croatia. but can't see them getting out of the their group.

that was my own whimsical hrvatska xi not the actual one

no lovren

young rb sime vrsaljiko was left out of the final squad which seems strange given the amount of hype around him and lack of good defenders

there is probably a 30% they qualify

their attacking players are better than those of poland, ukraine, greece, denmark, ireland, czech republic, england, sweden

i would like to read worthwhile content about hrvatska

the guardian has a couple of good pieces in their preview material

i read this site from time to time http://www.croatiansports.com/
not usually in depth or insightful but covers a lot of ground

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/06/06/euro-2012-preview-croatia/

Jelavic to start apparently.

jelavic is a no-brainer. i would play eduardo behind him, even though his club form has not been good for 2 seasons or so. he's scored a bunch of international goals and links up with modric well.

http://i.imgur.com/ZnECS.jpg

he is going to look awesome if he ever reaches 70, like a mount rushmore figure if they stopped half way through and just left a dynamited outline

@AlexHoliga is a good twitter feed for Croatia news. Vrsalko has been called up to replace the injured Ilicevic

triffic bunch of lads

croatian fans are absolutely undrinkable at the moment

the quick passing and movement of srna - modric - rakitic - perisic - mandzukic was really impressive, and jelavic deadly in the area

croatian fans are absolutely undrinkable at the moment

― irrational angst that makes me innocuously thingy (darraghmac), Tuesday, June 12, 2012 10:02 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha

trying to figure out how/where i can watch this game today. probably will only see the 2nd half. come on you Vatreni!

Could they beat Italy today? While Italy were great they were kinda fortunate to be playing a Spain side with no strikers looking to play patiently for most of the game.

Not too sure about the Italian defence especially if they're going to play directly. Not too sure about the Croatian defence either admittedly.

croatia defence more of a liability, croatia will have to come out looking to score first i think.
italy are unchanged, a lot will depend on balotelli.

jelavic dropped!

Stipe Pletikosa; Gordon Schildenfeld, Vedran Corluka, Ivan Strinic, Domagoj Vida; Ivan Rakitic, Ognjen Vukojevic; Danijel Pranjic, Darijo Srna, Luka Modric; Mario Mandzukic

good lineup imo

mandzukic is in great form, is faster and more likely to unsettle piqué

4231 a must vs spain

wait i don't like must as an abstract noun

they could really use lovren right now

triffic bunch of lads

― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 12 June 2012 14:15 (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

won't even get out the groups.

― zverotic discourse (jim in glasgow)

oh yeah. my one correct prediction this year.

called it like a g

Šimunić is known for having great football technique, despite being a centre-back. His national teammate Niko Kranjčar says that, "on a training pitch, he does feints like Ronaldinho."[5]

typical aussie

gah why has it taken me this long to gis vukojevic

it seems he would appear to be a very precise splice of shawx and holty

"Fellaini can't play football," proclaimed Boban. "Seriously he can't play football."